The Los Angeles Dodgers have been dealing with ongoing pitching struggles since spring training, as the grocery list of injured pitchers hasn’t been shrinking as fast as fans would hope.

Although a major goal of this past offseason was to retool the pitching roster and create more depth through acquisitions, the constant injuries have proved difficult for L.A. For these reasons and more, it may come as a shock that the president of baseball operations, Andrew Friedman, said that his team doesn’t want to trade for a pitcher ahead of the MLB trade deadline.

“I’m still optimistic,” Friedman said. “It requires guys coming back on or close to the timelines that we have penciled out.

“We have shown that, if we’re not in position to do that, we’ll be aggressive to add. But our strong desire is not to.”

The starting rotation and the bullpen alike have been dealt similar blows in terms of longer-term injuries, but expressing a ‘strong desire’ not to acquire more talent initially sounds shocking, but perhaps it is more calculated than what is on the surface.

Pitchers are slowly returning from their respective ailments, but there are still no guarantees with potential setbacks and unclear timelines for many.

Someone like Blake Snell, who was given a five-year, $182 million deal this offseason to bring his two Cy Young awards and southpaw talents to the Dodgers, has only mustered two starts. He is expected to throw a second bullpen this week, but has been out since the beginning of April with shoulder inflammation.

Tyler Glasnow is a similar case as he is known to have had a confusing recent injury history, but is looking to start in a rehab assignment. He has been out with shoulder inflammation of his own since the end of April.

If the right deal presents itself and the Dodgers don’t give up too many assets, a bridge pitcher while L.A. waits for some of their injured men to return makes sense, but if not, the waiting game will continue for the Dodgers.