The Los Angeles Dodgers are in first place in the National League West, but they've dropped four of their last six games and seven of 10 overall, leading to the team heating up its search for starting pitching.
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According to ESPN, the Dodgers have ratcheted up the effort to find starting pitching and sent scouts to watch Cole Hamels pitch for the Philadelphia Phillies against the Yankees in New York on Wednesday.
Jordan Zimmermann of the Washington Nationals and Johnny Cueto of the Cincinnati Reds are also on the team's radar and have been scouted lately as well.
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Los Angeles' search for an arm to compliment Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke in the rotation is heating up, especially after losing Hyun-Jin Ryu and Brandon McCarthy to season-ending injuries.
"Starting pitching depth is certainly front and center, as it was last offseason, as it will be next offseason," Dodgers' president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said via ESPN. "It's something we're always going to be mindful of, but two guys going down just increases that for us."
Los Angeles has a plethora of prospects and young players that it could deal in a potential swap for elite pitching, but there's a long way to go until the July 31 deadline and it is uncertain at this time what they'd have to part with in order to land one of those marquee arms.
Despite their recent swoon, the Dodgers sit in first place in the NL East with a 40-33 record, but their lead over the defending World Series champion and second-place San Francisco Giants (39-34) has shrunk to just one game.
L.A. is looking for its third straight NL West crown, but just winning the division isn't good enough for a club with this much talent and a history of disappointment in the postseason.
The Dodgers haven't been to the World Series since winning it all in 1988 and have had two straight postseasons end prematurely after tremendous regular seasons.
Los Angeles lost to the Cardinals in six games in the NLCS in 2013 and then was eliminated by St. Louis again, three-games-to-one, in the 2014 NLDS.
Pitchers like Hamels and Cueto have been involved in trade rumors already with over a month to go until the deadline, but it remains to be seen what the Dodgers are willing to give up to bring one of those big names back and what the clubs will even ask for in return.
With the current struggles of the team and the division lead shrinking, the Dodgers are heating up their search for a solution.
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