Plaschke: Trade deadline feels like panic time for Dodgers

Less than two weeks until the most important trade deadline in franchise history, and the Dodgers’ heads are spinning.

Where do they look? How close do they look? What is real? What is really stupid?

Things are getting crazy in Chávez Ravine, as evidenced by the rapt attention given to three pitchers Friday during the team’s return from the All-Star break.

Only one of them actually pitched in an official Dodgers game.

The first was Tyler Glasnowfour hours before the Dodgers played the Boston Red Sox, captivating club officials in sweltering heat with a 57-pitch simulated game.

Glasnow is their ace, but he’s frail and nearly hit a career innings high, and the Dodgers sidelined him before the All-Star Game with a freak back injury.

Weird, because he probably wasn’t actually hurt, but just needed some time off, which is honestly scarier than any injury.

See more information: Freddie Freeman’s Grand Slam Leads Dodgers to Victory Over Red Sox

“I feel good, the time off was good,” he said. “I went there today and everything looked sharp.”

So he’s fine. For now. Do you trust him? He is sure?

Then, 1,381 miles to the southeast, there was Clayton Kershaw in Round Rock, Texasbeginning the rehab of triple-A Oklahoma City.

As Dodgers officials watched closely on their laptops, Kershaw allowed three runs in four innings with a fastball velocity that dropped to a dangerous 87 mph in the fourth inning.

Would you now put him back in the rotation, ignoring that he is still recovering from offseason shoulder surgery and is 36 years old?

“I mean, ultimately, that’s just where the team is,” Kershaw said afterward. “So I would love to come back whenever they need me, obviously. But I don’t want to put the team in a bad situation.”

Too late. They are already in a bad situation. I’m guessing the Dodgers are going to get him back on a big league mound ASAP.

The situation is very unstable. The Dodgers are so desperate.

Finally, on Friday, after the conclusion of the two opening acts, the main event appeared with rookie star Gavin Stone starting the game against the Red Sox.

He was as strong as ever, allowing only Jarren Duran’s home run on six hits in five innings with three strikeouts and no walks during an eventual dramatic 4-1 comeback victory. But he carries the usual baggage. He has now pitched 101⅔ innings this season, just 20 innings shy of his professional career high. And yes, he never pitched in the postseason.

Count on him? Perhaps. It depends. With the Dodgers, everything over the next two weeks depends.

The shot is just a stimulus in the saddle. They also need a hitter to answer the same kinds of questions that plague pitching.

Mookie Bets will be back soon, but how much will his broken hand affect him? Max Muncy recently admitted on a podcast that he is not progressing as well as expected on his oblique problem. Will he be back in time to contribute? Should the Dodgers cut their losses and acquire a third baseman?

Yes, they need a lot of help in a lot of areas and it all goes back to that glorious billion-dollar offseason. It turns out that, with the notable exception of Shohei Ohtanithe front office may have done some really silly things, making mistakes that haunted them all season.

See more information: Clayton Kershaw approaching Dodgers return: ‘If they need me now, I’ll be ready’

I’m just wondering, but who recommended that the Dodgers give Yoshinobu Yamamoto a 12-year contract worth $325 million when he had never played in the majors?

He looks fragile. He looks uncertain. He has been increasingly ineffective and is now suffering from a shoulder injury that may not heal until the end of the season.

It’s safe to say that with his physical issues, Yamamoto has been one of baseball’s biggest disappointments, and now the Dodgers may have to scramble to replace him.

During the off-season they also signed James Paxton, the Canadian “Big Maple” that has often been cut down. The Dodgers are often praised for their ability to extract diamonds from coal, but in Paxson’s case, he is what he has always been.

Not a playoff savior.

Then there are the players in difficult positions, the Dodgers bringing back the ineffective Kiké Hernández while keeping Chris Taylor slumping and misjudging former prospect turned suspect Gavin Lux.

Questions everywhere, and when I asked coach Dave Roberts on Friday if this team needed help, he nodded.

“You know, we have,” he said. “I think the question is whether it is internal or through trade.”

So do they wait for Kershaw’s return and Yamamoto’s healing and Glasnow’s durability, or do they bet all their chips on a starting pitcher like Detroit’s Tarik Skubal or the Chicago White Sox’s Garrett Crochet?

Do they count on the return of Betts and a miracle from Muncy and a sudden change in Hernández, Lux and Taylor, or do they rush out and get Randy Arozarena from Tampa?

“You know, where we are, the 26-man roster is going to be increased,” Roberts said. “And the hard part is trying to figure out who, when and if the guys are going to come back, and then evaluating the time frame itself. So that’s the difficult part. Be it starters, position players, substitutes, all these things, everyone is at stake to strengthen the squad. So the tricky part is evaluating what’s out there and really trying to make sure we get it right, we do the best we can with the guys that we, you know, see every day.”

See more information: Tyler Glasnow is expected to return to the Dodgers, but how will they manage his workload?

Please, Dodgers, don’t be fooled by what you see every day. Don’t support your own players for fear of admitting a mistake. You need a starting pitcher. Go get a starting pitcher. You need a strong hitter. Go find one.

“You have to make a calculated bet,” Roberts said. “So do we need to update? Yes. I just don’t think anyone can answer how we’re going to do this. That is the problem.”

It is a problem that demands a solution, which involves more humility than arrogance.

Only by admitting that they are not always the smartest guys in the room can the Dodgers eventually decorate that room with a championship.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the beginning of each series.

This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.