An aspiring World Series contender knows that having top-tier pitching isn't enough; it's also important to have a deep arsenal of arms that can put in quality innings all throughout the season. Thus, it's not exactly a huge surprise that veteran pitcher Seth Lugo, who has shown that he can excel in either a starting role or a reliever gig, is drawing plenty of interest from contending teams, one of which is the Los Angeles Dodgers.
However, the Dodgers won't exactly find it easy to get Lugo to put his signature on the dotted line. According to Ari Alexander of KPRC2, two-thirds of the league “has shown interest” in the 34-year old pitcher who spent last season with the San Diego Padres (so at least 20 of 30 team in the MLB are keen on signing Lugo). Alexander added, however, that the Houston Astros aren't in the running for Lugo's services, so that at least rules out one strong contender in the sweepstakes for the veteran pitcher.
Seth Lugo's pitching versatility will be such a boon for any team that acquires his services, and the Dodgers, as fans would know, will be in dire need of pitching depth as they head into the 2024 season. For one, their starting rotation has much uncertainty, with Clayton Kershaw entering free agency and with Walker Buehler recovering from a long-term absence. Their rotation behind Bobby Miller is in need of a makeover, and Lugo could give the Dodgers a dependable middle of the rotation starter.
The Dodgers will also have the added bonus of weakening an NL West rival in the Padres if they manage to sign Lugo, so this could be a beneficial move all-around.
Last season, Lugo made his return to the starting rotation after two years of pitching out of the New York Mets' bullpen. And Lugo was quite the solid arm, tallying a 3.57 ERA in 146.1 innings of work (25 starts) while having a healthy strikeout to walk ratio of 140:36. He was able to execute the difficult task of extrapolating his body of work off the bullpen into the starting rotation, although at 34 years of age, there may be some concerns regarding his ability to keep up this level of production.