The Dodgers announced a flurry of roster moves prior to today’s doubleheader against the D-backs. Right-hander Mitch White has been reinstated from the Covid-related injured list, with righty Blake Treinen moving to the 60-day injured list in order to open a roster spot. Los Angeles also optioned lefty Caleb Ferguson in favor of lefty Justin Bruihl, who’s been recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City. The Dodgers also placed right-hander Tommy Kahnle on the 15-day injured list due to inflammation in his right forearm and brought righty Ryan Pepiot up as the 27th man for today’s twin bill.
Additional moves seem likely to take place between the day’s games, as manager Dave Roberts announced to reporters that lefty David Price will be activated from the Covid IL for the second game against Arizona (Twitter link via Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic). That’ll require an additional 40-man move.
Treinen’s move to the 60-day injured list further solidifies what Roberts explained earlier in the month when he told reporters that while the right-hander was forgoing an additional visit to a third-party doctor and would instead focus on rehabbing his shoulder with an eye toward returning after the All-Star break. Treinen enjoyed a dominant 2021 season for the Dodgers but pitched just three innings in 2022 before landing on the injured list with the shoulder injury that’ll now officially cost him at least half the season.
Turning to Kahnle, any forearm injury to a pitcher is generally cause for some concern, as they’re often portents to more treacherous diagnoses. In the case of Kahnle, he’s only just returned from Tommy John surgery and has seen his average fastball (95.5 mph) check in a fair bit shy of its pre-surgery levels in 2019 (96.6 mph). The Dodgers signed him to a two-year, $4.75MM deal prior to the 2021 season, knowing he’d miss the first season of the contract while rehabbing that surgery. He’s appeared in just four games for L.A. this season. The team did not provide a timetable for his potential return.
Somewhat surprised by the move on Ferguson. He made his return appearance last night and looked ready. Maybe just a matter of needing a fresh arm for today.
Like you said with 4 games in 3 nights they need the arms
It’s meat grinder time for sure. Ferguson could be back up by the end of the week.
Kahnle will be another Friedman pitcher bust. Add him to the list with Brandon McCarthy and Scott Kazmir.
I don’t think injury is a factor in the Dodger quantitative model. They don’t seem to worry about that. I guess the thinking is that if you have enough depth it won’t matter as much.
What a ridiculous thing to say about a 2 year, 4.75M deal.
But it was actually a one year deal since the Dodgers knew he would not be pitching last year to recover from injury. He’s also a few years removed from his two elite seasons in 2016-17. Not sure if I’d consider that a bargain contract since there are risks in coming back from injury and aging.
Ok, 1 year, 4.75M. Calling any deal that small a “bust” is silly. It’s pretty standard, especially for LA. They take a low-cost, low-risk flyer on a formerly elite reliever seemingly every year.
I have no issues with taking a flyer on Kahnle but if he doesn’t pitch well or much this season yeah it was a bad contract. Not a big deal but the Dodgers do have quite a few of these riskier injury flyers. Duffy, Hamels, Nelson, Knebel didn’t pitch much.
Who would have foreseen the Dodger staff this beat up. Not to worry , they will make a deal.
If Pepiot finds a consistent arm slot he’s got Sp 3 written all over him
Good to see White and Price back. We need those 7~9 out capable arms in the middle even if they will come with a 4+era
Need to throw more strikes. Elite change up. Looks like the Dodgers will need to make a mid-season trade for starting pitching if they want to make a serious post-season run. Perhaps even earlier than mid-season to stay on par with SD and SF. Still early.
Isnt they still have Andre Jackson and Bobby Miller in the Minors? Probably can use Jackson as a reliever though since his number in Oklahoma not really good so far (6 start, 15IP, 15ER) and Bobby Miller number not really great either so far (6 start, 21.1IP, 10ER)