The Dodgers have activated right-hander Tony Gonsolin from the 60-day injured list, per a club announcement. He’s in line to start tonight’s game against the Pirates after sitting out the entire year to date due shoulder inflammation. In a pair of corresponding moves, Los Angeles placed Yoshi Tsutsugo on the 10-day injured list due to a strained right calf and transferred lefty Scott Alexander from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL. Alexander is on the injured list due to his own bout of shoulder inflammation.
Gonsolin, 27, is one of the game’s most overqualified fifth/sixth starters. He trails Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, Trevor Bauer and Julio Urias on the team’s depth chart and may not have cracked the Opening Day rotation, had he been healthy, due to the presence of Dustin May (who has since undergone Tommy John surgery). On nearly any other club in Major League Baseball, Gonsolin would have had a more straightforward opportunity to establish himself as a rotation fixture — an opportunity he may now get in Los Angeles.
From 2019-20, Gonsolin tallied 86 2/3 innings for the Dodgers, pitching to a 2.60 ERA with a 24.5 percent strikeout rate, a 6.5 percent walk rate and a 37.7 percent ground-ball rate. He’s not an overpowering arm, sitting 94.4 mph with his heater, but he’s generated a strong 13 percent swinging-strike rate and induced chases on pitches off the plate at a 33.1 percent clip in his short MLB career to date. Only 14 of his 20 MLB appearances so far have been starts, but he’s been more effective out of the rotation than the bullpen in that short sample.
That level of depth is a clear luxury for the Dodgers, but with May out for the rest of the year — and for a portion of 2022 as well — Gonsolin may get the chance to take the ball every fifth day, assuming his own health holds up. He’s given every indication to this point that he’s more than capable of holding down a permanent rotation job at the MLB level.
Turning to today’s other moves, Tsutsugo will head to the shelf after struggling through his first 31 plate appearances since coming over in a small trade with the Rays. He’s out to a 3-for-25 start (all singles) with six walks and a dozen strikeouts in that time. The hope was likely that he could fill a similar role to Edwin Rios, who’s been lost for the season due to shoulder surgery, but to this point it hasn’t worked out.
Alexander, meanwhile, went on the injured list in early May and will now be out through at least early July as a result. (The 60-day term is retroactive to his original IL placement — not from today forth.) He’s been a solid but up-and-down member of the team’s bullpen since being acquired from the Royals four years ago, pitching to a 3.44 ERA in 107 1/3 innings dating back to 2018. He opened the 2021 season with 11 2/3 frames of 2.31 ERA ball, a 5-to-1 K/BB ratio and a whopping 63.2 percent ground-ball rate — a mark that is actually a fair bit shy of his career 70.4 percent rate.
Dodgers have an embarrassment of riches.
Assuming they make the playoffs, Gonsolin or Urias to the post-season bullpen if everyone else stays healthy.
the first five words you wrote were unnessicary, but agreed overall (:
I believe in jinxes. I never bought a t-shirt with a player’s picture on it until the Alex Verdugo “Don’t Let the Kid Get Hot” one two years ago, and look what happened. Not that I’m complaining about the trade 🙂
still confused how I got so trashed for liking that trade for BOS.
I liked the trade for Boston, too. Considering the hand he was dealt, Bloom did well.. If Downs pans out, he made out fantastic with all those years of team control. Two starting players, maybe even all-stars. Good trade of both sides. Gotta give to get. Remember how the Dodgers refused to include Verdugo in the Machado trade? And that was before Verdugo had any big-league success.
I’m still confused on how Jeter Downs was made to be involved in part duex of the trade
That was some beyond sketchy activity
Big Verdugo fan as well, he will be an All Star someday very soon …….
I thought Bos was doing well just to get him alone while making us pick up 32 mill on Price for just 1 yr of a player!? Nobody was going to offer even close to that much player wise or a willingness to pay Price that much. Shay-Dee
Dodgers might not make it past the wild card game so, necessary words TBH.
Why is it shady? Boston needed a legit prospect to go along with Verdugo. Downs is a good prospect but they were, and still are, deep in middle-infield talent in the minors. Unless you mean it was shady in that the Dodgers already had a long-term agreement with Betts.
You don’t remember the days long Mookie trade saga Cey?
Boston media pretty much got them Downs, not Bloom…….but to be fair, Bloom had already struck a pretty good deal beforehand !
Nonetheless; Everyone’s still happy today No doubt, but Downs should be in Albuquerque right now not Boston
Amazing to think the Dodgers got Downs and Gray in what is now known as Cincinnati’s trade to get Kyle Farmer, who has actually seen time at shortstop. Think the Reds regret that one?
Amazing to think Cincy still picks up the call when they see the (213) area code tp begin with
Urias would start a lot of playoff teams 2nd or 3rd game
Yeah and I am not convinced that Urias goes into the pen in the playoffs. Maybe in the short series, but in a long series he probably gets start #4.
Charlie Blackmon, is that you?
Catman is going to be a low key major cog moving forward, I hope he’s up for the challenge (health wise mostly)
Kershaw and Buehler will be backed off inns here 2nd half-
Urias is going to be MAJORLY backed off inns here soon
I don’t think Price and Nelson will give the length we had hoped a couple months ago
Would Love to see Bobby Miller get 4~5 Sept starts, everything will have to break right but it would be super exciting if it does. happen. Minors pushing back the season a month helps the chances this year
Knebel and Graterol are possible wildcards. At this point, I would be more enthused about a healthy Knebel. It’s possible Boston wasn’t wrong about the red flags they saw in Graterol’s medicals, and am not sold on him as a pitcher.
I’m thinking Price and especially Nelson will be okay as relievers who can occasionally go beyond one inning I would be fine with a reunion with Yimi Garcia, who I’ve always liked. He gave up an unusually high number of HR in 2019, but I give him a pass since it was a flukey HR season and his other numbers were outstanding. I was sad to see him go.
The fallout from the sticky stuff allegations remains to be seen. Bauer is an idiot. It wasn’t good enough to devise an edge. He then had to brag about it so everyone could see how smart he is.
Maybe Miller and Busch (the beer brothers) as the two added in September? I would understand people wanting to see Ruiz but am intrigued by Busch’s bat in light of Seager’s and Taylor’s contract status.
Id like to see Busch as well but barring health I don’t see a spot in the lineup this year- Think it will be too close in the standings to be getting curiosity abs for position players.
I am interested in seeing if Albert survives till the end of Sept, I hope he does at minimum. Wouldn’t mind seeing a pseudo DL trip for Mookie conveniently 10 days ahead of the AS break to help, its about to get crunched for position players as is
Who takes the cut when Seagers back- Mckinsrty Beaty or Albert
Always amazed how strained calfs are related to poor performance and become acute when a roster slot is needed.
The cat is back!
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