Youth in rotation: A bevy of Dodger starting pitchers under 30

By Jon Weisman

With the signing of Kenta Maeda, 11 of the 13 Dodgers on the active roster with MLB experience as starting pitchers will be under 30 when Spring Training begins.

The names of the youth brigade: Brett Anderson (28), Brandon Beachy (29), Mike Bolsinger (28), Carlos Frias (26), Clayton Kershaw (28 in March), Zach Lee (24), Maeda (28 in April), Frankie Montas (23 in March), Hyun-Jin Ryu (29 in March), Ian Thomas (29 in April) and Alex Wood (25).

The only starting pitcher over age 30 on the 40-man roster scheduled to take the mound this spring is Scott Kazmir, and he will be only 32, the same age as Brandon McCarthy, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery and won’t pitch until the summer at the earliest.

While these Dodgers could have one of the highest percentages of under-30 starters since the franchise moved to Los Angeles in 1958, they won’t set a record.

In 1962 — a season that went to 165 games because of the three-game tiebreaker playoff with the Giants — every single game the Dodgers played was started by an under-30 pitcher except the 165th, which came three days after Johnny Podres’ 30th birthday.

(Click on the chart below for more detail.)

No. 2 on the list is 1959, another season extended by a tiebreaker (to 156 games). That year, the only over-30 Dodger starting pitcher was 32-year-old Carl Erskine, who threw the first pitch in three games.

The highest total in recent years for the Dodgers came from the 1997 team, whose starting pitchers were all under 30 except for Tom Candiotti (18 starts). Candiotti turned 40 that August.

Last year’s Dodgers had the highest number of under-30 starts this century, a total of 123 from no fewer than 12 qualifying pitchers: Kershaw (33 starts), Anderson (31), Bolsinger (21), Frias (13), Wood (12), Mat Latos (5), Wieland (2), Beachy (2), Juan Nicasio (1), Yimi Garcia (1), Thomas (1) and Lee (1). At this point, only Kazmir, McCarthy or a future acquisition would prevent this year’s Dodgers from topping that figure.