It’s happened before – the Dodgers make an acquisition that just doesn’t work out, but rather than just swallowing their pride (and often times a very large contract) and acknowledging that they made a mistake, the Dodgers front office and field manager “just keep running him out there until he gets through this thing,” as former Dodgers manager Joe Torre used to say about Andruw Jones – perhaps the worst Dodger acquisitions in the last three decades. In addition to Jones it happened with Manny Ramirez, Garret Anderson, Jim Thome, Bobby Abreu, Chone Figgins, Bret Tomko, Jason Schmidt, and more recently with Brandon League and Brian Wilson – among others.

It’s hard to argue that Andruw Jones wasn’t one of the worst acquisitions in Dodgers history, yet then manager Joe Torre just kept running him out there. (AP photo)

On rare occasions, very rare, in fact, the struggling player does manage to turn things around and they actually do get through this thing – most notably Juan Uribe, who turned around an absolutely atrocious first two years of a three-year contract to become not only one of the best defensive and offensive third basemen in the game, but also became one of the most beloved Dodgers in recent history. But by and large – very large, in fact, it has usually gone the other way.

Obviously, the financial limitations under the ownerships of Rupert Murdoch (aka: News Corp, aka: Fox) and Frank and Jamie McCourt played an enormous role and more or less forced the Dodgers to keep running them out there instead of eating lofty (and lengthy) contracts and putting the best nine out there. But since taking over the franchise in May of 2012, this has not been an issue for Guggenheim Baseball Management, for whom money is no object.

To their credit, the new and completely reconstructed Dodgers front office under the watchful eye of analytical gurus Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi, and even former general manager Ned Colletti, have assembled a very good, championship-caliber baseball team. Since 2012 Colletti and later Friedman and Zaidi acquired Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, Nick Punto, Mark Ellis, Skip Schumaker, Hanley Ramirez, Hyun-jin Ryu, Zack Greinke, Howie Kendrick, Jimmy Rollins, Justin Turner, Brett Anderson, and a slew of others. They also locked down Clayton Kershaw for seven years – at least until his opt-out clause kicks in after the 2018 season. But they also picked up few clunkers along the way, too – guys like Joel Peralta, Chris Hatcher, Chris Heisey (although he was a fan-favorite during batting practice for the many souvenirs he hit into the stands) and Chin-hui Tsao – also among others.

Without question the four pitchers acquired by Friedman and Zaidi at the July 31 trade deadline are drawing the most attention (and have social media going crazy). Starters Mat Latos and Alex Wood have yet to record a win since being acquired and reliever Jim Johnson has not allowed an earned run only once in his three appearances in a Dodgers uniform. In fact, the only other reliever in Dodgers history to allow eight runs in one inning or less (Johnson somehow managed to get two outs on Sunday – although one was an RBI sacrifice fly) was Fred Heimach on July 17, 1933.

Jim Johnson had the worst outing by a Dodger reliever in 82 years in Sunday’s 13-6 pounding by the Pittsburgh Pirates. (Photo credit – Jared Wickerham)

Fellow recently acquired reliever Luis Avilan was tagged with three more earned runs – he now has allowed four in 4.2 innings for a 7.71 ERA – in Thursday night’s 10-3 pounding at the hands of the Cincinnati Reds; this in a game where starter Mat Latos allowed five earned runs to bring his total to 11 since joining the club two weeks ago for an 0-2 record and abysmal 6.75 ERA.

Latos has allowed two home runs in 14.2 innings pitched as a Dodger while fellow right-hander Mike Bolsinger allowed three in his 89 innings pitched. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

The point here is that Latos, Wood, Johnson and Avilan have been anything but effective thus far. And while their time with the Dodgers has been extremely short, the Dodgers have exactly 47 games remaining and are holding onto a precarious 2.5 game lead over the hated Giants. In other words, they do not have the time to test the waters with Latos, Wood, Johnson and Avilan when they have four starters and four relievers at Triple-A Oklahoma City with ERAs under 3.00, including starting pitchers Mike Bolsinger and Zach Lee. There are also several more at Double-A Tulsa.

Because he still had options, the Dodgers sent Mike Bolsinger back down to Triple-A to clear a roster spot for Mat Latos – this in spite of the fact that Bolsinger was 5-3 with a 2.83 ERA – third best in the Dodgers rotation. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

The question, of course, is will Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi be willing to admit that the made a mistake in acquiring Latos, Wood, Johnson and Avilan and make some changes, or will they just keep running them out there at the risk of losing the division title?