April 7th, 2017 at 12:08 pm 
by Ron Cervenka I’ve got some good news and some bad news:
The good news is that the Dodgers opened the 2017 season without any of their starting pitchers on the disabled list.
The bad news is that it took exactly five days for one to land there.
In a Friday press release, the Dodgers reported that left-hander Rich Hill has been placed on the (new) 10-day disabled list (retroactive to April 6) for a blister on his left middle finger that he developed during his excellent outing in game-3 of the 2017 season. He will be replaced on the Dodgers 25-man roster by hard-throwing right-handed reliever Josh Fields.
Just when we thought we’d heard the last of the Rich Hill pickle juice jokes, here we go again.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)
That ‘reliever’ thing is significant because it more than likely means that right-hander Ross Stripling or left-hander Alex Wood will come out of the bullpen and into the Dodgers starting rotation, with the latter being the likeliest choice. That said, giving the spot to Stripling would give the Dodgers a rotation consisting of three left-handers and two right-handers instead of four lefties.
Although the 31-year-old Fields, who was acquired by the Dodgers at the August 1 trade deadline last season in exchange for Cuban minor league infielder Yordan Alvarez, posted a 2.79 ERA in his 22 relief appearances with the Dodgers last season, he allowed nine runs in 8.1 innings for a 9.72 ERA in his nine Spring Training appearances before being optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City on March 28.
The 37-year-old Hill picked up the win for the Dodgers on Wednesday, allowing only one earned run on two hits in his 5.0 innings of work in the Dodgers eventual 3-1 win over the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium. In that outing he made a total of 75 pitches (46 strikes) after which there was no mention whatsoever of a blister issue. However, the extremely polite Boston, native spent more than a month on the Dodgers disabled list last season due to a blister on the same finger.
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If Stripling replaces Hill, the Dodgers will have 3 right handers (in a row) in the starting rotation.
I am truly intrigued on how you came up with this three-in-a row thing, Joe.
Do you not think that Roberts and Honeycutt would shuffle their rotation to avoid a three-in-a row situation? Do you think that the assigned one-through-five spots in the Opening Day rotation cannot be adjusted?
Theoretically, a three-on-two rotation is absolutely ideal – whether it be three lefties or three righties. This gives you the option of having a L-R-L-R (or vice versa) rotation four out of every five games.
This is also (probably) a moot point, as every indication is that it will be Alex Wood who replaces Hill, not Stripling.
…for now, that is.
I’m thinking it will most likely be Wood to stick with the L-R-L-R-L. I wasn’t thinking of the adjustment.
I seem to remember sometime back when they had a very simple line-up of starters: R-R-R-R-R.
May not have been ideal, but easy to arrange.
Ah yes… the good old days. lol!