Brandon Morrow has been a dominant force out of the Dodgers’ bullpen in both the regular season and postseason, though his injury history adds intrigue to his free agent case this winter, the New York Post’s Joel Sherman writes. In a nod to Morrow’s arm health, the Dodgers were careful with the right-hander’s workload throughout the season, but the veteran has now become a workhorse in the playoffs, appearing in 11 of the team’s 12 postseason games. Sherman thinks Ryan Madson’s three-year, $22MM deal from the 2015-16 offseason is a decent comparable to what Morrow could land in free agency; Madson missed all of 2012-14 before returning to post strong numbers for the 2015 Royals, paving the way for a nice free agent payday.
Here’s more from around the NL West…
- Rockies GM Jeff Bridich has said that he’ll in touch with Greg Holland’s representatives about a return in 2018, though Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post breaks down the Rockies’ options at closer next season with or without Holland in the mix. Antonio Senzatela, German Marquez or Carlos Estevez could be internal options to take the ninth-inning job, or the Rockies could acquire another closer via trade or free agent signing. Re-signing Holland is also an option, though that carries the usual risks in committing big money and dollars to a veteran reliever, particularly one with Holland’s injury history.
- In another piece from Saunders, he opines that bench depth will be a need for the Rockies in the offseason. Pat Valaika brought some nice pop and versatility last year, though youngsters Ryan McMahon and Mike Tauchman don’t have much experience. Saunders doesn’t think the Rockies will exercise their $2.5MM club option on Alexi Amarista, given the utilityman’s poor hitting and overall fielding numbers in 2017. One internal bench option could be David Dahl, if the former top prospect is healthy after missing virtually all of last season due to a rib injury.
- The Giants are looking to fill their remaining coaching vacancies with experienced MLB coaches, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle writes, so minor league promotions don’t appear to be in the cards for the club. A recent shake-up of the coaching staff left the Giants looking for a new pitching coach, hitting coach, and assistant hitting coach. Jim Hickey and Chili Davis were two veteran names considered for the pitching and hitting coach jobs before both men joined the Cubs’ staff.
David Dahl as a bench option…he was considered like the second coming by mlbtr a year ago.
then he got destroyed by injuries
He was destroyed by injuries before last year. The guy lost his spleen due to an on field injury in 2015.
Cubs beat then to Hickey and Davis. Now the Giants are scrambling!
I hardly consider that a reason to ‘scramble’. Coaches are obviously not that high a priority nowadays or the Cubs would have jettisoned Maddon after he tried to lose the WS for them last year.
Bobby Evans is secretly a Dodger fan.
Rockies should make like they did this year and go heavy on great relief pitchers.
They do that every year. The difference is that this year it finally worked. Regardless, they are going to have to go heavy on the bullpen because their top 3 guys are all FAs now.
I’m not sure why the Rockies would move one of their promising young starters into the closer role
Because there are only 5 starting spots and they have like 6-7 guys ready to take spots.
Really how come teams give up on players so soon David Dahl should still be considered an important part of the future if not pretty sure he will flourish for someone else for years to come
Morrow absolutely deserves a nice contract wether it’s the Dodgers or another team and I hope it’s the Dodgers that bring him back and pay the man because he deserves it.
Well his stock just went way down.
Had no business being on the mound. The man was gassed
Funny how hindsight is still 20-20. The reality is pretty much nothing the Dodgers have done with their excellent bullpen has worked in this series and every desperate measure the Astros have tried with their trash bullpen has come up roses. When you’ve got that one figured out let me know.
Agree. Love Roberts and happy he is the manager. However, he over managed his pen in Game Two, has worked Morrow practically to death in the postseason, has three legitimate closers and under utilizes two of them, and leaves Kershaw and Jansen in way too long. I think that about covers it. My work is done here.
12-12 game and the roses have wilted.
Your Nobel Baseball Prize is ready at the pick up window
Leaves Kershaw in too long? He pulled Kershaw after 4 2/3 inning. Next guy lets up 3 run bomb. Too long huh?
I guess your work here is not done
4 2/3 innings with 4 ER allowed and 2 runners on. This was just a blip on the radar, he would’ve been pulled regardless of who the manager or pitcher was
I wouldn’t say the stros bullpen has come up roses. Every win is a miracle and Giles has like 3 blown saves so far this postseason.
Roberts strategy, along with starters who can barely go 5, has gassed the bullpen. That and you can tell who he doesn’t have much confidence in by the way they’re used. Basically Maeda, Morrow, Jansen with a bit of Tony Watson. The others become desperation moves.
Ya know I am right.
4 2/3 innings with six runs allowed.
That’s because the Dodgers have made a bunch of bad bullpen decisions while the Astros have made a bunch of good ones. (Other than using Giles).
The fact that Houston bullpen was put to the test against ny and now smell a
La was never tested or rarely used. Houston has exposed that over priced rotation and bullpen with the quickness
Apparently you haven’t been paying attention to the postseason until now. The Dodgers were using the pen in the NLDS and NLCS in exactly the same way and went 7-1 in those games. It was a sequence that worked like a machine at the end of the regular season too. Having everything that had worked so well for months go suddenly and completely wrong defies explanation.
Morrow called the dugout and asked to pitch. Hard to say no as a manager.
Really? Why? That’s why we have a manager.
Morrow was slated to sit, but once the pen began dwindling, he called the dugout and said he could pitch. Today he regrets doing that, of course, but he wouldn’t have pitched if he hadn’t told them he was available.
Why cause he got rocked on his 3rd consecutive day for the first time ever pitching 3 days in a row? I got news for you. His stock is the same as it was
By the way. Game Five just ended. Jansen gave up the winning run in bottom of the 10th, after working two innings again. Squandered Watson and Cingrani, again. Rest my case.
Where do you plan to rest it? If Watson or Cingrani had given up those runs you’d have said they were overworked.
Nope.
I think I had a stroke during that game
The huge mistake by Roberts was taking Rich Hill out to early in game 2. Everything has cascaded in the bullpen since then
Absolutely agree. Roberts entire post season strategy was to get to the bullpen early. Rich Hill needs to dial up a 6 or 7 inning shutout in Gm 6 and hope for the best after that.
Agreed. But (just to play devil’s advocate) in Robert’s defense, the dodgers bullpen went into the postseason as one of the best in the MLB, so not a bad strategy to turn to them early, especially considering Hill’s laughable history of blisters
FWIW, no blister issues this year for Hill. Roberts had every reason to believe that the sequence that worked nearly perfectly through so many games should continue to work and no fan who is being honest can claim to know better.
Roberts said in an interview today that if he had Game Two to do over, he would do exactly the same thing. I understand he does not want to say he blew it (see Girardi, Joe). A little disconcerting. Shows a lack of growth.
Jansen, Maeda and Morrow have thrown 478 innings. The other five relievers have thrown 223. The pen is exhausted, at least the three main players. Let’s get a little creative or, if that is beyond Roberts, get some help.
Lol
Check last nights box score.
It’s a work of art really.
Hopefully Dahl is more than just a bench option. If he is able to completely heal up, and get back to where he was. He should replace Cargo and/or Parra in a corner outfield position. If Dahl is relegated to a bench role that would be very unfortunate.
Seeing as Carlos Gonzalez’s days in Colorado are likely over, I bet Dahl will take over in RF.
Would be very surprised if Morrow gets 3 guaranteed years. Way too much injury history to overlook just because he finally had a healthy year.
That Dodger bullpen has been used too much. Plus they are facing an excellent hitting and determined ball club. Kershaw should have been left in to finish the 5th inning. I like manager Roberts but question his ability to handle a pitching staff. The blue boys will get hammered again tomorrow, and that includes Jansen.
Great prediction.
Not great but good enough. Congrats go out to the Dodgers and their fans for a fine season, and an exciting series. I’m very glad for Houston as they finally achieved a championship after 56 years. The other time they got to the World Series in 2005 they were swept by my White Sox in 2005. And next season will show huge improvement for the Sox.
Dodgers need Morrow. Give him 3 years 25 mil with the 3rd year being team option.