The Dodgers have designated lefty Eric Surkamp for assignment, the club announced (via J.P. Hoornstra of the Los Angeles News Group, on Twitter).
Los Angeles needed his 40-man spot as part of a series of moves, as the team continues to turn over its bullpen. Yimi Garcia and Ian Thomas will head to Triple-A on optional assignment, while relievers Chin-hui Tsao and Josh Ravin will ascend to the big league roster.
Surkamp, 27, appeared in just one game with the Dodgers this year, allowing four earned runs in 3 1/3 innings. He struck out four and walked one, but permitted two long balls.
Over parts of four big league seasons, Surkamp has only thrown 57 total frames at the MLB level. All said, he owns a 6.47 ERA with 5.8 K/9 against 4.9 BB/9. He has mostly worked from the pen in the majors, though he’s spent most of his minor league time as a starter.
It’s interesting to note the return of Tsao. The 34-year-old native of Taiwan last appeared in the bigs in 2007. In the interim, he found himself banned from his home country’s top league amid game-fixing allegations, as Joseph Yeh of the China Post details. Tsao has managed only a 4.40 ERA over 30 2/3 frames at Triple-A this year, but is carrying an impressive strikeout-to-walk ratio of 11.4 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9.
The experiment continues in LA. Strangely enough Garcia started the game in which Surkamp pitched those three middle innings. What the Dodgers think they will accomplish by sending Garcia down in favor of Tsao is anybody’s guess.
Pretty sure it’s because the AS break is coming and also for him to work out some of his issues with control. He’s been having issues with control of the fastball and he isn’t able to keep the location of his pitches down like he did the first month of the season. He’s giving up way too many HR’s and needs to work on that.