The most glaring losses to the team this far are the departure of Brandon Morrow, the right-handed setup man and bridge to Kenley Jansen, and Yu Darvish, an ace right-hander and number two man in the rotation for the second half of 2017.
With the addition of Matt Kemp, the possible rise of rookies Walker Buehler and Alex Verdugo, players returning from injuries in Andrew Toles and eventually Julio Urias, and the looming free agency possibilities of Clayton Kershaw, Logan Forsythe, Yasiel Puig, Yasmani Grandal, and Hyun-Jin Ryu, spring training begins the search for lineup and rotation choices this year and the years beyond.