As expected, the Dodgers have placed infielder David Freese on the 10-day IL with a left hamstring strain, as reported by Ken Gurnick of MLB.com. Catcher Will Smith has been recalled to take Freese’s spot on the active roster.
Freese, 36, has emerged as a key part of the Dodgers’ offense, posting a career-best .308/.407/.592 slash line. The veteran infielder earned himself a one-year contract to return to Los Angeles after an impressive showing late last season, when he was acquired from the Pirates in August. This season, he has doubled down on that production and shown himself a steady contributor at the corner infield.
Though Freese made a name for himself as a third baseman, he has suited up primarily at first for the first-place Dodgers, often spelling Max Muncy against left-handed pitchers. Surely, Freese will be missed, but Muncy has shown himself more than capable of handling southpaws when called upon, and the versatile Dodgers have a number of options who can pick up slack in Freese’s absence: Cody Bellinger, Enrique Hernandez, and Matt Beaty have experience at first, and the Dodgers would like Joc Pederson to get more reps there.
Smith rejoins the Dodgers after getting his first taste of the Majors in May. Smith, regarded as an above-average offensive performer at the catcher position, flashed that potential in his first big-league stint, but hasn’t gotten enough experience to draw many conclusions. His numbers in Triple-A this season are impressive, slashing a tidy .291/.397/.609 in 49 games.
How can Friedman build such a deep and talented everyday roster and keep whiffing on the pen?
Joe Kelly and Chris Hatcher are his only whiffs in 4/5 years. Of course they had the Chapman trade completed before he pistol whipped his baby mama
Chargrois, Yimi Garcia, Scott Alexander, not exacting stable. If they don’t fix their pen with a trade, they will not win WS playing against the likes of Astros, Yanks, etc.
And Jansen isn’t the pitcher he once was, not by a long shot, and not someone you’d want to see to close on successive days in close postseason games. But I guess to some Goedell, Rosscup, Axford, Madson, Romo, Fein, just to name a few of the total zonks we had to endure, weren’t misses. Yup, this team could be the prohibitive favorites this year if Friedman would simply fix the pen. A couple of arms could do it.
Yeah, Jansen seems to be declining and he refuses to acknowledge it. Do you remember (I think it was last year) when one of the reporters in the locker room was talking to Jansen about his low velocity and asking if there’s anything wrong mechanically and Jansen just said “who cares” the reporter was like the fans care and Jansen just replied to three or four questions in a row with “who cares”. That pissed me off…
It isn’t Jansen’s job to acknowledge his current abilities, and to do what needs to be done, that’s the job of coaching staff and the FO. Especially the latter. I never expected the Dodgers to be in on Kimbrel but only because that’s the way they roll and not because they shouldn’t have been if job one is winning.
That’s the problem, it doesn’t have to be his job, if you’re a competitor you should always strive to be the best you can be.
Romo, Font, Ravin, Hudson, Stewart, Madson, Paredes and Axford to name a few.
Those were all minor league or short deals. Small to no risk at all
Interesting how our lists of ineffective Dodgers relievers from the past few years they went out to get or kept on the roster way past their freshness dates hardly overlapped. And it ain’t about “risk” it’s about winning baseball games.
Every year there’s a big problem player in the bullpen.
Brian Wilson, Brandon League, Chris Hatcher, Jim Johnson, Casey Fien, Dennis Santana to name a few
Fred, the risk is that those are the arms Roberts has at his disposal, and they were terrible. The risk is continuously having losing games because pitchers who have no business on a championship team are taking up roster spots. To say that there is no risk at all is short-sighted at best.
Friedman is on record saying he doesn’t think the bullpen is worth a significant investment, and the team suffers for it. Friedman likes to sign questionable and injury-prone pitchers instead. Apparently, he thinks that is a shrewd business strategy. The Joe Kelly signing was obviously stupid before it was even signed. The Dodgers actually had a solid bullpen when they faced the Astros in the WS and they should have won that series. Unfortunately, Roberts completely mismanaged the pen, beginning with unnecessarily brining Jansen in too early in game 2, and the pen never recovered. That was on Roberts, but Friedman’s refusal to acknowledge the importance of the bullpen has been keeping the Dodgers from getting over that final hump.
That’s because bullpen pieces are so volatile. I was listening today on MLB radio about the state of the “relief corps” in baseball in general. They were listing the many different relievers who were outstanding last year, but have fallen off this year and vice-versa. It is basically a crap shoot in most instances.
Using FIP as the measuring stick, the Dodgers bullpen from the 2015 season through today are third in baseball, behind only the Astros and Yankees. Over the last four complete seasons, they’ve been 5th, 4th, 5th, and 8th. I’m sure that everyone wants their team to have a stronger ‘pen, but by objective measurement, the Dodgers have done well.
FIP is a naive statistic. Imagine evaluating a hitter by only the three true outcomes.
Fans on comment boards are naive about what makes a good-to-great baseball team.
Also, fans on comment boards tend to not be playing the game in any shape or form, and therefore, have very little firsthand knowledge of “what it takes to win.”
Good, good times.
Yeah I have been playing ‘ball’ the last 15 years. I try yet fail to grasp how my playing Senior baseball gives me a leg up? Having fun though! 70 yrs and still playing! Dang!
Marijuasher, you just posted a completely useless comment. Stick to smoking pot and leave the thinking to others.
How do you evaluate hitters: looks in a uniform, emotional intelligence, good family man? It is all about outcomes.
Whether the bullpen is better than it looks is an interesting debate but the problem with going back several years and combining the stats for the Dodgers bullpen is that it relied very heavily in past years on an unworldly Jansen and one good setup man. Jansen is far from unworldly now, and the setups are all questionable. They look okay at least in several categories: BAA (2), WHIP (3), K/BB (5), OPS (6), and not at all good in others: ERA (11) and K/9 (24). They’ve also blown a third of their save opportunities. That last one is a big tell we know isn’t going to play well in the postseason. Without Jansen as the tower of strength they’ll need another plan for the late innings.
Look at the results. And you cannot measure things like how a bad pen limits your decision making.
I absolutely love Kike, he’s one of my favorite players, but the dude needs to get sent down as soon as Freese comes back. Some time in the minors might do him some good. Plus it’s going to be tough finding playing time with Beaty playing as well as he is and doing it in the OF. Muncy/Taylor/Seager can take care of the middle IF.
Smith with the Walk-Off
Cant imagine him getting sent down again
He already has more HR and RBI than Russell Martin has for the entire season so far.
I was at that game today.
Martin looked pretty bad for the small amount of time he played. Smith can’t do much worse then Barnes and Martin.
Martin’s production so far this year has been better than most people expected. He wasn’t brought in for offense anyway, but as a veteran hand with the pitching staff. When Martin makes mistakes defensively, as he did today, it’s often on account of trying to do too much. The throw had Murphy beat by five steps. But I guess that mistake gave Smith his chance at being a hero.
I was at that game today.
Martin looked pretty bad for the small amount of time he played. Smith can’t do much worse then Barnes and Martin.
I’m still scratching myself over that Martin deal, especially with Smith in AAA. So much $$$ thrown away.
Dodgers got Russell Martin in trade from Toronto ! They did not sign him to contract ! So don’t know what money they threw away cmanson!
That third paragraph features an excruciatingly long sentence.