This winter’s free agent class is stacked with elite starting pitching — but don’t expect the Los Angeles Dodgers to join the bidding war for Dylan Cease.
According to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand, both the LA and New York are unlikely to make a serious run at the former Cy Young contender.
“Two teams unlikely to be in the mix are the Dodgers and Yankees, who have a plethora of starters and will likely focus their attention elsewhere,” Feinsand reported.
That “elsewhere” likely means reinforcing the bullpen or pursuing Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami, who has long been on the Dodgers’ radar. Los Angeles already has one of the deepest rotations in baseball — and their recent postseason performance only underscores that strength.
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Rotation Dominance Makes Cease Unnecessary
Vote For Your Favorite Duo: Ohtani – Yamamoto, Betts – Freeman, Hernandez – Hernandez
As the Dodgers hold a commanding 2–0 lead in the National League Championship Series over the Brewers, their formula has been simple: dominant starting pitching.
Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto have turned back the clock to an era of true workhorse starters. Snell silenced Milwaukee in Game 1, and Yamamoto followed with a masterpiece in Game 2 — the first complete game by a Dodgers pitcher in the postseason since José Lima in 2004.
“That was the first hitter,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter after allowing a leadoff home run. “I feel regrettable, that home run, but I reset my mind and then just focused on executing my own pitches.”
No Dodgers starter threw a complete game during the regular season, making Yamamoto’s effort historic — the first team to record its initial nine-inning complete game in the playoffs, per MLB.com.
A Shift Back to Power Starters
The Dodgers’ starters have now thrown at least six innings in seven of their first eight postseason games, a workload unmatched since the 2013 Detroit Tigers. As Feinsand noted, that depth makes chasing Cease unnecessary.
While the rest of baseball eyes the free agent market, the Dodgers are proving that the arms they already have — from Snell and Yamamoto to Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani — might be more valuable than any check they could write this winter.