The rotation for the Dodgers has a lot of moving parts due to health and will likely be in flux throughout the year, but they entered Spring Training with four spots accounted for. Tyler Glasnow is a lock since he has been a borderline ace on a rate basis in recent years, though without the health to provide that production in a quantitative sense. But the Dodgers clearly believe in him, as they acquired him in a notable offseason trade and then quickly signed him to an extension that runs through 2028. Yoshinobu Yamamoto has yet to make his major league debut but parlayed his dominance in Japan into a 12-year, $325MM contract.
Bobby Miller has earned a spot after a solid showing last year, wherein he tossed 124 1/3 innings with a 3.76 ERA and solid peripherals to match. James Paxton will be there as well after he signed a one-year, $7MM pact in the offseason with incentives.
Walker Buehler could have been in line for the fifth spot but it seems he and the Dodgers have decided to slow play his season a bit. He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2022 and almost returned late in 2023 but ended up not rushing and therefore sitting out the entire season. That puts him in the position of going into 2024 presumably healthy but likely with workload limitations. He threw 207 2/3 innings in 2021 but was limited to just 65 the year after before the surgery and then missed 2023. Rather than start him in the rotation and have to shut him down at some point, it seems he and the club are going to have him be a bit behind everyone else, increasing his odds of being around for a stretch run and the playoffs.
That left pitchers like Stone, Ryan Yarbrough, Michael Grove, Emmet Sheehan and others as options to take a spot behind Glasnow, Yamamoto, Miller and Paxton. Sheehan was taken out of the competition a couple of weeks ago when it was reported that he would begin the season on the injured list due to shoulder soreness.
In the end, Stone won the job thanks to some encouraging results last year and a strong performance in spring this year. He made his MLB debut in 2023 but allowed 31 earned runs in as many innings, though that’s a small sample size and also came in a fairly unstable fashion. He made four starts and four relief appearances around frequent optional assignments. He had a larger sample size of 100 2/3 innings at Triple-A, wherein he posted a 4.74 ERA. His 27.8% strikeout rate was quite strong and his 43.2% ground ball rate close to average, though his 10.7% walk rate a tad high.
Here in camp this year, he has tossed 9 2/3 innings of official action with a 0.93 ERA. He has punched out nine hitters while walking just one and allowing only one earned run. The Dodgers played an exhibition game against Team Korea today in preparation for their Seoul Series and Stone tossed 3 1/3 scoreless with eight punchouts, one walk and no hits.
He will slot into the back of the rotation for now, though the rotation will be constantly changing this year. Buehler will slot in somewhere whenever he is ramped up and ready to go. Sheehan could get back in there if he gets over his shoulder issue. Dustin May underwent flexor tendon and Tommy John revision surgery last summer and could rejoin the club at some point. Clayton Kershaw underwent shoulder surgery in the offseason and is targeting a return in the summer. Tony Gonsolin is more of a long shot since he underwent Tommy John on September 1 of last year and will probably just be nearing readiness as the 2024 season is winding down.
On top of all that, new injuries are sure to crop up throughout the season as they always do. Taking all that together, there will probably be very little consistency in the rotation this year. But there is undoubtedly heaps of talent here and the club seems likely to be in good shape, regardless of who is actually taking the ball. For now, Stone has an opportunity and will look to make the most of it. If other pitchers return to health and he gets squeezed out at some point, he could move to a long relief role in the bullpen or be sent down to the minors, since he still has a couple of option years remaining.
]]>However, while Betts dominated the headlines, this move arguably had more to do with his teammate, 26-year-old Gavin Lux. The Dodgers originally planned for Lux to be their starting shortstop, but he will now play second base instead. Although Lux was primarily a shortstop in the minor leagues, he has spent most of his major league career at second. He has handled the keystone well, earning 16 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) and 8 Outs Above Average (OAA) in 1346 2/3 defensive innings. As Lux prepares for a full-time role in 2024 (after missing the 2023 season with a torn ACL), the Dodgers decided it was in the young player’s best interests to keep him at second base for the time being.
When Roberts first spoke about the decision, he told reporters the new middle infield alignment was “permanent, for now” (per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic). Those words are something of an oxymoron, so yesterday, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman offered a little more clarity on the situation. Speaking to Doug McKain of Dodgers Nation, Friedman said the team remains “confident” Lux can play shortstop in the future. They will re-evaluate his health and position as they “get into the offseason next year.” That certainly suggests Lux will play second base and Betts will handle shortstop for the full 2024 campaign, but nothing is set in stone for the following season and beyond. In 2025, Lux will be another year removed from major knee surgery, while Betts will be 32 years old, an age at which many players begin to move down the defensive spectrum.
More Dodgers news as the team prepares to open the 2024 season in South Korea…
The move is hardly a surprise, as manager Dave Roberts announced earlier this month that Hudson would be in the club’s bullpen to open the season. Hudson had the opportunity to trigger an opt-out of his minor league deal with the club yesterday if not added to the club’s 40-man roster. It’s unclear if Hudson triggered the opt-out yesterday, though it ultimately will make no difference now that the club has added the right-hander to the roster.
The 37-year-old righty is now set to participate in his fifteenth major league season and has been among the more effective relief arms in the game in recent years, pitching to a 3.08 ERA (141 ERA+) and 3.73 FIP since the start of the 2019 season. That includes a sterling 1.98 ERA with L.A. over the past two seasons, although injuries have limited him to just 27 1/3 innings of work over that time. If the veteran hurler can stay healthy this season, he’ll likely be in the mix for high-leverage innings alongside the likes of Evan Phillips, Brusdar Graterol, and Ryan Brasier.
Hudson being added to the roster likely spells the end of Lipcius’s time with the Dodgers just weeks after he joined the organization in a cash deal with the Tigers. The 25-year-old infielder made his big league debut in Detroit last season, slashing a respectable .286/.342/.400 in 13 games while splitting time between third base and DH. In addition to those serviceable numbers in his first cup of coffee at the big league level, Lipcius hit a solid .272/.363/.419 in 98 games with the club’s Triple-A affiliate last year while splitting time between third and second base. The Dodgers will now have seven days to attempt to pass Lipcius through waivers or work out a trade. If Lipcius clears waivers, L.A. would have the opportunity to outright Lipcius to Triple-A, where he would act as non-roster depth entering the year.
Meanwhile, Hudson will take the active roster spot of Vargas. The 24-year-old was a consensus top-40 prospect entering last season and has slashed an incredible .298/.405/.500 in 173 games at the Triple-A level in his career, but struggled badly in 81 games at the big league level last year. In 303 trips to the plate in the big leagues, Vargas hit a paltry .195/.305/.367 with a wRC+ of 85 last season. Vargas is largely blocked at the big league level with Mookie Betts having moved to the infield full time alongside Gavin Lux and Max Muncy and the club’s recent signing of Enrique Hernandez to join Chris Taylor and Miguel Rojas on the club’s bench.
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]]>Wilson, 36, signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers last month. Wilson’s official spring stat line currently includes nine strikeouts and two walks in four innings, allowing two earned runs.
Despite that fairly solid showing, he was likely going to find it tough to crack a strong bullpen for the Dodgers. Manager Dave Roberts said last week that righty Daniel Hudson, also on a minor league deal, would make the team. Hudson would join a bullpen that also consists of options like Evan Phillips, Brusdar Graterol, Joe Kelly, Ryan Brasier, Alex Vesia, Blake Treinen, Ryan Yarbrough, J.P. Feyereisen and others. Graterol has some hip tightness and may miss the Seoul Series but doesn’t seem in line for a lengthy absence.
It seems Wilson felt he would be better off by returning to the open market and looking for opportunities elsewhere. It wasn’t previously reported that he had an opt-out in his deal but it seems there was one there for him to use. He can market himself based on his lengthy track record, though he is coming off two mostly lost seasons. He underwent Tommy John surgery in June of 2022, which limited him to just 3 2/3 innings that year. He signed with the Brewers for 2023 and was activated off the injured list at the end of July, but he suffered a lat strain before getting into a game and went right back on the shelf. He wasn’t able to return later in the year.
From 2012 to 2021, Wilson made 522 big league appearances with a 3.42 earned run average. He struck out 25.7% of batters faced, gave out walks at a 10.7% clip and kept 46.8% of balls in play on the ground. He racked up 18 saves and 132 holds in that time, pitching for the Pirates, Yankees, Tigers, Cubs, Mets and Reds.
Though he missed the last couple of years due to injury, he appears to be healthy now. Left-handed relief tends to always be in demand so Wilson will gauge the market and try to find the best opportunity for himself. He’ll join Brad Hand, Aaron Loup and Jarlín García as some of the southpaw relievers currently in free agency.
]]>Ahmed, 34 later this week, spent the past ten seasons in Arizona as a regular fixture at shortstop, earning back-to-back Gold Glove awards for his superlative defense in 2018 and 2019. He’s struggled to stay on the field in recent years, drawing just 264 trips to the plate between the past two seasons, and in that time slashed a paltry .216/.258/.332. Rough as his last two seasons were, Ahmed’s non-roster deal with the Giants came with the opportunity to earn a regular role in San Francisco, and the veteran has made the most of that opportunity by slashing an incredible .556/.667/1.222 in his 12 trips to the plate this spring without recording a strikeout across his four appearances.
Luciano, by contrast, has hit a paltry .071/.188/.071 in six games this spring, striking out in 56.3% of his plate appearances without recording an extra-base hit. While numbers during Spring Training must be taken with a grain of salt for a number of reasons and it’s worth noting that Luciano was slowed by a hamstring issue early in camp, it would nonetheless be understandable if the Giants felt that Luciano’s weak results this spring indicated that the 22-year-old needs more development time at the Triple-A level. Luciano made his big league debut with San Francisco last year but struggled at the plate in his cup of coffee, hitting just .231/.333/.308 with a 37.8% strikeout rate in 45 trips to the plate.
More from around the NL West…
It seems as though players remain skeptical of the idea that certain breaking balls are creating an injury problem in the league, with Chris McCosky of The Detroit News noting that several Tigers pitchers seemed to hold reservations regarding the concept. Southpaw Tarik Skubal told McCosky that he believes velocity to have “more of a correlation” with injury than specific pitches, while adding that he doesn’t believe “any one thing” has led to the increase in pitcher injuries in recent years. One of the game’s most promising young lefties, Skubal was limited to just 36 starts across the past two seasons by flexor-tendon surgery. For their part, Rosenthal and Sarris note in their own article that many pitchers in the big leagues view injuries as an “occupational hazard” and are unbothered by the spiking injury rates around the game.
Those hurlers aren’t alone in uncertainty regarding Meister’s assertion, with Rosenthal and Sarris pointing out that while Meister suggests that increased grip strength is being used to improve spin rates at the expense of pitcher health, one pitching coach noted that “research is divided” on the correlation between grip strength and spin rates. Regardless of its cause, there’s no doubt that pitchers have been facing more injuries in recent years. Rosenthal and Sarris note that, per Meister, he operated upon around 230 elbow ligaments in 2023 and that this year is “way ahead” of that same pace. Lucas Giolito, Kodai Senga, and Justin Verlander are among the pitchers who have dealt with elbow and shoulder issues this spring, while the likes of Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Shane McClanahan, Brandon Woodruff and Shohei Ohtani are among the many top pitchers who will be sidelined for at least the first half of the 2024 campaign (if not longer) after undergoing surgery last year.
More injury-related notes from around the league…
The 2024 season gets underway earlier than usual for the Dodgers, who face the Padres in a two-game series in Seoul on March 20-21. The team then has a couple of days off to recover from jet lag before facing the Angels in the final three games of the Spring Training schedule, and then starts the rest of their 160-game slate by hosting the Cardinals on March 28 when the rest of the league also gets into action. Technically, a 15-day IL placement for Sheehan would mean that he’d miss only one start given the unusual nature of the schedule, though it stands to reason that L.A. will give him as much time as he needs to fully recover and get ready for regular trips to the mound.
A sixth-round pick for the Dodgers in the 2021 draft, Sheehan made his MLB debut last season and posted a 4.92 ERA over 60 1/3 innings. Sheehan probably wouldn’t have risen to the Show quite so quickly if the Dodgers hadn’t been so snakebitten by rotation injuries, yet he at least held his own against big league hitters despite some unimpressive hard-contact and walk rates.
Though Sheehan has only 9 2/3 Triple-A innings on his resume, he did enough in his first taste of the majors to put himself into the competition for the fifth spot in the Dodgers’ rotation at the start of camp. This injury will now put that quest on hold, and might ultimately turn Sheehan into more of a Triple-A depth arm depending on how his health progresses, and how many of the regular starters miss time on the IL.
Since Sheehan no longer in the mix, Michael Grove, rookies Gavin Stone and Kyle Hurt, and swingman Ryan Yarbrough are all in the running for starts. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, James Paxton, and Bobby Miller make up the top four in the Los Angeles rotation, and Walker Buehler is also expected to start the season on the IL as he continues his recovery from Tommy John surgery. Clayton Kershaw and Dustin May should also factor into the mix after the midpoint of the season.
]]>While that leaves open the possibility of returning to their previous arrangement at some point, Betts is going to open the season at the infield’s toughest position. The Dodgers entered camp planning to have the former MVP at second base with Lux at shortstop. The latter’s inconsistent throwing accuracy this spring changed the equation, as Roberts acknowledged last night.
There’s no question about Betts’ premium athleticism and overall defensive acumen. Still, this is a notable bet to place on a player with so little infield experience at the MLB level. Betts didn’t play the infield regularly as a major leaguer until last season. The Dodgers gave him 485 innings at second base and 98 frames at shortstop. Betts drew a strong +6 grade from Defensive Runs Saved at the keystone. Statcast, on the other hand, estimated he was one run below par. His sample as a shortstop is too small to draw significant conclusions, although he was charged with three errors there against only two errors at second base.
That Betts immediately played a solid second base after spending most of his 10-year MLB career in right field offers some optimism about his chances of handling the left side of the infield. Yet it’s clearly not what the Dodgers intended coming into camp. Betts had at least had ample second base experience during his time as a prospect in the Red Sox’s system, logging almost 2000 innings there before being pushed to the outfield thanks to the presence of Dustin Pedroia. His minor league shortstop experience consisted of 13 starts between rookie and short-season ball in 2011-12.
The left side infield defense becomes an important storyline for the Dodgers. Betts will be joined on most days by third baseman Max Muncy, a below-average defender who’s in the lineup for his bat. The Dodgers have a few shortstop-capable options off the bench. Miguel Rojas is a plus defender. Enrique Hernández and Chris Taylor can log shortstop action as part of their utility responsibilities. Rojas hasn’t produced much offensively over the past two seasons, though, while neither Hernández nor Taylor is a good fit for everyday shortstop work.
Lux will move back to second base. He has spent the majority of his MLB career there after moving off shortstop as a prospect. That was partially because the Dodgers had Corey Seager and Trea Turner, respectively, through the 2022 season. It was also a reflection of anxiety-related throwing issues that Lux battled when he was a prospect. Public defensive metrics have graded him as an above-average second baseman. His throwing has been less of an issue on the right side of the diamond. He has plus range for the position.
Keeping Lux in the starting lineup at all is a calculated move on the Dodgers’ part to maximize their offense. They could have bumped him to the bench or optioned him to Triple-A once they determined he wasn’t a viable shortstop. That would have allowed them to keep Betts at second and install Rojas back into the lineup. Doing so would have subtracted a promising bat. The lefty-swinging Lux had a solid .276/.346/.399 line over 471 plate appearances in 2022, making him a much better offensive contributor than Rojas is. He missed all of last season after tearing the ACL in his right knee during Spring Training.
Roberts indicated that Betts could occasionally slide back to second base on days when Lux is out of the lineup. That’d most frequently come against left-handed pitching and allow a right-handed hitter like Rojas, Hernández or Taylor to step in at shortstop. They could also time those substitutions to improve the infield defense when they’re starting a ground-ball pitcher like Bobby Miller. L.A. has a few key high-grounder relievers (e.g. Brusdar Graterol, Blake Treinen, Ryan Brasier) who’d also benefit from a better defensive alignment behind them late in games.
]]>His throwing accuracy is concerning enough it could impact his spot in the lineup at the start of the season. “I don’t know,” manager Dave Roberts replied when asked if Lux would be the Opening Day shortstop (link via Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times). “Obviously, performance is paramount at this level for a team vying to win a championship. So I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I do know that it will be in the vein of whatever gives us the best chance to win.”
Throughout the offseason, the L.A. front office maintained that Lux was going to be the regular shortstop. They reportedly considered trade possibilities, particularly Milwaukee’s Willy Adames, but clearly had Lux atop the internal options. That might still be the case, but Roberts’ comments add some urgency for him to sort out his throwing.
This isn’t the first time that he has struggled with seemingly straightforward throws. He battled his accuracy at times in the minors, which he conceded was tied to anxiety. That’s part of the reason the Dodgers moved the one-time top prospect to second base early in his career, although Corey Seager and Trea Turner had blocked his path to shortstop anyhow. Los Angeles was prepared to move Lux back to shortstop last year. A Spring Training ACL tear instead ended his season before it began.
Playing on the right side of the infield suited him well. He was charged with five throwing errors over 819 2/3 second base innings in 2022. That’s a higher than average rate but certainly not untenable. Public defensive metrics have graded him as an above-average second baseman overall thanks to his plus range.
Mookie Betts is moving to the keystone this year. That would bump Lux to shortstop but obviously places extra stress on his arm. Signing Shohei Ohtani means the Dodgers will need Max Muncy to play regularly at third base. Muncy is a below-average defender, putting a little more pressure on the L.A. shortstop to compensate.
That’s part of the reason that Adames, one of the game’s top defensive infielders, was an appealing target. Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic wrote this evening that the Dodgers have continued interest in Adames, but Milwaukee remains reluctant to part with him. The Brewers have Joey Ortiz on hand as a potential shortstop replacement, but they could need to rely on Ortiz at either second or third base throughout the season. Adames is also a strong presence in the Milwaukee clubhouse and a solid offensive contributor as an annual threat for 25-30 homers.
A preseason Adames trade seems unlikely with roughly two weeks until Opening Day. He’d surely come up in deadline talks if Milwaukee falls out of contention, but they’ll make a push to defend their title in a wide-open NL Central.
It’d probably take that kind of significant upgrade for the Dodgers to look outside the organization. They have options to solidify the defense if they’re not sold on Lux handling the position at the moment. Miguel Rojas remains a plus defender. He owns a .236/.286/.322 batting line over the past two seasons, so the Dodgers would prefer to keep him in a depth role, but there’s no question Rojas could more than capably handle the position. He’d be a significant offensive downgrade from Lux, who hit .276/.346/.399 in 2022.
Enrique Hernández and Chris Taylor are utility players who could cover shortstop at times. Betts even started 12 games there a year ago. There’s no indication the Dodgers are considering playing Betts at shortstop full time, but that’s a theoretical possibility that would allow them to keep Lux at second base.
Of course, the ideal outcome is that Lux settles in as he continues to build his defensive workload. It’s fair to expect some amount of rust in all facets for a player coming back from a year-long injury absence. His minor league issues make the recent throws more alarming, but it’s possible he’ll get increasingly comfortable with more reps. The Dodgers start the season early with a two-game set against the Padres in South Korea on March 20-21.
]]>Hudson, who turns 37 on Saturday, signed with the Dodgers going into 2022. He and the club agreed to a one-year, $7MM deal with a club option for 2023. He was excellent for the first few months, posting a 2.22 earned run average over 25 relief appearances. He struck out 30.9% of batters faced, only gave out walks at a 5.2% clip and kept 53.4% of balls in play on the ground.
Unfortunately, he tore the ACL in his left knee in June of that year, prematurely ending his season. The Dodgers had enough faith in him that they agreed to an extension in September of that year, effectively triggering the 2023 option early and adding another option for 2024. But in the winter heading into 2023, he developed ankle tendinitis as well as patellar tendinitis in the knee. He was on the injured list until June and then made just three appearances before suffering a sprained MCL in his right knee, ending his season early yet again.
The club turned down their option on Hudson’s services for 2024 but brought him back via a minors pact, which comes with a $2MM base salary and $2MM worth of incentives. He’s been healthy enough to make four appearances already this spring and it seems the club plans to put him back on the roster at some point. The Dodgers are set to be a third-time payor of the competitive balance tax this year and are well beyond the fourth and final line of the tax. That means they are facing a 110% tax rate on any additional spending so they will effectively be paying $4.2MM to add Hudson’s salary onto their books.
Hudson is an Article XX(B) free agent, which is a player with at least six years of service time who finished the previous season on a major league roster or injured list. Under the current collective bargaining agreement, any such player who signs a minor league deal more than 10 days prior to Opening Day can opt out of that deal at three points if they haven’t been added to the 40-man roster: five days before Opening Day, May 1 and June 1.
Most clubs open this season on March 28 but the Dodgers start early when they play the Padres in the Seoul Series March 20. It’s unclear whether Hudson’s March 15 opt-out is the “five days before Opening Day” opt-out that he is guaranteed or if it was a contractual stipulation and he will have another chance on March 23, five days before the wider Opening Day. Regardless, he will have two other opt-out chances and it seems as though he and the Dodgers have a good relationship anyway. With Roberts’ suggestion that there’s no “hard date,” perhaps Hudson and the club have some kind of understanding whereby he won’t feel compelled to trigger his early opt-out.
Adding Hudson will make the Dodger bullpen a bit crowded to start the year. Closer Evan Phillips is out of options while veterans like Hudson, Joe Kelly, Ryan Brasier, Blake Treinen and Ryan Yarbrough can’t be optioned by virtue of having more than five years of service time. That group would account for six of the eight bullpen slots. Brusdar Graterol has options but would certainly have a spot with the big league club after posting a 1.20 ERA last year while racking up seven saves and 19 holds. Yarbrough is the only southpaw in that group and he’s a long relief guy, so the Dodgers will probably want a spot for Alex Vesia for when they need a situational lefty.
Unless Yarbrough winds up in the rotation or someone goes on the injured list, it’s possible that someone like J.P. Feyereisen gets squeezed out and optioned to the minors. The Dodgers acquired him from the Rays prior to 2023, knowing that he had undergone shoulder surgery and was facing a significant absence. He didn’t pitch at all last year but has a 2.31 ERA in his 89 2/3 innings pitched in his career.
]]>Lipcius, 26 in May, will join a new organization for the first time in his career. He was selected by the Tigers in the third round of the 2019 draft and was added to their 40-man roster in November of 2022. His major league experience thus far consists of 38 plate appearances over 13 games with the Tigers last year, hitting .286/.342/.400 in that time.
During his time in the minors, he has primarily profiled as a hit-over-power utility guy. Over the past three years, he has made 1487 minor league plate appearances at various levels, walking in 13% of them while limiting his strikeouts to a 17.9% clip. He hit 36 home runs in that time and slashed a combined .264/.360/.419 for a wRC+ of 110. He hasn’t played shortstop since 2019 but has continued to play the other three infield positions, as well as getting brief looks in the outfield corners.
The Tigers bumped Lipcius off their 40-man last week when they claimed another utility infielder, Buddy Kennedy. The Dodgers had a roster spot to burn as Kershaw had shoulder surgery in the offseason and isn’t expected back until the second half of the season. They sent a bit of cash to Detroit so that they could jump the waiver claim order and add Lipcius to their roster.
Lipcius still has a couple of options and will likely be serving as a depth piece in the minors to be called upon as needed. The Dodgers have Max Muncy, Gavin Lux, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman set to be their regular infielders, with Miguel Rojas, Chris Taylor and Enrique Hernández on hand as bench options. Lipcius will join Miguel Vargas and Andy Pages as optionable depth pieces on the roster.
]]>As Paxton tells Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times, “I felt like I kind of reached a point where my body was just a little burned out. I didn’t have much left in the tank.” Paxton kept pushing since the Red Sox were still on the fringes of the playoff race, and struggled in particular once he was moved to a regular turn of four days’ rest between starts.
“Early in the season, I had a lot of extra rest, and then we went to a shorter leash. Coming off a surgery and that much time off, I wasn’t conditioned for that,” Paxton said. “If you start off going [every five days] your body gets accustomed to that, whereas if you go six all the time, that’s what your body gets accustomed to. We’re creatures of habit.”
Despite the rough finish to his season, Paxton still landed $7MM from the Dodgers on a one-year free agent contract, even if that $7MM total dropped from an initial $11MM guarantee due to some concerns the team had about his overall health. The 35-year-old lefty is hopeful that getting some innings under his belt last season will better help him manage the length of the 2024 campaign, plus L.A. will deploy “somewhat of a six-man rotation,” according to assistant pitching coach Connor McGuinness. The idea is to keep all of the Dodgers’ hurlers fresh and healthy, plus some other reinforcements in Clayton Kershaw and Dustin May could join the pitching mix after the middle of the season.
Whereas Paxton’s 2023 season was basically divided in two, Max Muncy’s year was a bit more of a roller-coaster before he finished a pretty typical year of production. The infielder hit .212/.333/.475 over 579 plate appearances while matching his career high of 36 home runs, translating to a 118 wRC+. Los Angeles was impressed enough to sign Muncy to a new contract extension, guaranteeing him $24MM through 2025 while also tacking a $10MM club option on his services for 2026.
Muncy’s recipe of homers, walks, low averages, and high strikeouts is pretty set, but as he enters his age-33 season, Muncy feels he has more to offer as a defensive player. He told reporters (including Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register) that his offseason regiment included cutting 15 pounds and focusing more on flexibility training.
“It was just making sure my feet move a little bit more, and getting the knees healthy. Last year, I had a little trouble with just not staying down on the ball,” Muncy said. “I was coming up out of my fielding stance and everything. And when you’re doing that, it’s hard to read the hops and I kept putting myself in bad positions last year with bad hops….So the focus was just making sure that my feet stay moving. Just allowing myself to read the ball and make moves on it.”
There’s basically nowhere to go but up for Muncy defensively, as the public defensive metrics (-7 Outs Above Average, -3 Defensive Runs Saved, -14.8 UZR/150) were unanimously unimpressed with his third base glovework in 2023. The move to more or less a full-time third base role has come as the Dodgers have brought superstar talent into Muncy’s other positions — Shohei Ohtani is now locked in at DH, Freddie Freeman at first base, and Mookie Betts is now moving into everyday second base duty.
“I’ve been very open about how I want to stay here for the rest of my career….So if I want to play here, I need to make sure I’m in the field, and the best way to do that is just put myself in a good spot,” Muncy said.
In other Dodgers news, GM Brandon Gomes told Plunkett and other reporters that catching prospect Diego Cartaya has been dealing with a back problem but the “full expectation” is that Cartaya will be set for the start of the Double-A season. Back problems have bothered Cartaya in the past, and the last thing the catcher needs is an injury setback as he looks to bounce back from a difficult season. A top-20 prospect in the sport heading into the 2023 campaign, Cartaya hit only .189/.278/.379 over 403 PA at Double-A last season, dropping his stock as a potential catcher of the future.
Nick Frasso is another top-100 prospect looking at a lost year, as he was already expected to miss the 2024 season after undergoing shoulder surgery back in November. Gomes added that Frasso also had a “clean-up” surgery on his right hip labrum, though it doesn’t appear as though this second procedure will impact the right-hander’s timeline. If all goes well, Gomes thinks Frasso will be able to pitch in the Arizona Fall League.
]]>The Twins placed right-hander Josh Winder on the 60-day injured list to open a roster spot for Margot, announcing that Winder has a scapular stress fracture. His exact timeline in unclear but he’ll be ineligible to rejoin the club until late May at the earliest.
Minnesota has been on the lookout for a right-handed-hitting outfielder who could cover all three spots for much of the offseason. They’d previously been tied to free agents like Adam Duvall and Enrique Hernandez, and they’d also maintained an interest in re-signing Michael A. Taylor, who belted 21 home runs as a Twin in 2023. However, it seems they’ve found a deal to their liking on the trade front, presumably ending those free agent pursuits.
In Margot, the Twins are acquiring that righty bat they’ve been seeking but are also buying low on a player who’s been hampered by knee troubles dating back to the 2022 season. Margot missed roughly half of the ’22 campaign with a significant strain of the patellar tendon in his right knee. He was limited to just 363 plate appearances and turned in a solid, if unspectacular .274/.325/.375 slash (101 wRC+). He followed that up with a .264/.310/.376 line in 336 plate appearances this past season.
Had Margot enjoyed a season of his typical defensive excellence in ’23, that offensive output would’ve made him an above-average all-around contributor. But in the wake of that knee injury, his once-elite defensive grades slipped closer to average. Statcast noted that Margot’s range and sprint speed both declined in 2023. Defensive Runs Saved pegged him at -3 on the season, while Statcast’s Outs Above Average credited him at +3. Either way, it’s a notable drop for a player who posted 13 DRS and 16 OAA as recently as 2021. The Twins, presumably, are confident that as Margot distances himself from that knee injury, he can rebound in the field — if not back to peak form than at least to a clearly above-average defender at all three spots.
In Minnesota, Margot will provide the Twins with some insurance in the event of another injury to rarely-healthy center fielder Byron Buxton. Beyond that, he’ll give the Twins a righty bat that can spell lefty-swingers Matt Wallner and Max Kepler in the corners. Margot is a career .281/.341/.420 hitter (109 wRC+) against left-handed pitching, so he’ll likely see his fair share of pinch-hitting opportunities for a Twins club that tends to play matchups throughout the game. Margot can also serve as a late-game defensive upgrade in left over Wallner or a late-game pinch runner. Even with a downturn in his sprint speed, he still ranked in the 75th percentile of MLB players last year, per Statcast.
The Twins will also pick up Doncon, a 20-year-old infielder who signed with the Dodgers for just under $500K as an international amateur during the 2021-22 signing period. FanGraphs ranked him 12th among Los Angeles prospects as recently as last season, touting potentially plus raw power and an above-average hit tool as his best tools. The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked him 19th among L.A. farmhands just last week.
Doncon has played shortstop, second base and third base in the Dodgers’ system and climbed as high as A-ball during 2023 — his age-19 season. He spent the entire year at that level and posted underwhelming numbers (.216/.283/.368) — but did so against much older competition. Scouting reports suggest he’ll have to move to either third base, second base or the outfield as he fills out his projectable 6’2″, 176-pound frame. Doncon possesses significant power potential but questions about his pitch recognition and eventual defensive home. He’s a couple years off from being a potential big league factor, but at this point he’s a more highly regarded prospect than Miller.
Doncon’s inclusion in the deal aligns with the Twins’ general M.O. in deals of this nature; Minnesota tends to push trade partners to include prospects of varying quality even when they’re the team acquiring the established player (e.g. Jose Salas in the Pablo Lopez trade, Gabriel Gonzalez in the Jorge Polanco deal, Ronny Henriquez in the Isiah Kiner-Falefa swap, Brayan Medina in the Chris Paddack trade, Francis Peguero in the Sonny Gray trade, etc.).
As for the Dodgers’ end of things, they’ll add a former supplemental first-rounder in the deal. Miller, 21, was the No. 36 overall pick by the Twins in 2021 but hasn’t lived up to that billing at the plate thus far. He’s regarded as a solid defender at shortstop but has posted only a .220/.326/.318 batting line in the minor leagues, including a .223/.309/.340 slash in High-A last year. Miller gives the Dodgers a glove-first shortstop option who can begin the 2024 season either with a second run at High-A or in Double-A. Even if his bat never comes around, there’s utility upside for Miller within the next few years based on the quality of his defense.
Like Doncon, it should be noted Miller’s pedestrian production in 2023 came against much older and more advanced competition. Both players were more than two years younger than the average player at their respective minor league levels. Neither needs to be protected from the Rule 5 Draft until after the 2025 season.
As with the Twins getting Doncon included in this deal, the Dodgers’ acquisition of Miller fits a recent pattern. Los Angeles has bought low on recent high-profile draftees that needn’t be added to their 40-man roster this winter while performing maintenance to make room for new acquisitions. In addition to Miller, the Dodgers picked up former Yankees first-rounder Trey Sweeney in their Victor Gonzalez swap and former Cubs second-rounder Jackson Ferris in trading away Michael Busch.
Perhaps most importantly for the Dodgers, the trade of Margot frees up a roster space. In that sense, this trade has largely facilitated the team’s re-signing of utilityman Enrique Hernandez to a one-year contract. The Twins had been in the mix to sign Hernandez and were reportedly one of four finalists. Instead they’ll go with a hitter who’s been more productive over the past few seasons and can capably fill the same role in the outfield, but lacks the infield versatility. Taking on $4MM of Margot’s deal makes the transactions cash-neutral for the Dodgers, who subsequently guaranteed Hernandez the same amount in free agency.
Juan Toribio of MLB.com first reported that Margot had been traded to Minnesota. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported that Miller was going back to Los Angeles. Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extra Base reported Doncon’s inclusion in the deal. Jeff Passan of ESPN added that the Dodgers were sending cash to the Twins as well. Aaron Gleeman of the Athletic first reported the Twins were taking on $4MM.
]]>As news started to leak out about about Margot being traded to Minnesota, speculation turned to Hernández almost immediately. There was reporting over the weekend that the Giants, Angels, Twins and Padres were interested in him but he will instead head back to the club that he’s played for throughout most of his career.
Now 32, Hernández spent 2015 to 2020 with the Dodgers, largely deployed as a serviceable multi-positional guy. He hit .240/.312/.425 over those six years, production that led to a wRC+ of 98. Though that offense was slightly below average, he still helped the club by being able to slot in all over the place. He played all four infield positions and all three outfield spots during that time, and even made an appearance on the mound.
Going into 2021, he reached free agency and signed with the Red Sox on a two-year, $14MM deal. He was excellent in the first year of that pact, hitting 2o home runs and slashing .250/.337/.449 for a wRC+ of 109. He spent most of his time in center field, getting strong grades there, while also lining up at the middle infield spots.
In 2022, his offense took a step back. He went on the injured list due to a right hip flexor strain and missed over two months. Nonetheless, the Sox still had faith in a bounceback. In September of that year, they gave him a $10MM salary to stick around for 2023. He finished 2022 with a line of .222/.291/.338 for a wRC+ of 74.
With Trevor Story set to miss significant time in 2023 recovering from elbow surgery, the Sox tried to make Hernández their everyday shortstop, though the experiment didn’t work out. The defensive metrics didn’t like his work there, as he was saddled with a grade of -6 from Defensive Runs Saved and -12 Outs Above Average. He also hit just .222/.279/.320 before getting flipped back to the Dodgers at the deadline. Returning to his old stomping grounds seemed to suit him, as he hit .262/.308/.423 while bouncing all over the diamond for the Dodgers.
The Dodgers may never have been fully committed to Margot, as they took him on as part of the Tyler Glasnow trade. The Rays were looking to move some payroll in the Glasnow deal but also saved some more by including Margot, who is owed $12MM this year in the form of a $10MM salary and then a $2MM buyout on a club option for 2025.
The Dodgers are set to have a regular outfield of James Outman, Teoscar Hernández and Jason Heyward this year. Margot and his right-handed bat could have platooned with Heyward, who had a bounceback year in 2023 while being mostly shielded from southpaws, but the Dodgers also have other options for that role. Right-hander Chris Taylor is also on the roster and now Hernández will join him, giving the club two guys who could platoon with Heyward while also adding some infield depth as well. Hernández has hit .257/.343/.458 in his career against lefties for a 115 wRC+, compared to .228/.290/.377 and a wRC+ of 80 versus righties.
The Dodgers are going to have a middle infield combo of Gavin Lux at shortstop and Mookie Betts at second base. The former missed all of 2023 after tearing his ACL and damaging the LCL in his right knee, while Betts only recently moved to the infield after spending most of his career in right field. Miguel Rojas is on the roster as a glove-first depth option and Taylor is in the mix there as well, but Hernández can help out while also taking Margot’s role as the fourth outfielder.
The Dodgers are over the fourth and final line of the competitive balance tax and are a third-time payor. That means any money added to the payroll now comes with a 110% tax rate. However, they will end up being cash neutral today as they are saving $4MM in the Margot deal and giving $4MM to Hernández.
Fabian Ardaya and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported that the two sides were nearing a deal. Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported that it would be a one-year pact. Hernández himself first relayed that the deal was done. Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times. had the $4MM salary.
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