The Dodgers acquired left-handed reliever Andrew Vasquez from the Twins last night in exchange for minor league catcher Stevie Berman, the Twins announced. The trade came in just narrowly in time for Vasquez to be an Aug. 31 addition, meaning he can technically be eligible for postseason play, should the Dodgers need to tap that far into their depth.
Vasquez, 28 later this month, was eligible to be traded by virtue of the fact that he hasn’t been on the Twins’ active or 40-man roster all season. He does have five innings of big league experience, all coming back in 2018-19 with Minnesota, during which time he’s yielded six earned runs on five hits, four walks and four hit batters with seven strikeouts.
It’s not a great sample of MLB work, obviously, but Vasquez has had a nice year with the Twins’ Triple-A affiliate in St. Paul. He’s appeared in 33 games and tallied 42 1/3 innings of relief, working to a 3.61 ERA along the way. Command is still an issue for Vasquez, as evidenced by an elevated 12.1 percent walk rate and a whopping 13 hit batsmen. However, he’s also whiffed 37.4 percent of his opponents and posted an enormous 61.8 percent ground-ball rate. Lefties have posted a comically poor .074/.242/.130 batting line against him, while righties have slashed .207/.369/.427.
The 26-year-old Berman gives the Twins some more organizational depth behind the plate. He’s batted just .165/.309/.235 in 140 Double-A plate appearances this season and gone 1-for-9 following a recent promotion to Triple-A. Berman did post a combined .301/.372/.496 slash across multiple minor league levels back in 2019, although that came in a small sample of just 130 plate appearances spread across 40 games. He’s never ranked among the Dodgers’ top 30 prospects at Baseball America and carries a career .240/.334/.343 line in 744 professional plate appearances since being drafted in the 31st round back in 2016.
I thought the Yankees traded their new short stop. Was getting worried
My thought exactly
Even more worrying if the Dodgers made him a reliever.
He can join Justin Turner in the pen.
Shoulda got rizzo smh
Dodgers “tryouts” continue for bullpen help. Pick up three pitchers yesterday
I want to be a minor league catcher. .165/.309/.235 earns you a promotion? Sign me up!
You’d have as many hits as Max Scherzer does
Every time I see the Dodgers pick up a new reliever (up to 3 time a day), I wonder why they didn’t trade for one of the better relievers available before the trade deadline. Kimbrel, Graveman, Iglesias, Rodriguez and several others could have helped a lot more than everyone the Dodgers acquired in August. Friedman is clearly concerned about bullpen depth. The Dodgers haven’t been afraid to spend and seem to have the prospects to acquire any of those relievers. I know Friedman likes to hold onto prospects, but I expect most (if not all) of those relievers could have been had without trading a high level prospect. Just a puzzle to me.
They weren’t trading the equivalent of Nick Madrigal and a younger RP for Kimbrel. They also didn’t have a solid utility player to spare for Graveman. Or SP for Rodriguez. Trading big packages for bullpen arms doesn’t move the needle unless you’re the 2016 Cubs. Their bullpen is fine.
Just a reminder, the Dodgers recently demoted Matt Beaty. He’ll probably be back, but I don’t think you can argue the Dodgers couldn’t trade for a quality reliever because they didn’t have anyone to spare. Friedman’s approach to the bullpen has always been questionable IMO. A lot of rooting through other teams’ trash heaps in the hopes of finding a serviceable reliever. Even if one turns up here and there, they all still have to be put on the roster and used in games to be evaluated. Just ask yourself which of the guys in this parade you’d like to see on the mound in a close postseason game. That’s the basic smell test for a playoff-bound team. How many pass?
As far as 2021 goes, Friedman’s approach to the pen has been fantastic. Beaty is not nearly as valuable as Toro. He isn’t as versatile or as good a hitter. Considering Neuse, Raley, Peters of the world were getting playing time, Dodgers didn’t really have any ML position player to spare. Re-signing Treinen was the best move of the off-season for them. That’s a top 5 RHRP in baseball for under 10 million a year with a team option. Vesia was an amazing acquisition and has clearly proven more than being just another guy. Knebel was a solid pickup for 5 million. Bickford was an A+ waiver claim. Friedman has done everything possible to have this pen ready for October with viable options.
I wasn’t comparing Beaty to anyone else, just saying that he has trade value and it seems he is being treated as expendable. So if they wanted to flip a position player for a reliever they had the option. Whether they should have or not is the question. I don’t claim to know the answer but I sure would feel better not relying quite so heavily on Jansen.
Treinen has been really good obviously but I was mystified by why the Dodgers didn’t keep McGee. He was a huge pickup last year and he’s just kept on rolling for the Giants, and at a ridiculously low cost for a closer.
Still in wait and see mode on Bickford. He came on looking like a thrower. Since cleaned up a lot but he’s got so little track record to judge whether his performance is sustainable. That’s what I mean when I say ask yourself if you want to see someone on the mound in a close playoff game. Bickford feels like an accident waiting to happen.
The bullpen has been excellent since July. Starting pitching was the bigger problem at the deadline. Scherzer and Turner >>> a reliever
The Dodgers bullpen is just fine. They’re just getting guys for bullpen game mop up duty to save the big guns. And trying to catch lightning in a bottle, which they regularly do.
And the Dodgers bullpen has been of the best, if not the best, in MLB, especially recently.
By ERA, #4 for the season. The question is whether it has been this good because of the massive turnover or in spite of it.
The easy answer is yordan Alvarez
He’s hit 13 batters in 61 innings? Could be a strategic add for the Dodgers?
Pitches V Houston…
Huh. The dodgers really are trying corner the “lottery ticket” reliever market.
Do the players get any compensation or at least relocation costs or assistance.
For a guy making AAA money moving could be a huge expense.
The dodgers are missing health not quality. When everyone is healthy the Dodgers have at least 1or 2 solid major leaguers in the minors.
These moves are more about safeguarding the future versus actually adding to the big league staff today.
The dodgers, rays, giants (probably a couple more) just rotate through organization filler because of the 40 man roster and the fact that you have to protect your minor league future assets by having them on the roster but maybe they are a year or two away and it doesn’t make sense to bring them up now. These teams use spots 37-40 to rotate through AAAA/low end major league players because the teams don’t want/need the player for the future and don’t care if the DFA the person… sometimes you also catch lightening in a bottle and get lucky with a roster spot.
But no, the dodgers or any other team can’t have 10 all star relievers all happy on the same roster- the thought is great but the egos involved wouldn’t allow an all star bullpen to play out that way.
wtf are the Twins doing here??
I’m actually fine with Friedman’s approach to the bullpen. it’s an area where too many teams spend too much money on. Savings on the bullpen can lead to money better spent on position players and starting pitching. They’re giving big money to Jansen, and decent money to Treinen, Kelly and Knebel to a lesser extent. Treinen has been a steal and I never liked the Kelly signing. Then you have Price who has spent some time in the bullpen. Part of the Dodgers’ success is due to finding cheaper options in the bullpen. Last year it was Gonzalez. This year it’s Bickford and Vesia. Because of the small sample size many relievers have mixed results on any given year. Even the solid ones once in a while have very bad seasons. I’d go with the same approach. Give out a big contract here and there for the elite guys, and solid contracts to the semi-elites, and then mix it up with much cheaper talent. I’d rather have the bullpen guys the Dodgers have cobbled up (outside of some noticeable failures) then the bench guys they were parading (Raley, Neuse, Peters, Reks, etc.). Results have actually been good.
This is Aaron Hicks for that AAA catcher all over again.
stupid question of the day: with the trade deadline come and gone, is the trade doable because one player was in the minor leagues?
Because both are in the minors, and neither of the players were on a 40-man roster.
Somehow, the rich just keep getting richer. The Dodgers are currently spending around $265 million plus on payroll. Maybe the new luxury tax, or whatever it’s called now should just be expanded to $300 million per year, so the Dodgers and Yankees can just perennially be in the World Series. They already have the whole Midwest as their advanced Farm System. Lets just complete the process, so we all can just turn our eye to football.
Yankees haven’t been in the World Series in 12 years.
There it is. When the Dodgers balked at Hand getting DFA’d, it was only a matter of time before they got that itch to acquire someone again.
I thought they called that Jerryitis