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Eric Lauer will start Wednesday for the Dodgers, per Fabian Ardaya at FantasyPros. With the rotation in flux following recent trades, option moves, and injuries, Lauer slots in to take the ball as the team works through its pitching depth.

Lauer, the 31-year-old left-hander, has had a journeyman’s path through the majors. He came up with the Padres back in 2018, showed flashes as a back-end starter, then was traded to Milwaukee after the 2020 season. With the Brewers, Lauer put together his best stretch — a 2022 campaign where he posted a 3.69 ERA across 29 starts and looked like a legitimate mid-rotation arm. Injuries derailed him after that, most notably a significant arm issue that cost him chunks of the 2023 and 2024 seasons. He’s the kind of pitcher who lives off command, mixing a cutter and changeup to keep hitters off-balance rather than blowing anyone away. The Dodgers brought him in as organizational depth, and now he’s getting an opportunity to show he can still hold down a big-league rotation spot.

The timing here makes sense. We just watched Austin Wrobleski get roughed up by the Cubs, extending the team’s losing skid to four. Emmet Sheehan was optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City after a rough outing against Boston. The Dodgers have Tarik Skubal debuting Tuesday at Wrigley, and now Lauer follows him on Wednesday — giving the club two fresh arms in consecutive days as they try to stop the bleeding.

This is also worth viewing through the lens of roster construction. The Dodgers just acquired Kris Bubic from the Royals and have been stockpiling left-handed pitching depth all deadline long. Lauer getting the Wednesday nod over Bubic or anyone else on the 40-man suggests the front office sees him as more stretched out and ready to give them length right now. That matters when the bullpen has been grinding through some heavy workloads during this skid.

I don’t think anyone is expecting Lauer to be an ace. That’s not the point. The point is giving us a competent start that keeps us in the game while the top of the rotation — Skubal, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani (whenever he’s back on the mound), and eventually a healthy Clayton Kershaw — continues to take shape for October. If Lauer can eat five or six innings and keep us within striking distance, he’s done his job.

The rotation depth we’ve built through trades and internal options gives Dave Roberts real flexibility here. If Lauer pitches well Wednesday, he could stick. If not, there are other arms waiting. That’s the luxury of the roster the front office has put together. But right now, after four straight losses, we just need someone to go out there and be solid. Lauer gets that chance.

Source(s): Fabian Ardaya (FantasyPros) | First reported: August 4, 2026 12:02 PM UTC

God Bless and Go Dodgers