It’s no secret that the pending decisions regarding the Dodgers bullpen are going to be very difficult for Dodgers manager Don Mattingly, but on Friday afternoon, he acknowledged that they will be the most difficult decisions this spring.

“Pitching wise the decisions in the bullpen are the toughest ones,” Mattingly said. “We’ve got a couple extras, how we’re going to go with that, we’ve got some decisions to make.”

The source of the problem, if you can even call it that, is that almost to the man every Dodger reliever has done exceptionally well.

“Everybody’s done well,” said Dodgers bullpen coach Chuck Crim. “Granted, they’ve all had their one game or two maybe, but as far as stuff-wise goes and the type of human beings we brought in here, it’s going to be a tough decision. Everybody’s done a really good job and on a consistent basis.”

Dodgers bullpen coach Chuck Crim watches on as J.P. Howell throws a bullpen session.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Crim said that the biggest surprise this spring is that there hasn’t really been any surprises, even among their younger pitchers.

“With the young guys, Yimi [Garcia] and Petey (Pedro) Baez, they’re doing a good job,” said Crim. “We expected a lot out of Chris Hatcher, he’s doing a good job. We knew exactly what we were getting out of Joel Peralta, it’s exactly what we thought we were going to get out of him. Nobody has really stood out, they’re all just doing a good job.”

Even though Crim said all of the right things and the things he was more or less supposed to say about his entire staff, it was impossible for him not to mention the outstanding job that 23-year-old left-hander Paco Rodriguez has done this spring.

“I’m glad Paco is back. His stuff is what it was before,” Crim said. “Last year he struggled with his mechanics, arm swing, and this year he’s got in back. It’s tight, it’s late, I’m really glad to see Paco is back.”

Paco Rodriguez has been absolutely outstanding this spring. Sending him back down to the minors would be a travesty. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

After his struggles last season, Rodriguez worked on his mechanics during the off-season, including lowering his arm angle slightly and doing away with a slight pause in his delivery that he picked up somewhere along the way – and the results have been staggering. In his eight spring training appearances, Rodriguez has not allowed a run, given up only three hits, walked none and struck out 10 in his 8.1 innings of work.

If Paco is indeed back, and it certainly appears that he is, it would be both unfortunate and unwise for the Dodgers to send him or one of the other guys doing well back down to the minors solely because they have options whereas several other Dodger relievers do not – but it very well could happen.

“There’s no question about that,” said Crim. “It’s all contract stuff, it’s kind of out of my league but it’s all part of baseball. It’s too bad for some but the whole thing is we’re so deep right now, we are so deep in pitching, something that we haven’t been in years.”

Another thing that Mattingly has intentionally avoided sharing with the media is naming a temporary replacement closer until Kenley Jansen returns from foot surgery. Instead, he has said repeatedly that he will utilize a closer by committee approach based on match-ups. Crim, on the other hand, was a bit more specific as to a possible substitute closer.

“I think the committee thing will be used if nobody steps up and does the job,” said Crim. “You’ve got to go off of previous history. I think that Chris Hatcher has got the stuff to do it, I think he’s got the mental make up to do it. I really think that Sergio Santos could do it. It’s really nice having options and one of those guys will step up and pick up Kenley until we get Kenley back. The only reason it probably could turn into a bullpen by committee is if nobody really stands up and does the job.”

The bottom line is that the ultimate decisions on who stays and who goes belongs to Mattingly, Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi and President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman, not by Chuck Crim – and he is perfectly okay with that.

“It’s interesting but I really don’t want it,” Crim said. “I love all these guys and I hate making decisions like that, I’m not paid to make decisions like that. I’m here to make them as good as they can be so that others have hard decisions to make.”