Dodgers News: One Stat That Shows How Much LA Needed Lance Lynn

His presence might be a present to the Dodgers bullpen.

Going deep into ballgames is something that's becoming more and more rare in the game of baseball nowadays.

The era of the complete game is almost extinct, as players very rarely make it the full 9 innings. Like, that's something we saw Shohei Ohtani do for the first time this year!

Before last night, the last Dodger to throw seven innings was Clayton Kershaw over a month ago, and the last person not named Kershaw to do it was Julio Urias on May 13.

That's why the Dodgers went out and got Lance Lynn. He eats innings.

The last Dodgers starting pitcher to throw 7 innings in a game was Clayton Kershaw on June 20.

The last Dodgers starter not named Kershaw to throw 7 innings in a game was Julio Urias on May 13.

Lance Lynn just finished 7 innings in his debut. He's at 93 pitches, and likely done

— Noah Camras (@noahcamras) August 2, 2023

In today's game, a pitcher is likely going to go out there, throw five innings and then call it a night. But when you have to constantly rely on your bullpen day in and day out to eat innings, you're going to run into some trouble. 

The Dodgers bullpen hasn't been all that consistent this year. Players have had hot streaks, some have had really cold streaks, but one thing is for certain. They don't have a true long reliever. Somebody that can go out and throw a ton of innings if needed.

So when a pitcher gets in a grind, and has to be pulled after the third inning, the Dodgers might end up using 4 or 5 different pitchers during the game.

That's where Lance Lynn's skillset of being able to go a solid 6-7 innings every time he gets out on the mound comes in handy. The bullpen might as well take a nap for the first 5 innings of a start when he's on the mound.

Over his last 5 starts, Lynn has gone at least 5 innings in 4 of them, and the one he didn't go 5 innings in, he went 4.2.

Overall, do you think this was actually one of the best deals at the deadline?