So… Erik Bedard?

By Bobby DeMuro
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Updated: March 3, 2015

Erik Bedard turns 36 on Thursday, and he’ll celebrate it a day early by starting the Dodgers’ Spring Training opener against the White Sox. Now Spring Training isn’t Opening Day, so starting the Cactus League opener means, well, nothing. But it does mean this: the Dodgers are seriously considering Bedard if something goes wrong with Brandon McCarthy, Brett Anderson, or the big three.

Really?

I’ve written about Bedard here before, and I still maintain that he represents that elusive starting pitching depth every team so badly needs. After all, when he’s healthy (which isn’t often) he has been a talented pitcher. But this isn’t 2007; does he have enough left in the tank to help a playoff contender?

Bedard has only thrown more than 180 innings in a season twice – and he hasn’t done so since ’07. He’s missed all of 2010, virtually all of 2003, and more than half of both 2008 and 2009 with injuries including knee problems and multiple arm surgeries (three shoulder operations in four seasons with the Mariners alone).

The injury history is bad enough, especially considering his shoulder problems, in light of how shoulder issues can affect pitchers. But when he’s been on the field the past three years, he hasn’t been good.

Across 2012, 2013, and 2014 for the Pirates, Astros, and Rays, Bedard was 15-32 with a 4.78 ERA in and a 1.48 WHIP across 352.1 innings pitched in 73 games/65 starts. In his best season, 2009, his ERA+ was 151. Last season in Tampa, it was only 78, and he hasn’t cleared 100 since 2011. (For comparison, the Dodgers’ team ERA+ in 2014 was 103; Clayton Kershaw’s was a ridiculous 197).

Now I’m not comparing Bedard to Kershaw; Bedard isn’t an ace and he’s not in the prime of his career. But it does illustrate how quickly starting pitching depth falls off for the Dodgers from Kershaw, Zack Greinke, and Hyun-jin Ryu, to… hopefully McCarthy and Anderson, I guess maybe Bedard, and then… Joe Wieland?

Erik Bedard [Image via @truebluela]

The dichotomy between the Dodgers and Padres this winter, at least on pitching, is significant. The Padres brought in James Shields, a guy who’s started more than 30 games every season since about 1953 (that’s only a slight exaggeration). Shields joins a club with four established starters already in place and at least one or two more capable of throwing significant innings if anyone goes down.

The Dodgers, on the other hand, brought in Bedard, Anderson, McCarthy, and two-time Tommy John surgery recipient Brandon Beachy. I understand what the Dodgers are doing with all four. In a perfect world, Kershaw, Greinke and Ryu will make more than 100 starts, so manager Don Mattingly only needs hopefully less than 60 starts from the combination of McCarthy, Anderson, Bedard, Beachy, and fill-in-the-blank-here. Will Mattingly get that?

But back to Bedard: having an oft-injured 36-year old in camp who hasn’t been particularly effective since 2011 is, um, not ideal. He’s put up bad numbers on bad teams that finished below .500 the last three years (including a 51-111 slop-fest in Houston in 2013), and yet the Dodgers hope they can squeeze innings out of him on a playoff contender?

Get ready, Los Angeles. Erik Bedard is apparently going to be a thing. Now, his start tomorrow means very little; he could throw three perfect innings, or give up seven runs, but either way that alone won’t win or lose a job. So let’s not jump the gun. But we must admit that if Erik Bedard starts more than a handful of games in a Dodger uniform this summer, something went very, very wrong in Chavez Ravine.

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