In 2016 the Dodgers used 15 different starting pitchers. In 2015 it was 16. Through the first 54 games of 2017 – exactly one-third of the way through the 2017 season – the Dodgers have already used seven different starting pitchers. But if I were to ask you to name the Dodgers’ current starting five, all things considered (i.e., current DL status, current 40-man rotation status, etc.), who would they be?

Obviously Clayton Kershaw (11 starts) would be the number one and it’s probably safe to say that Kenta Maeda (nine) and Brandon McCarthy (eight) are numbers two and three respectively. But after that you’ve got Hyun-Jin Ryu and a currently DL’d Alex Wood (eight), Rich Hill (five) and current OKC Dodger Julio Urias (five).

With the newly adopted 10-day disabled list now in full swing, the Dodgers are clearly utilizing it more than any other team in Major League Baseball – bar none. And while some (many) question whether or not the Dodgers are abusing the new rule simply to give their starters an extra day off here and there, the cold hard truth is that it doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks, and there is every reason to believe that Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi will continue to ship guys back and forth to Oklahoma City as their hearts desire. In other wards and aside from Kershaw, Maeda and presumably McCarthy, the remainder of the Dodgers starting five is anyone’s guess and is more incumbent on the Dodgers injury du jour – genuine or otherwise – than on anything else.

The latest name to emerge (or reemerge) from the Dodgers starting rotation quagmire is Hyun-Jin Ryu who, in spite of his eight starts this season, has spent considerable time on the disabled list for a recent left hip contusion in addition to two seasons of elbow and shoulder issues. The 30-year-old Incheon, South Korea native made his first (MLB) career relief appearance on May 25 in which he was absolutely brilliant in his four innings of work and, in fact, collected his first major league save without allowing a run on two hits, a walk and two strikeouts. And even though Dodgers manager Dave Roberts wouldn’t come right out and say whether or not Ryu would return to he Dodgers rotation on a permanent basis, he was given the start in Wednesday’s tough 2-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals and was again brilliant, allowing only one run on three hits with a walk and four strikeouts in his 6.0 innings of work, for which he did not figure in the decision.

Ryu’s start on Wednesday was in place of Alex Wood, who himself was placed on the 10-day DL on May 29 for what is listed as “SC joint inflammation in left shoulder.” And while there is nothing to substantiate that this is anything but the truth, there are some who believe that it is nothing more than Friedman/Zaidi again using the 10-day DL to give the 26-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina native – who happens to be in the middle of an MLB-best 25.1 scoreless innings streak – some extra rest. Roberts, however, debunked this notion during Thursday’s pre-game media scrum.

If Wood’s situation actually is more serious than first thought (and skeptics believe), then Friedman, Zaidi and Roberts are geniuses for rightfully using the new 10-day disabled list rule exactly as intended. If it is not, it really doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks because they are using it within its guidelines. But what it does do is keep the Dodgers starting rotation in a continuing state of flux, and despite Roberts’ claim that he is not going to utilize a six-man rotation, by all appearances this is exactly what he (and Friedman and Zaidi) are doing.

Then again, the Dodgers are in first place in the National League West.

Geniuses indeed.