Right-hander David Aardsma has a May 1 opt-out on his Minor League pact with the Dodgers, Jacob Unruh of NewsOK.com reported yesterday. Aardsma can opt out on Friday if another club wants him on its Major League roster, and he has a complete opt-out from the Dodgers on June 15, per Unruh. The 33-year-old veteran didn’t make the club’s bullpen out of Spring Training despite strong numbers, but he’s continued to pitch effectively, yielding one run on five hits with six strikeouts and no walks in seven Triple-A innings. Aardsma hasn’t logged significant big league action since 2013, but he pitched quite well for the Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliate last year (1.48 ERA, 38-to-18 K/BB ratio in 37 innings) before a groin injury sidelined him for the season’s second half. The Dodgers’ bullpen has been surprisingly dominant despite incurring significant injuries, and with Kenley Jansen nearing a return, things will get even more crowded, further blocking Aardsma’s path to L.A. It wouldn’t be a shock for one of the many teams around the league in need of ’pen help to look at the former Mariners closer as a potential upgrade.
Here’s more on the Dodgers…
- The Dodgers were involved in trade talks regarding Josh Hamilton before he was moved to the Rangers, reports Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. However, the Dodgers were more interested in acting as a third party with the Angels and Rangers, contributing cash to the deal as a means of acquiring prospects to add to their farm system. The Dodgers also discussed a straight up deal to acquire Hamilton, according to Heyman, but even in that scenario they’d likely have just flipped Hamilton to the Rangers in the long run, as they weren’t interested in adding to their outfield glut. This marks another effort by the Dodgers’ new front office to use the team’s financial muscle to bolster the farm system in a unique way. The Dodgers already essentially bought a draft pick by agreeing to take on Ryan Webb’s $2.75MM salary from the Orioles in order to convince Baltimore to part with a Competitive Balance draft selection.
- Left-hander Hyun-jin Ryu is at least a month away from rejoining the Dodgers’ roster, Jon Morosi of FOX Sports tweeted yesterday. The loss of Ryu for nearly two months and of Brandon McCarthy for the entire season has thinned out the Dodger rotation considerably, though president of baseball ops Andrew Friedman recently stated that he was likely to utilize internal options until at least June as he assessed what the team had in-house.
Well why not give lee his shot. I want to see what lee got.he doing pretty well to start the season.
Zach Lee may be getting his shot. The Dodgers have said they were hesitant to just bring him up as a spot starter as they want him to not have his development schedule interrupted. They have Baker, Bolsinger, Wieland and Frias available for spot starts. However with a regular spot in the major league rotation now open, Lee should be given a chance now to see if he still has a future. The only catch I see is that he was seen by past ownership/management as a top future prospect and perhaps overrated and the new management may be looking at him more critically
They could also have Beachy available by midseason.
With all the Injuries you can tell how well the Dodgers have done in putting together good depth. In Years past Dodgers would be hurting , but not now
What exactly is the goal of the Dodgers? What is their business model?
I know it’s now what Ben Franklin said many moons ago: A penny saved is a penny earned.
Wanton spending is their game, but to what end?
End game = winning.
The misconception to some, is that spending or transacting in volume, equates to unrestrained or reckless.
They have and will continue to spend money to collect talent at the Major League, and Minor League level. They have, and will continue to make a large volume of waivers claims and designations to build depth that was sorely overlooked for years.
I’m sure they have a strong business model somewhere, they are a collection of guys in charge of a multi-billion dollar operation. They probably can quantify a winning product as a financially viable product – that’s for them to know.
As long as they are doing what they can to create a winning team, that’s all I particularly care for. There are owners out there who can do more to create a winning team, but have different plans for that money, and fair enough..it is a business.
It probably wasn’t Ben Franklin, but someone did say “Gotta spend money, to make money”.
Well, I hope they win a World Series in the next two or three years for everyone’s sake.
It probably wasn’t Ben Franklin, but someone did say “Gotta spend money, to make money”. Very true! =P
As a Dodgers fan, a championship sometime very soon would be sensational. Haven’t won one in my lifetime..
The last championship was in my lifetime, but it just doesn’t seem that way anymore.
Far too long between drinks.
The new regime is not spending wantonly on free agents or trades anymore. They are investing heavily in building an organization with lots of quality young depth. You do that by international signings, draft picks, trading unnecessary veterans for prospects, etc. The plan going forward is to keep investing heavily in the farm system and supplement it with a generous MLB payroll, I would say about $150-200 million
JD probably hung up laughing at the Dodgers for suggesting they broker the Hamilton trade in exchange for prospects. “Oh, wait, you’re being serious!?”
Presumably the Angels’.
The Dodgers were essentially trying to buy prospects in exchange for absorbing some of Hamilton money. Obviously, neither the Angels nor the Rangers are fiscally conservative enough to give up their valuable prospects.
Yeah because the Texas FO hates money and would never entertain the Idea of selling a minor leaguer. That’s why they gave so much $ away to Andrus, Choo and Prince.
Just call up Urias already. King Felix age 18 in AA and Kershaw 19 & 20 in AA weren’t as impressive as Urias so far. He’s going 6 innings now and should skip the PCL anyway. Jose Fernandez skipped AA and AAA, more and more teams recognize the value in a phenom at the MLB level.
For one month until Ryu is back, we should be able to manage. The off season will bring massively interesting questions. Should we keep Greinke? (YES!) Should we go after Price? (NO!) Should we go after Cueto? (YES!)