The Dodgers were dealt another off-season blow when it was widely reported on Thursday that free agent right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma had failed his physical with the Dodgers, thereby nullifying his reported three-year / $45 million deal. And while the non-signing is yet another in a series of off-season setbacks for Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi, this one may actually prove to be a good thing – perhaps even a very good thing.

Within hours of the reported non-signing, it was officially announced that the 34-year-old Higashi Yamato, Tokyo native had re-signed with his former team – the Seattle Mariners – for a far more cautious one-year deal that includes options for the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

Although the financial terms of the deal were not announced, Iwakuma had turned down the team’s $15.8 million qualifying offer last month. As such and with health concerns now front and center, one has to suspect that Iwakuma’s one-year deal to re-sign with the Mariners is probably less than that amount but undoubtedly includes (very) significant performance bonuses for games started and / or innings pitched.

Last season the 6′ 3″ – 210-pound right-hander made only 20 starts for the Mariners while tossing 129.2 innings – an average of slightly more than 6.1 innings per start. That being said, he is 47-25 with a very impressive 3.17 ERA through four seasons in the MLB – this after posting an outstanding career mark of 107-69 with a 2.75 ERA in his 11 seasons in the Nippon Professional Baseball league.

With Iwakuma now off the books, Friedman and Zaidi are quickly running out of options as far as signing a free agent starter. With all of the top-tier starters now off the free agent market, the best that the Dodgers can now hope for are guys like left-hander Scott Kazmir and right-hander Mike Leake, both of whom are number three starters at best. The thing to remember, however, is that Kazmir also has a history of elbow issues and signing him to a long-term deal could be equally risky. This leaves Leake as perhaps the best available option for the Dodgers, should they decide to go that route instead of looking inward towards guys like Mike Bolsinger, Carlos Frias, Jose De Leon, Julio Urias, Ross Stripling or Jharel Cotton – all of whom are expected to be in major league camp this spring.

With the Iwakuma deal now gone, right-hander Mike Leake becomes the next likely free agent target for the Dodgers.
(Photo credit – LM Otero)

While the news of Iwakuma’s failed physical may have come as a surprise to Dodger fans and the media, there is zero doubt that Friedman and Zaidi have known about it for quite some time and it may have prompted Wednesday’s three-team trade with the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds. And while the Dodgers netted only one starting pitching prospect out of the deal in Frankie Montas, the 22-year-old right-hander will also probably receive an invitation to big league camp when pitchers and catchers report on February 19; although most expect the San Cristobal, Dominican Republic native to begin the 2016 season at Triple-A Oklahoma City – if he is still with the Dodgers by then.

With Wednesday’s acquisition of Montas, second base prospect Micah Johnson and outfield prospect Trayce Thompson, the Dodgers now have an even deeper treasure chest full of blue chip prospects to offer up in a potential trade for a top-of-the-rotation starting pitcher. The biggest obstacle in this regard, however, is that teams considering trading their top starters are insisting that any deal with the Dodgers has to include number one prospect Corey Seager and number two prospect Julio Urias which, quite frankly, would be ludicrous.

With spring training still nine weeks out, the Dodgers still have plenty of time to acquire starting pitching and bullpen help. The obvious problem, of course, is that the longer they wait, the shorter the list of quality pitchers becomes.