The Dodgers have announced to reporters (including J.P. Hoornstra of Dodgers Nation) that the club has selected right-hander Daniel Hudson to their 40-man roster ahead of the Seoul Series, during which they’ll play a pair of regular season games against the Padres next week. The club has designated infielder Andre Lipcius for assignment and optioned infielder Miguel Vargas to make room for Hudson on the club’s 40-man and active rosters.
The move is hardly a surprise, as manager Dave Roberts announced earlier this month that Hudson would be in the club’s bullpen to open the season. Hudson had the opportunity to trigger an opt-out of his minor league deal with the club yesterday if not added to the club’s 40-man roster. It’s unclear if Hudson triggered the opt-out yesterday, though it ultimately will make no difference now that the club has added the right-hander to the roster.
The 37-year-old righty is now set to participate in his fifteenth major league season and has been among the more effective relief arms in the game in recent years, pitching to a 3.08 ERA (141 ERA+) and 3.73 FIP since the start of the 2019 season. That includes a sterling 1.98 ERA with L.A. over the past two seasons, although injuries have limited him to just 27 1/3 innings of work over that time. If the veteran hurler can stay healthy this season, he’ll likely be in the mix for high-leverage innings alongside the likes of Evan Phillips, Brusdar Graterol, and Ryan Brasier.
Hudson being added to the roster likely spells the end of Lipcius’s time with the Dodgers just weeks after he joined the organization in a cash deal with the Tigers. The 25-year-old infielder made his big league debut in Detroit last season, slashing a respectable .286/.342/.400 in 13 games while splitting time between third base and DH. In addition to those serviceable numbers in his first cup of coffee at the big league level, Lipcius hit a solid .272/.363/.419 in 98 games with the club’s Triple-A affiliate last year while splitting time between third and second base. The Dodgers will now have seven days to attempt to pass Lipcius through waivers or work out a trade. If Lipcius clears waivers, L.A. would have the opportunity to outright Lipcius to Triple-A, where he would act as non-roster depth entering the year.
Meanwhile, Hudson will take the active roster spot of Vargas. The 24-year-old was a consensus top-40 prospect entering last season and has slashed an incredible .298/.405/.500 in 173 games at the Triple-A level in his career, but struggled badly in 81 games at the big league level last year. In 303 trips to the plate in the big leagues, Vargas hit a paltry .195/.305/.367 with a wRC+ of 85 last season. Vargas is largely blocked at the big league level with Mookie Betts having moved to the infield full time alongside Gavin Lux and Max Muncy and the club’s recent signing of Enrique Hernandez to join Chris Taylor and Miguel Rojas on the club’s bench.
I love hudson
Welp, Dave Roberts kept his word.
Not that it was his word to keep.
Dodgers getting the band back together.
Dodgers don’t sign any players with a clean bill of health. Goes against their organization’s principles.
Except Freddie Freeman. Possibly the most metronomic player around. Also Mookie, Trea. Okay yeah what exactly are you referring to?
If Hudson can remain relatively healthy this season (50+ innings pitched), the Dodgers’ bullpen should be one of the best in baseball.
The Dodgers bullpen being good or not likely does not depend on Hudson. If he is healthy then he will be a boost, but in no way is he the Dodgers best arm or even close to it. Expect to see some combination of Phillips Treinen and Brusdar as the 7-8-9 innings guys.
I think you forgot about that Joe Kelly guy. Seems they also expect to get something out of Feyereisen since he’s still on the roster despite having a pretty terrible spring. Graterol seems almost certain to start the season on the IL. They have a lot of options but as of now that bullpen looks to be about as firm as warm jello.
I doubt that Graterol will spend much time on the IL. It seemed to me that he would be missing just the Korea trip, and hopefully would be ready for the domestic opener.
Joe Kelly has some of the best stuff in the league, but as of now it still seems to me that he is the 4th best reliever on the roster.
OD bullpen should be:
Phillips – closer
Trienen – set up
Kelly
Brasier
Hudson
Grove
Vesia
Yarbs
Grove should get optioned once Graterol is ready to go. I don’t know about you, but in my opinion that is a top 3-5 bullpen in all of baseball.
I don’t know that it makes sense to rank relievers this way, when few are available to pitch in successive games and they are used situationally. All we know about Graterol is he’s seen almost no action this spring and he’s nearly if not already out of time to be ready. Brasier runs so hot and cold I feel like he’s a strong candidate for washing out.
Was hoping for Wilson over Vesia. Whatevs….
was hoping for Ferguson but for some reason they traded him. only makes sense if that ss is something special imo.
With the Dodgers now in Korea presumably this means he traveled with the team.
I hope he stays healthy; he so effective when he is. Such bad luck the last two seasons for him. I still think Dave Roberts stinks
Then don’t get on the bus with him.
And we all respect your opinion so very much
IL by the end of May.
Daniel Hudson never pitched for the Braves? Am I crazy? Or was that a different Daniel Hudson? Cuz I swore during the late 2000’s-early 2010’s Brandon Beachy-Kris Medlen-Tommy Hanson era when the Braves were churning out starting pitchers, I could’ve sworn Daniel Hudson was one of them but maybe I’m just crazy.
Believe Tim is the name you’re looking for here. They didn’t “develop” him.
Nah, not Tim. I might jus tbe crazy cuz I looked over all their pitchers from 2007-2015, none of them fit the bill.