April 26: The Dodgers have formally added Gómez to their active roster. In a corresponding move, the team optioned right-hander Noah Davis.
April 25: The Dodgers have claimed right-hander Yoendrys Gómez off waivers from the Yankees, according to announcements from both clubs. The Yankees designated him for assignment earlier this week. The Dodgers have had an open 40-man roster spot since designating outfielder Eddie Rosario for assignment on the weekend. Since Gómez is out of options, they will need to open an active roster spot for him once he reports to the club.
Gómez, 25, joins a new organization for the first time. The Yankees signed him as an international amateur out of Venezuela back in 2016. As he climbed the ladder, he worked his way into being one of the top 30 prospects in the system. The Yankees added him to their 40-man roster in November of 2020 to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.
Since then, he has hardly been given a chance to face major league hitters. He used up three option years in the 2021-2023 seasons. Tommy John surgery in 2021 played a role there, as he wasn’t able to pitch much in that year or in 2022. The Yankees were given a fourth option for 2024, but he came into 2025 out of options and with just 13 1/3 innings of major league pitching under his belt. He held a long relief role for the first few weeks of this season, tossing 10 innings over six appearances.
Overall, Gómez has a 3.09 earned run average in 23 1/3 big league innings to this point. That’s not much to go on, but his minor league numbers are presumably intriguing to the Dodgers. Across 2023 and 2024, he tossed 148 2/3 innings on the farm with a 3.63 ERA. His 12.3% walk rate was on the high side but he struck out 27.7% of batters faced.
The Dodgers are generally willing to bet on talented but injury-prone pitchers and often find themselves rotating through various arms over the course of a season. At the moment, they have 12 pitchers on the injured list. Many of those underwent major surgeries last year, meaning the club wasn’t counting on them to contribute in 2025. However, they have also seen guys like Blake Snell, Blake Treinen and Tony Gonsolin get hurt in the past few weeks.
Right now, their rotation is down to Tyler Glasnow, Dustin May, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki. The club is trying to keep Yamamoto and Sasaki on a weekly pitching schedule, which is customary in Japan. As such, they have been doing the occasional spot start or bullpen game. Guys like Landon Knack, Justin Wrobleski and Bobby Miller have made spot starts this month. On Wednesday, Ben Casparius started a bullpen game, with six relievers coming in after him. They also used seven pitchers in Tuesday’s extra-innings game at Wrigley.
The Dodgers had an off-day yesterday but have leaned heavily on their staff. Gómez will give them a fresh arm whenever he meets up with them. He tossed three innings for the Yanks on Monday, so he should be able to be deployed as a multi-inning guy in some capacity. The Dodgers have Yamamoto, Sasaki, Glasnow and May scheduled to pitch the next four games but might need another sport start and/or bullpen game by Tuesday. Gonsolin tossed five innings in a rehab start on Wednesday, so he might be a factor in the club’s plans as well.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images
More free talent for the Dodgers.
DarkSide: I don’t know if he’s exactly a steal for the Dodgers, but they have had a lot of success turning careers around.
I’m pretty sure any time a team claims someone, it’s free talent, but I guess since it’s the Dodgers, it’s a bad thing.
Yup. Not only that, they are deferring his mlb minimum salary.
Yeah, DFA’ed by Yankees, and passed up by 24 other teams before the Dodgers decided to sign him. He’s not “free”, just as inexpensive as any other team could have paid him.
In his first game for LAD vs Pirates, went three scoreless, 4 hits scattered, 4 strikeouts, no walks, 50 pitches, got the save. I’d say he’s earning the salary Dodgers will be paying him. Pitch well and make a case for staying on the team, especially if other relievers aren’t back yet.
Buh bye Noah Davis and next week bye bye Yoendrys.
Yoendris, Noah Davis, all filling in similar roles as Ramirez “brothers”, Petersen, Brogdon, Crismatt, E Hernandez, Logue and others last year. Find innings wherever you can to save wear and tear from your real staff. Painful to watch these guys pitch but I guess they serve a purpose.
The rich remain exactly as rich as they were before this move.
He’s already better than Noah Davis
Ipso facto
LAD should have claimed Ipso Facto.
I am a strange loop.
A froot loop.
16 BB in 23 career MLB innings
Room for improvement.
This move is mostly interesting because it’s of the Yankee/Dodger variety. This systems probably know each other very well.
Does this mean that 25 or so other teams passed on him?
Yes, I believe so.
Almost got him through. Guess a plane to LA is better than a bus to Scranton.
Another reclamation project. He doesn’t look special but maybe they can fix something.
Dodgers regularly acquire run of the mill relievers, burn innings with them awhile, toss most of them aside and the. recycle another. They save a significant amount of bullets for their established bullpen doing this and occasionally find and polish up a diamond in the rough.
He’s just going to fill-in until they can get some of their other guys back. Once the injured start to return Gomez will return to the Yankees.
Returning to NY is improbable unless he’s dfa’d again, passes through waivers, released and then chooses to sign as a FA. Gomez is intriguing enough that any team that successfully gets him through waivers would assign him to AAA. Yankees would have been happy with that if he had not been claimed.
Another Chavez Ravine reclamation project.
I figured they had All the Money and didn’t
need to hang out on the DFA Board.
Anyway, will the innings that were
differed by injuries go to this new guy?
@al
trying to troll and failing miserably is the ultimate L
I look at the path of Anthony Banda’s career, and think anything can happen. Prior to coming to the Dodgers and becoming a key lefty in the pen, he’s been with 11 organizations!
I can think of bout 10 teams that could of used anybody, surprised he wasn’t picked up being only 25