Five’s for Fighting: Fifth Starter Slot Up For Grabs

The fifth starter slot: a place in the pitching rotation always in flux.  Most clubs don’t feel the need to go out and stabilize the last necessary spot, opting instead to use strategically placed off-days or low-end starters to make ends meet.  The Dodgers have a very wide-open spot this year, just as they did last year.  The candidates are:

James McDonald, Carlos Monasterios, Scott Elbert, Eric Stults, Charlie Haeger, Russ Ortiz, Josh Lindblom, Josh Towers

Vegas money says a player out of the system will get the chance: either McDonald, Elbert or Stults.  Ortiz has to be absolutely magnificent during Spring Training to warrant consideration, and the same goes for Towers. The coaching staff feels most comfortable with McDonald in the bullpen, where he flourished last season, as opposed to the rotation, where he collapsed. He needs to have an impressive spring to become a horse in the race; he can’t win by default as he did last season.

Monasterios is a tough choice.  Taken by the Dodgers in the Rule 5 draft after buying the pick from the Mets, Monasterios has to impress to stay.  If he doesn’t make the team out of Spring Training, he immediately returns to the Philadelphia organization.  The team likely does not want to make the money spent on the pick null and void, but the righty has to show he has what it takes to be on the big-league roster.  If he can’t, the Dodgers will likely just send him back to Philly.

Elbert needs to start.  He spent time in the bullpen last year as a reliever, but when in Triple-A, he started most of the time.  If he can’t make the rotation, he needs to go back to Albuquerque.  Elbert needs starters innings, not bullpen innings.

Eric Stults could have the inside track to make the club since he is out of minor-league options.  If the Dodgers cannot make room for him, he will be designated for assignment, where any number of clubs could try to claim him.  Stults has the honor of being the only pitcher for the Dodgers to toss a complete game in the 2009 season, which was also a shutout victory.  Stults also threw a complete game shutout in 2008 against the White Sox.

Stults is my pick.  He has the experience of pitching in the big-leagues, and he has the best track record of any of the possible candidates.

There’s still a lot of time left to decide who will win the rotation spot and join Clayton Kershaw, Hiroki Kuroda, Chad Billingsley and Vicente Padilla. The important thing to remember is that this time is coming soon. Today, Dodger fans are blessed with the four most beautiful words in the English language: Pitchers and catchers report.

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