Dodgers notes: Roster roulette, inconsistencies, team payroll

Friday was the sixth consecutive day the Dodgers made a roster move. Jake Reed got the call up from Triple-A with Michael Grove landing on the injured list with a right groin strain, then promptly allowed six runs while recording two outs in a forgettable blowout loss to the Cubs.

Here was a somber Dave Roberts after the game, talking about how inconsistent the Dodgers have been this season, per SportsNet LA:

Leo Morgenstern at FanGraphs unpacked the rarity of someone like Mookie Betts playing shortstop, including this factoid: “In the last 20 years, only 24 qualified hitters over the age of 30 have played the outfield and shortstop in the same season. Only three played the outfield in the majority of their games: Jermaine Dye in 2005, Chris Taylor in 2021, and Betts thus far in 2023.”

Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten in an interview with Jack Harris at the Los Angeles Times repeated what he’s said several times over the last few months regarding the Dodgers’ spending and approach to roster building during the offseason. A highlight:

“We’ve been pretty consistent that we are flexible, depending on the year,” Kasten said. “We were at a point in the cycle where we believed, and still believe, that we have a good group of younger players and wanted to leave room for them. But when there’s an opportunity to get a free agent that makes sense for us, both long-term and short-term, we do that as well.”