The Dodgers have agreed to a deal with right-hander Hansel Robles, reports Mike Rodriguez of Univision (Twitter link). It’s a minor league contract, tweets Juan Toribio of MLB.com. Robles was released by the Red Sox earlier this week.
Robles, 32 next month, has long been a tantalizing late-inning arm who’s been prone to inconsistent performance despite possessing impressive raw stuff. The right-hander averaged 96.2 mph on his heater with the Red Sox this season, which ranks in the top 15 percent of MLB hurlers, and has fanned more than a quarter of his opponents in 427 1/3 innings scattered across parts of eight big league seasons. However, Robles logged a career-low 18.9% strikeout rate this year against a career-high 12.6% walk rate, and the resulting 5.84 ERA through 24 2/3 innings prompted the Sox to eventually move on.
Walks have always been an issue for Robles (career 10.2%), but at his best he’s shown the ability to miss bats in bunches, thanks to that power fastball and a pair of secondary offerings in his changeup and slider. The changeup has long rated as the better of the two pitches, per FanGraphs’ run values, and that’s all the more true in recent seasons. Opponents slugged .594 against Robles’ slider this season, ripping a pair of doubles and three home runs off the pitch.
The Dodgers’ bullpen isn’t at full strength right now, so it’s only natural that they’d be intrigued by a veteran power arm who has, at times, looked like a very capable late-inning reliever. Blake Treinen has been shelved for the past three months due to shoulder troubles, while Daniel Hudson — who’d been one of the team’s best setup options — suffered an unfortunate ACL tear when fielding a grounder last month. Flamethrowing sinker specialist Brusdar Graterol hit the injured list just yesterday due to a shoulder issue, and the team has yet to announce the results of today’s followup imaging. Right-hander Tommy Kahnle has been out since May due to a bone bruise in his right elbow.
Robles is far from the first veteran pickup whom the Dodgers have opted to stockpile in the minors. They’ve also added righties Pedro Baez and Dellin Betances, although Betances has struggled in Triple-A, while Baez is only just building back up with the Dodgers’ Rookie-level club after a shutdown period. He’s thrown three scoreless innings but is presumably not an option in the very near term.
Robles seems likely to join Betances in Oklahoma City, and if he can get on track in a hurry, there could be a bullpen opportunity before long — particularly if Graterol is to miss an extended period of time. The Dodgers will, of course, be active in the weeks leading up to the trade deadline, so it’s certainly possible — if not likely — that they’ll add some more established help to an injury-depleted relief corps in the next 18 days.
I guess anything is possible if you can turn Tyler Anderson into a #2 starter
Minor league contract, we can only hope.
Yeah it is, they confirmed now
Right, good. He can hang out in the minors with all of those other has-beens who we can only hope are never promoted.
If they need Robles, there goes their deep pitching. That said, I’m surprised he couldn’t find a contender with an easier path back to the majors.
Good luck.
If there is an organization that can get him straight its the Dodgers.
Okay sure.
Major pitch changes and a 2.2 ERA incoming …
Probably dump one of the two secondary pitches and see what happens. Also, I forgot about Betances. He’s getting hit in AAA it says. Anyone know about velocity? Is there anything left?
First Kelly, then Kimbrel, now Hansel? Just acquiring all the Red Sox relievers now?
If the ‘Price’ is right.
How did I forget David!!??
Dodgers alway has been RedSucks’ Dumpster
You mean like, Adrian Gonzales, Manny Ramirez, and Mookie Betts?
Keep it coming.
Simply a depth/flyer move as it’s been a few seasons since he’s been great for a season.
Maybe more importantly, the LAD may have “double Hansel” at some point on the big league roster.
One is Hanser.
Moving from a hitters park in Fenway to pitchers park in Dodgers stadium should really improve his numbers.
Yeah he’s much less likely to walk batters at dodger Stadium, geez
Hansel and Graterol in the pen ?
Oh, that’s Grimm.
Ha!
But the birds (Cardinals, Orioles) will eat all of the crumby pitches!
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhha
sry, sox fan here!
Friedman is on record as saying that trading for relievers is his least favorite thing. He’s hoping to strike lightning again without spending any equity.
I bet AF has junk bonds in his financial portfolio..
Really smart move. Low risk and high rewards. And didn’t have to trade prospects. Lots of guys coming back off of rehab. Graterol loss concerning. Maybe Robles can win a job and has post season experience too.
Is he a top 100 prospect ?
They need someone to fill out the AAA roster. Unless the Dodgers have a covid outbreak with their relievers I don’t see him getting called up.
“….a tantalizing late-inning arm?” Bwahahaha!
Has anyone seen Rocker49 and his tired old “Los Karens” schtick? Or is it just a bit too early in the afternoon before he wakes up from bed?
@Steinbrenner….Even trolls need breaks.
First Jake Reed and now Robles. LA must be hurting for RP.
Possibly, I mean they have a lot of injuries right now. However, I think the plan is, right now, to have Treinen, Kimbrel, Phillips, Graterol, and May leading the charge from the pen come playoff time.
I think this move is more of trying to find some depth to get them through the season.
Angt222: it is looking more like Oklahoma City’s staff is an Ex-Mets farm team: Jake Reed, Hansel Robles, Daniel Zamora, Dellin Betances, Bobby Wahl. And don’t forget Ty Kelly, former Met who pitched an inning already at Oklahoma City this year, lol. I think it is not exactly setting the Dodgers up for future success.
Watch Robles turn into the Pitcher that Cora thought he was
If he does, it will be a very poor reflection of the Sox pitching coaches.
Maybe. I’m not quite sold on Dave Bush as a pitching coach anyway. It’s odd for an entire bullpen to be collectively horrendous for multiple years now with a couple of standouts here and there (Houck and Schreiber this season)
give him some really sticky stuff. he has no movement on his 4-seamer.
He went to an overrated team.
Where are they rated now? Where should they be rated in your opinion
Dumb take Dutch.
Dodgers will be fine when Dustin May and Treinen get back!
Dodgers like to take a flyer on guys this time of year. I’m guessing there will be more to come over the next 2.5 months.
LA did turn Evan Phillips into a nice relief option. Wouldn’t surprise me if they strike lightning again.
I guess his 2019 was a crazy outlier. Oh well.
Dear God I hope we don’t ever see him in the bigs.
Keep it classy, gents. Alex Cora is sobbing as we speak.
Home run Hansel.
Relief Pitcher is a great job. No matter how much you suck someone always thinks they can turn you around.
Robles, Barnes and Brasier have been quite the blow hole in the Red Sox won-loss record. Without them thar scalawags, they’d be having a whale of a season. But mostly its just been “Thar he blows” when it comes to save opportunities. And that folks is where the analogy runs out. Sigh.
Did they fire Cora yet? It’s gonna happen if Sox don’t change ship fast.
I really expected this to happen. I’m just surprised that they haven’t signed Adam Kolarek yet. He did prove useful at times before they traded him to the A’s for Neuse.
This is what Friedman does. He is apt to give almost any relief pitcher who has been DFA’ed a chance. Especially if the pitcher has at least some kind of MLB track record. Sometimes, the coaching staff fixes the guy, sometimes not. Since Kolarek is a known quantity to them, either they just haven’t felt the need for a left-hander or Kolarek previously didn’t go along with the program as well as others have
Kolarek’s value was severely devalued after the mandatory three batter minimum. Often he came in for only one or two lefty vs lefty appearances.
Hansel so hot right now Hansel
apparently tantalizing too
As Mugato said….that Hansel is so hot right now! Lol
Good luck with that lmao
Never liked his WHIP, if he didn’t walk ya he’s giving up a hit. Ends too many innings with men on base, there aren’t easy innings with Robles. For his production give me a young pitcher looking for his shot.
If innings were only two outs, he’d be great.
Enjoy Dodgers because he is awful