The Dodgers and their Zack Greinke dilemma

Maybe this seems all obvious to you. A serious no-brainer. The Dodgers have to re-sign Zack Greinke like James Bond has to drive a cool car.

Behind Greinke and Clayton Kershaw in the rotation is a whole lot of uncertainty. What, they’re going to lose Greinke and go with Kershaw and the four what-ifs?

Only this is no simple situation, and it certainly offers no simple and guaranteed solution.

Greinke will almost certainly opt out of his Dodgers contract and become a free agent. He and David Price will be the premier 2015 free agents and will not come cheaply. Last off-season Max Scherzer signed for seven years and $210 million with the Nationals and Jon Lester for six years and $155 million with the Cubs.

Both were 30 years old, and Greinke just turned 32. So he probably doesn’t get a Scherzer deal, but figures to at least match Lester’s. So if he gets six years, he’ll be 38 in the last year of his deal.

Which is not attractive to any team, but particularly to the Dodgers’ young-leaning new front office. What to do?

If you could get Greinke for six years for $155 million, that’s actually only an additional $84-million commitment, since Greinke would be opting out of the three years and $71 million on his current deal.

Yet if the Dodgers were to commit $155 million to Greinke, that still leaves them where they were last season -- with Kershaw, Greinke and cross those fingers three times. That’s an additional $84 million just to remain were they were, which, as you may recall, was deemed not good enough.

The Dodgers need to do what they failed to do at the trading deadline: add a significant piece to their existing rotation. After Greinke and Price, the star level has Johnny Cueto and Jordan Zimmerman. The next tier offers Scott Kazmir, Yovani Gallardo and maybe a Jeff Samardzija or a Doug Fister.

There is no one in the farm system ready to make the leap, and they can’t count on Hyun-Jin Ryu (shoulder surgery) coming back in the spring at peak form or Brandon McCarthy (Tommy John surgery) by the middle of summer.

So they either sign someone of significance or trade for him. That’s all assuming they keep Greinke, which is light years from a lock. If Greinke goes elsewhere, the pressure increases to sign Price, if he isn’t already gone. It’s a dangerous game to play.

The front office brain trust of Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi no doubt has a tentative plan, supported by plenty of backup plans. The rotation was oddly the team’s biggest problem all season, and if Greinke and Brett Anderson become free agents, the Dodgers have Kershaw and Alex Wood.

They really need to sign Greinke or Price, and then continue shopping. Right now baseball’s highes paid team has serious rotation issues.

Follow: @SteveDilbeck

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