Pick 4 – Los Angeles Dodgers
Selection: SP Bartolo Colon
If there’s a team in this draft that defies easy categorization, it’s the Los Angeles Dodgers. They are a paradox wrapped in a puzzle wrapped in a .500 record. On paper, they look like a club that should be contending. In reality, they spent 1996 drifting somewhere between “not bad” and “not quite enough,” buoyed by a roster full of recognizable names who didn’t quite perform to expectation.
This is a franchise with talent, no question. Shawn Green (playing out of position in right field), Ryan Klesko, Rafael Palmeiro, and Scott Hatteberg (somehow still catching) give them more first basemen than any rational front office knows what to do with. And the pitching staff? Even more curious. Greg Maddux sits atop the rotation like a demigod (although didn’t pitch like it in 1996), flanked by intriguing pieces like Bill Pulsipher and a handful of arms who look better in theory than they did in 1996’s box scores.
So what do you give the team that already has everything—and somehow nothing?
You give them Bartolo Colon.
Colon is part of a cluster of pitchers in this draft who all have a case to be the next arm off the board, but he stands out for reasons both analytical and emotional. Analytically? He’s got four green pitches, legitimate stamina, and is close to fully developed—meaning his margin between “prospect” and “rotation-ready” is thin. Emotionally? Well, this is Bartolo Colon, a name that carries its own gravitational pull.
There will be arguments about fit here. The Dodgers “don’t need pitching.” They “lack bats.” And sure, if roster balance were the goal, they’d be shopping in a different aisle. But this isn’t about balance. It’s about value. And pitching depth is its own currency—especially with half the league scrambling to find even one reliable arm.
Colon gives the Dodgers flexibility. Options. He strengthens a rotation that, on its best day, could now run out Maddux, Urbina, Mendoza, Pulsipher, and Colon—a quietly imposing group if the developmental arrows break right. And more importantly, Colon gives Los Angeles the chance to trade from surplus to address its offensive vacancy sign.
This isn’t a “need” pick. It’s a power move. A recognition that pitching wins games, wins trades, and wins leverage.
The Dodgers may be confusing, but this selection isn’t. Bartolo Colon is the right call in a spot where there were no perfect answers—just smart ones.