The Dodgers have announced that Andrew Heaney has been placed on the injured list with left shoulder discomfort. Utility player Zach McKinstry has been recalled to take his place on the roster. No timetable was given for Heaney’s return.
It’s a bit of a surprising move as Heaney had made two excellent starts on the season so far, with no signs of distress. Through 10 1/3 innings on the campaign, he’s racked up 16 strikeouts against three walks, without allowing an earned run. In his MLB time thus far, mostly with the Angels, Heaney has shown tantalizing potential with tremendous strikeout numbers but continually being hampered by the long ball. In the six seasons from 2016 to 2021, he had a strikeout rate of 24% or above in each of them. However, his lowest ERA in that time was 4.15. Despite those inconsistent results, the Dodgers took a chance on him, signing him to a one-year, $8.5MM deal for this season. The early results were clearly excellent, with Heaney adding a slider that has helped him have two great starts to begin his Dodgers tenure. However, he and the club will now have to wait at least ten days to continue the experiment.
The Dodgers have an off-day tomorrow and another one a week later on the 28th, which will help them weather Heaney’s absence. It’s possible that Tyler Anderson will make the jump from long relief into the rotation for the time being.
As for McKinstry, the 26-year-old (27 next week) has appeared in games for the Dodgers in each of the past two seasons. In 179 career plate appearances, he has a slash line of .218/.264/.406, while playing second base, third base and both corner outfield spots.
Tyler Anderson not Alexander.
We’ll yeah, I mean he’s made two starts, it’s about time for an injury and a few weeks by the pool.
Heany hasn’t been injured in a few years.
I never had any idea why this guy never turned into a top of the rotation starter… The right pitching coach matters.
I’d wait until he’s gone through his new league one time and starts seeing the same teams again before we judge anything.
That’s very true. But it’s also true the right pitching coach matters.
I never had any idea why this guy wasn’t good.
He’s not actually hurt. This is how the Dodgers operate. They don’t need him for a while and they want to conserve him a bit since he is injury prone, so they put him on the IL for a little while. He’ll probably be throwing as normal throughout.
***Tyler Anderson
Going by a pitcher’s strikeout rate in today’s game isn’t a very good metric. Players no longer care about making contact with 2- strikes and are a lot easier to K than in the past. Heaney, overall, is awful.
Actually, CSW is a great indicator if a pitcher is going to be good. There are many strike metrics that are incredibly useful in figuring out if someone has potential to be good.
What stats do you want to use? His WHIP is 0.68, batting average against .111, batted ball in play .200. Are those also awful? Very early in season, but first impression is that Dodgers pitching coaches have once agains worked their magic.
@socalbum We will have to wait and see. Heaney has had back to back games like this with the Angels. He has always possessed good stuff. For years, I thought he was capable of having a breakout season. It just never manifested itself. It wasn’t until the beginning of last year when I gave up hope. The thing that is noticeable about Heaney is he does best when there is less pressure. He does great when he has a 5 run lead., but when things go wrong, they snowball in a hurry. The expectations with the Dodgers is lower. He is not expected to be the man like he was in Anaheim. Who knows? After seeing the start that Heaney and Bundy are off to this year, maybe the Angels are just cursed.
Over two games, if he wasn’t missing bats, those numbers would have a lot less meaning.
@socalbum come on man you can’t use his stats from these two games and act like this is what he’s gonna give the Dodgers the entire year. The guy’s been pretty awful for close to the entirety of his career I highly doubt all of a sudden he’s turning into Cy Young.
They will be fine. They will find a hobo in the nearest LA dumpster and he will magically pitch well like everyone else on this team.
Sounds like one of those phantom injuries. A couple pitchers could be promoted to fill Heaney’s spot in the rotation but they went with a utility player instead. So that should tell us they don’t see the need for a fifth starter for the next couple of weeks. It’s unlikely that they’ll use Anderson as a starter. They need him in the pen as a long man behind Gonsolin.
They won’t need a 5 starter till about May 5th/6th ish
With Gonzo breezing today thru 4 and the pen fully rested (and day off tom) I think they try and save Anderson for a spot start in Heaney’s spot
Selfishly Id like to see a Andre Jackson or Pepiot spot start as I love getting a look at the kids but doubtful we see that in April
I believe you’re right and we won’t see starts from Jackson or Pepiot any time soon, but either one of them could be promoted to backfill the bullpen if they were planning on using Anderson for a spot start between now and early May. Instead they are going a pitcher short, which tells me they probably aren’t planning on starting Anderson. Who knows, but for sure they weren’t looking for an excuse to bring up McKinstry.
Heaney’s career has been frustrating. He’ll show flashes of brilliance then either implode the next game or get hurt. Anybody who has seen him on a good day can see there’s a great pitcher in there.
Im pretty sure he’ll be done as a starter by the end of the year if he doesn’t manage to put things together.
I agree that this is probably his last chance. If the dodgers can’t fix him, all he’s got left is the devil magic of the giants or rays, and that’s only if they care to try.
If he doesn’t manage to put things together? What does that even mean.
Small sample size as it’s only April, but Heaney, Cobb and Bundy are off to nice starts with their new teams. Cobb’s numbers aren’t as impressive as the other two thus far, but he has apparently added three MPH to his sinker. Does this say more about the Angels or the three individuals involved?
I was hopeful the Angels would resign Cobb this off-season to eat 130ish innings and give Detmers a month or two in AAA before debuting in 2022. If the Angels had signed Cobb, I suspect Detmers would be getting called up right now.
As a side note, Cobb and Heaney go on the IL the same day.
Lights out on the dodgers but garbage with the Angels, makes sense
We’ll see Mike pie at the end of the year