The Dodgers added a multi-inning arm to the pitching staff, selecting veteran lefty Andrew Heaney onto the major league roster. Righty Will Klein was optioned after he threw 30 pitches last night, which presumably took him out of the mix for the final two games of the regular season. The Dodgers opened a 40-man roster spot by recalling righty Nick Frasso and placing him on the major league 60-day injured list.
Heaney signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers a couple days after he was released by the Pirates. They got that deal across the finish line just before the noon Eastern deadline on September 1 for players to be eligible for postseason play. Heaney would be available for L.A. in October, though it’s likelier that they’re bringing him up to eat some low-leverage innings against the Mariners tonight or tomorrow.
The Dodgers are already locked into the #3 seed in the National League. They’ll host the Mets or Reds in a Wild Card Series that begins on Tuesday. The final two regular season games are irrelevant for playoff seeding. (Seattle is guaranteed to be the #2 seed in the American League, so this doesn’t mean much to them either.) The focus is on arranging their pitching staff to be in the best shape possible for next week.
They limited Emmet Sheehan to one inning in last night’s start. Sheehan will move to the bullpen in the postseason and could be the best right-hander in a spotty relief corps. Tyler Glasnow starts tonight. He’s their presumed potential Game 3 starter behind Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Blake Snell. Glasnow would be on regular rest for that contest, which would be played on Thursday if they split the first two of that three-game set. Still, it wouldn’t be a surprise if they lift Glasnow after an abbreviated start tonight to make sure he’s fresh for that outing. Clayton Kershaw is listed as tomorrow’s starter. He might be in the playoff bullpen, so that appearance may last only an inning or two as well.
Heaney logged 120 1/3 innings over 26 appearances (23 starts) with Pittsburgh. He posted a 2.50 ERA through the end of April but saw his numbers regress with each month. Heaney allowed at least 4.74 earned runs per nine in each of the following four months. That included 15 earned across 13 1/3 frames in August that led Pittsburgh to move on. He was much better over 10 innings with Triple-A Oklahoma City after signing with the Dodgers. The 34-year-old tossed 10 innings of one-run ball with 13 strikeouts and two walks.
More to come.
was hoping Klein was going to stick on the playoff roster. he might be back i guess but would have rather seen Tanner get a sudden hamstring pull or some other fake injury.
Klein’s out today ’cause he threw 2.2 innings the last two games. Heany’s up for a fresh arm. As to playoff roster, I think Klein will be a victim of the number crunch. Can only carry up to 13 pitchers in postseason. They’re not gonna drop Scott. Klein might get the call in place of Henriquez or Treinen, but I doubt it.
Snell, Yamamoto, Glasnow are the starters.
Kershaw, Sheehan, Vesia, Scott, Wrobleski, Dreyer, Banda, Sasaki, Henriquez, Treinen figure to be the pen.
Ohtani doesn’t count.
Ohtani doesn’t count against the allowed number of pitchers, but he will count when it comes to needing a 4th starter in an NLDS, and that could happen in Game 1. Presumably Yamamoto gets the ball in the first game of the Wildcard and won’t be available again until NLDS Game 2. Glasnow is set up to start Game 3 of the Wildcard if necessary and NLDS Game 1 if not. Ohtani probably gets this start if the Wildcard goes three.
Understand why Klein is the odd man out for now, but Heany seems like an odd choice. Hard to imagine many situations where he gets used before Kershaw, Wrobleski or Sheehan.
@Blue
I don’t think they throw Yamamoto on 4 days rest on Tuesday. (He pitched on the 25th) My guess is Ohtani throws Tuesday, Snell on Wednesday and Yoshi’s the man if needed in Game 3 of Wild Card. Otherwise he pitches game 1 of NLDS. Or Glas pitches the 3rd Wild Card and Yoshi still opens the NLDS.
Heany isn’t likely for postseason roster. He’s there for filler today/tomorrow.
Can’t wait for the pen to blow the playoffs for the dodgers and them go spend another billion dollars on the pen in the off season.
No but seriously if dodgers don’t win it all after all they’re invested and deferred it’ll be single handed Lynette greatest failure in all of modern sports. Worse than 3-1 cavs comeback