There were opportunities for Perez to close, or he could have gone to be an eighth-inning man for another contender. He chose to go to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have Kenley Jansen as their closer and Brian Wilson for the eighth inning.

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"This is a chance to win," Perez told Sporting News. "Obviously, they had a great year last year, and there's a lot of talent here. That's why we play, is to win. I've been a closer on bad teams, and it's kind of fun personally, but it's not fun overall. It's kind of selfish, and you go out there — especially in the second half of the year, if you're out of it — you just go out there and try to help yourself, improve your stock and improve your season. Coming over here, it's a great chance to win, and what they did last year, they've built on that, bringing in more guys. All the expectations, it's fun."

The expectations for the Dodgers, in general, are sky high as World Series favorites. The expectations for Los Angeles' bullpen are right up there. Jansen had a 1.88 ERA in 76.2 innings last year, with 111 strikeouts and 18 walks while allowing only 48 hits. Wilson, who joined the Dodgers as a free agent in July, then worked his way back to the majors after Tommy John surgery, appeared in 18 games down the stretch, allowing one run on eight hits in 13.2 innings, with 13 strikeouts and four walks — then pitched six scoreless innings in the playoffs, with eight strikeouts. Wilson was linked to several teams as a closer in free agency, but decided to stay in Los Angeles to pitch in front of Jansen.

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"I just play eighth innings now, and then I watch the ninth," Wilson said. "It's still three outs. It's still as fun in the eighth as it is in the ninth. ... It's your job to go in to preserve a win, or maintain a lead, or give your team the best chance to win. At the end of the year, the ring still fits the same regardless of what your role is."

That would be a World Series ring, which has eluded the Dodgers since 1988, when Los Angeles had one of the best bullpens in history. Since the implementation of the save rule in 1969, among relief corps that worked at least 400 innings in a season, the 1988 Dodgers had the lowest group ERA, at 2.35 in 433 innings. Jay Howell and Alejandro Pena were the 1-2 punch at the end of games, combining for 33 saves with 153 strikeouts and 48 walks in 159.1 innings. Howell had a 2.08 ERA, Pena 1.91, and another setup man, Brian Holton, had a 1.70 ERA in 84.2 innings. Jesse Orosco, who had been a two-time All-Star closer for the Mets, chipped in nine saves, but also could be used as a lefty specialist — he pitched 53 innings in 55 appearances.

The other key man for the 1988 Dodgers in the late innings was Orel Hershiser, who pitched 15 of Los Angeles' league-leading 32 complete games, including eight shutouts. Tim Leary threw six shutouts among nine complete games, and Tim Belcher blanked four opponents in five complete games, with Fernando Valenzuela going the distance three times, and John Tudor once.

The current starting rotation in Los Angeles also is quite strong, fronted by reigning Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw, who averaged more than seven innings per start last season. So, in a normal Kershaw start, you might expect to see Wilson get two or three outs, then Jansen get three more, then go home. Or, if Kershaw has his way, the relievers could do even less work than that.

"Our job is to try to give them a day off, every single time out there," Kershaw said. "Hopefully, we can do a good job with that. We have the rotation to do it, too. It's a matter of going out and performing. All the names and all the track records look great. We've just got to go out there and perform."

The rest of the Dodgers' rotation features Zack Greinke, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Dan Haren, Josh Beckett, Chad Billingsley and Paul Maholm. That would be a starting staff of seven highly accomplished major leaguers, and while Beckett and Billingsley are coming back from injuries, and Greinke's spring has been sidetracked by leg problems, that kind of starting depth is both mind-boggling and a boon to the bullpen.

"It goes hand in hand, a good bullpen having a good starting staff in front of them," Perez said. "Anytime you can maximize our productivity by having matchups or having a guy face one or two batters, just facing righties or just facing lefties, it's gonna help you. The bullpens, if you look in the league, the bullpens that throw the most innings, they usually have the highest ERAs, and by the end of the year, it's a revolving door because you can't stay healthy. Having a starting staff that goes deep into games, it helps the bullpen. If you have to cover two innings instead of five every day, it's a lot easier."

Perez's point is spot on, even though the team with the fewest relief innings last year, the Tigers at 439.2, had a 4.01 ERA. Detroit's bullpen was a known weakness, and one that the defending American League Central champions addressed in the offseason by adding Joe Nathan to close and a pair of power arms in Joba Chamberlain and Ian Krol. Detroit also had fewer innings pitched by relievers because Jim Leyland knew that he had one of the best starting staffs in the majors, and would stick with those starters deep into games. The two teams with the next-fewest innings pitched by relievers — the Braves and Royals — had the best bullpen ERAs in baseball, at 2.46 and 2.55. The Dodgers' 3.49 relief ERA ranked 13th in the majors, but that figure, of course, represents the full season, which started with Brandon League as the closer. Jansen wound up taking over, then Wilson came on board, and by the end of the season, everything came together.

Now, Jansen is the closer from the very beginning, and at the age of 26, he continues to refine his game. He mixes the confidence needed to handle the last three outs of a game with the willingness to accept that there is much to be learned from others who have done the job.

"Having tons of former closers in the bullpen, it's really good," he said. "Watching how they go about their business, these guys have been doing it for a much longer time than I have, and I just keep learning from them. I watch them and see how they prepare themselves. It's a pretty awesome family."

With Wilson handling the eighth inning, and then a middle relief and setup group of Perez, left-handers J.P. Howell and Paco Rodriguez, and right-handers League, Chris Withrow, and Jamey Wright, it is worth speculating about whether the Dodgers may have the best bullpen in history.

"Maybe. I think so, yeah," Jansen said. "I believe so. Three former All-Star closers, and add in Jamey Wright and J.P. Howell. That's a good bullpen, man. These guys can all close any day, and they've done it. I think it can be a really, really special bullpen."

Said Howell: "It could. It definitely could. It isn't that easy. We know we've got to play. It doesn't matter about the names on the back, or the numbers on the back of the baseball card. It's a whole new journey, and everything that you've done in the past is over."

The past does not include 23-year-old right-hander Jose Dominguez, who has been all but unhittable in spring training after striking out 40 hitters in 25.1 innings between Double-A and Triple-A last year. Dominguez allowed 11 hits in 8.1 innings with four strikeouts in his first taste of major league action. He made the roster for the season-opening trip to Australia, as did Rule 5 pick Seth Rosin, while Javy Guerra — who saved 21 games for the Dodgers in 2011 — was designated for assignment.

"It's always nice to have that depth," said Yankees left-hander Matt Thornton. "I experienced it a little bit in Chicago last year, with (Addison) Reed, (Jesse) Crain, Nate Jones, Matt Lindstrom, and myself, kind of being the seventh inning-and-on guys. We were able to shorten up games pretty good, play matchups, and then hand it over to the other guys. What Jesse Crain did for the first half of the season last year was ridiculous. He was unhittable. It's a luxury to have it, but you saw what happened in Boston last year. They lost three of their main pieces and other guys had to step up."

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The Dodgers' depth means that they know who the other guys to step up would be in case of emergency. But, like Perez said, having a starting rotation that routinely goes deep into games should help ease the wear and tear on the arms in the bullpen.

In fact, one question that might face Los Angeles is whether there are enough innings to go around.

"That would be a good problem," Howell said. "I'm sure that's going to be the case at some points during the season, but over 162 games, everyone gets their innings. It always works out. I've never heard a bullpen complain about not having enough innings."

As much as the starters would like to throw shutouts every time out, reality paints a different picture, and they know it. Having the relievers that they do provides the members of the Dodgers' rotation with a feeling of security that is uncommon in an era where the goal for most successful lineups is to work pitch counts and get starters out of the game early even on the nights when those starters have good stuff.

"A lot of times, you need to get through seven (innings as a starter) to feel real good about your chances to win," Haren said. "That's no knock on any bullpen I've had in my career, I'm just saying that this bullpen is a little bit different. You can go six and give it up to an established, All Star-caliber closer in the seventh, with Chris Perez and then probably the best eighth-inning guy in Wilson, and an elite closer in Jansen in the ninth. You can feel real good about going six, where a lot of times, you've got to go through seven to get to the eighth and ninth. It's definitely a good situation."

That was the reason the Dodgers built up the bullpen the way that they did, and the reason that pitchers who could have been closers elsewhere decided to be part of it.

"There's a lot of strong arms," Wilson said. "The organization, right now, is packed with a lot of good arms. I don't think we're going to have any problems with that, and obviously the starting pitching is phenomenal. On paper, we're a really good team, so we'll see what happens. ... They're trying to show the rest of baseball that they're going to take care of their home-grown guys and they're going to bring in necessary ingredients to get a championship. I want to be part of that."