Dodgers Rumors

Dodgers Activate Trio Of Relievers

By Jeff Todd | September 17, 2018 at 7:03pm CDT

The Dodgers have activated a trio of relievers to augment their bullpen down the stretch. Lefty Tony Cingrani and righties John Axford and Yimi Garcia will all head onto the active roster, as Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times tweets.

Though the Los Angeles bullpen has actually been quite good of late as a unit, it had some notable struggles before that point and still features a fair bit of uncertainty. With work still to be done to reach the postseason, and playoff roster spots potentially at stake thereafter, the returnees will be most welcome.

In particular, Cingrani looks to be an intriguing (re-) addition to the relief unit. The southpaw has only a 4.84 ERA in his 22 1/3 innings, but has compiled an impressive 36:6 K/BB ratio. He also owns a career-high 13.9% swinging-strike rate, carrying over the leap he exhibited in 2017.

As for Axford, a summer trade pick-up, his first game with his new club was a complete mess but he came back for two effective appearances thereafter. Unfortunately, he has been on the shelf now for over a month. But there were obviously reasons that the Dodgers targeted him — his still-speedy heater and typically hefty groundball numbers perhaps chief among them — so the club still has cause to hope they’ll get some value.

As for Garcia, he had been on optional assignment after struggling with injuries and performance for much of the season. The 28-year-old has still not gotten back to the impressive form he showed as a rookie way back in 2015, with health problems — in particular, Tommy John surgery — limiting him to just 44 1/3 professional innings since that campaign. Garcia has thrown 17 2/3 minor-league frames without allowing a walk and while recording 18 strikeouts this year.

All of these hurlers will be pitching for their own benefit as well, of course. Cingrani and Garcia are both eligible for arbitration. For the former, padding his innings totals will help boost his payday; for the latter, it’s still unclear whether he’ll be tendered, though cost won’t be a factor since he’ll be extremely affordable. As for Axford, who’ll return to free agency at season’s end, his showing will be of particular importance.

NL West Notes: Dozier, Belt, Diamondbacks, Black

By Steve Adams | September 16, 2018 at 9:56am CDT

Brian Dozier, mired in a dreadful slump after a hot first week with the Dodgers, spoke to Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register about those struggles. Dozier played through a bone bruise in his knee earlier this season, and while he said the knee “feels great” now, he acknowledged that he developed some bad habits at the plate while trying to compensate for it at the time. The 31-year-old Dozier added that he doesn’t believe playing primarily in a platoon capacity has had an adverse impact on him. (The Dodgers’ constant lineup fluctuations based on matchups has been a source of frustration for many of their fans.) Dozier will be a free agent at season’s end, but the .218/.306/.391 slash he’s carrying isn’t likely to do him any favors — particularly when he’ll be heading into his age-32 season next year.

Rosenthal’s Latest: Rox, LeMahieu, Arenado, Dodgers, O’s, Ripken

By Connor Byrne | September 15, 2018 at 8:59pm CDT

The latest from FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal (all video links):

Rockies second baseman DJ LeMahieu is set to become a free agent at season’s end, and the club may have a successor on hand in prospect Brendan Rodgers. However, Rosenthal floats the idea of the Rockies re-signing LeMahieu – who’s one of their “glue” guys, he notes – and trading superstar third baseman Nolan Arenado in the offseason. Although Arenado’s obviously far superior to LeMahieu, the former only has another year of arbitration control remaining, during which he’ll rake in upward of $20MM. Thus, if the Rockies aren’t confident about extending Arenado, Rosenthal posits that it may make sense for them to move the NL MVP candidate for a package of players who’d “supplement” their roster. That would enable them to re-up LeMahieu and use Rodgers at third base, Rosenthal observes.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts will reportedly return next year, though Rosenthal cautions that the skipper’s future is uncertain. While the 46-year-old Roberts has a club option for 2019, the Dodgers haven’t made a decision on it yet, and Rosenthal reports they’d like to hold off discussing his contract until after the season. But if the Dodgers don’t make a call on Roberts’ fate soon, they could put themselves at risk of losing him in the coming weeks, suggests Rosenthal, who says that “a large number” of managerial jobs might open up around the league. If so, Roberts could bolt for one of those positions or use any of them for leverage in order to get a better offer from the Dodgers. Roberts, who’s in his third year in LA, has helped the team to a 276-196 record with two division titles and an NL pennant.
It’s unclear who will manage the Orioles next season, but it definitely won’t be franchise icon Cal Ripken Jr., according to Rosenthal. Ripken’s uninterested in managing, per Rosenthal, who doesn’t rule out the possibility of the Hall of Famer joining the team’s front office. The 58-year-old would prefer a club president-type role, Rosenthal relays. For now, the highest-ranking baseball official in the O’s front office is executive VP Dan Duquette. He’s not under contract beyond this season, though.

Quick Hits: Turner, Kela, Lorenzen, Reds, Vazquez

By Mark Polishuk | September 15, 2018 at 5:22pm CDT

Justin Turner and the Dodgers received a scare when the star third baseman was hit on his left hand and wrist area by a pitch in the third inning of today’s 17-4 win over the Cardinals. Fortunately for all parties, Turner remained in the game until the eighth inning, when he was removed just because the Dodgers had their big lead. Turner missed the first six weeks of the season after another hit-by-pitch fractured that same wrist during Spring Training, and he told Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register (Twitter links) and other media that today’s ball found the same spot on his body. “Could have been worse if I wasn’t wearing the pad,” Turner said, referring to the protective gear he has worn since the initial injury. X-rays were negative on Turner’s hand and wrist, so it looks like another injury has been avoided. After a bit of a slow start that might well have been caused by his DL stint, Turner has been on fire over the last several weeks and is now hitting .318/.415/.531 over 366 PA on the season.

Some more from around baseball…

The Pirates have shut reliever Keone Kela down for the season, as per a statement released to media (including Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). Kela, acquired from the Rangers at the July trade deadline, has a 2.93 ERA over 15 1/3 innings for the Bucs but he hasn’t taken the mound since September 3. He has thrown 52 total innings for Pittsburgh and Texas this season, which GM Neal Huntington cited as the reason for the shutdown. “This was primarily based on his high leverage workload this year compared to the previous two seasons,” Huntington said in the statement. The decision was made to give Kela “an optimal amount of rest and recovery to be ready in spring training 2019.“
Michael Lorenzen will start the Reds’ game against the Brewers on Tuesday, interim manager Jim Riggleman told Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer and other media. Lorenzen has pitched exclusively as a reliever from 2016-18, posting solid numbers as a setup man and multi-inning reliever out of the Reds’ bullpen. He has often expressed an interest in returning to starting pitching, however, and was stretched out as a starter last Spring Training before some poor numbers and a shoulder injury necessitated a return to the bullpen. “But we are looking at ’19 and who is going to be our starters,” Riggleman said. “We have an idea who some of them will be, but we will look at Mike here a little bit. It’ll be a very small sample, but we’ll get a little feel for it.”
In other Reds news, president of baseball operations Dick Williams confirmed to reporters (including John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer) that Riggleman will receive an interview for the full-time managerial position. Besides that, Williams was short on details about the managerial search, other than to say that no interviews have yet taken place, and the Reds wouldn’t be publicly commenting on which people were or weren’t candidates. Fay speculates that the team will stick with Riggleman if they want an experienced “traditional pick” of a manager, though it remains to be seen what sort of more outside-the-box names (if any) could be considered.
“There could be a big market for” Christian Vazquez should the Red Sox make him available in trade talks, rival executives tell the Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo. This scenario would’ve been seemed unthinkable last March, when the Sox signed Vazquez to a three-year, $13.55MM extension that seemingly made him Boston’s long-term answer behind the plate. 2018 has been essentially a lost season for Vazquez, however, as he has hit only .213/.256/.298 over 239 PA and missed just under eight weeks with a fractured pinky finger on his throwing hand. Offense has never been a big plus for the defensively-stellar Vazquez, though with Sandy Leon and Blake Swihart behind the plate, Cafardo wonders if the Sox could move Vazquez to address other needs.

Heyman’s Latest: Blevins, Mets, Dodgers, Red Sox, Happ, Straily, Urena, Marlins

By Mark Polishuk | September 15, 2018 at 11:35am CDT

“There’s been some trade talk of late involving Mets reliever Jerry Blevins,” Fancred Sports’ Jon Heyman reports in his weekly roundup of baseball notes. Blevins has posted a 2.65 ERA and 38 strikeouts (against 13 walks) over 34 innings since May 1, and even his inflated April ERA was largely due to one disastrous outing against the Braves. He is eligible to be dealt since he cleared revocable trade waivers in August, and the veteran southpaw could provide a boost to a team looking for left-handed relief help (though Blevins is actually in the midst of a reverse-splits season, dominating right-handed batters and getting hit hard by lefty batters). While Blevins could help get a team into the playoffs, however, he wouldn’t be eligible for postseason play himself due to being dealt after the August 31st deadline. Blevins is a free agent after the year and is owed roughly $583K in remaining salary.

Here’s more from Heyman’s notes…

In more Mets news, the team has over 30 names on its list of general manager candidates, though the interview process has yet to begin. As Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported earlier this week, the Mets plan to have their new hire in place before the GM Meetings begin on November 4.
Even with the Dodgers in jeopardy of missing the postseason, it doesn’t appear that manager Dave Roberts, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, or GM Farhan Zaidi are in any danger of losing their jobs. It seems as if this season could be seen as an aberration, given that L.A. has been beset by injuries yet still leads the National League in run-differential. (The Baseball Reference standings page notes that the Dodgers are eight wins behind their expected Pythagorean win-loss record.) While management changes don’t seem to be afoot, there will likely be some type of contract talks among Dodgers brass this offseason since Friedman is only under contract through the 2019 season. Roberts is already in the last guaranteed year of his deal, though the Dodgers have a club option on his services for 2019.
The Red Sox didn’t put much focus on relief pitching at the trade deadline, with president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski noting that “If we addressed the bullpen, then there’d be other needs we’d have. It wasn’t that we weren’t open to some moves. But we addressed some of our other priorities.” Boston was linked to multiple relievers in trade rumors but didn’t find a fit anywhere. In regards to one name in particular, Dombrowski said that “we couldn’t touch” Roberto Osuna, who the Astros acquired from the Blue Jays in a deal that generated quite a bit of controversy, given the domestic assault charges still pending against him. The bullpen has been seen as a possible Achilles’ heel for an otherwise dominant Red Sox team, though as Dombrowski observed, Boston’s relief corps still ranks within the top ten in most major categories.
Heyman expects the Yankees to try and re-sign J.A. Happ in free agency. The southpaw has done nothing but impress since coming to New York from the Blue Jays in a midseason trade; Happ has a 2.70 ERA, 8.3 K/9, and 4.78 K/BB rate over 46 2/3 innings in the pinstripes. MLBTR’s Jeff Todd recently projected that Happ’s next contract could exceed $40MM over three years, as the veteran is still posting strong numbers even as he approaches his age-36 season. Retaining Happ would go a long ways towards solidifying a Yankees rotation that has only Luis Severino and Masahiro Tanaka as certainties for 2019.
With the Marlins still years away from contending, they could consider trading Dan Straily or Jose Urena this offseason even though the two starters still have two and three years, respectively, of arbitration control remaining. This added control, of course, could also entice suitors to give up more in a potential deal. Straily has been mentioned in trade rumors ever since Miami began its fire sale last year, though the team held onto him through the deadline and pulled him back from revocable waivers in August after an unknown club submitted a claim.

MLBTR Poll: Predicting Clayton Kershaw’s Next Contract

By Jeff Todd | September 11, 2018 at 2:53pm CDT

The 2018-19 free agent class doesn’t look quite as exciting now as it has promised to at points in the past. Still, it’s a notable assemblage of talent. And at the top of the list of pitchers sits future Hall-of-Famer Clayton Kershaw.

Of course, that statement comes with some caveats. In particular, Kershaw will need to opt out of the remaining two years and $65MM on his deal. While that once seemed a foregone conclusion, Kershaw has not been quite his vintage self this season — or, in truth, in the campaign prior. With the backdrop of ongoing back problems, there are undeniably some cracks in the armor.

If Kershaw’s recent form has betrayed his mortality, though, it has still also illuminated his ongoing excellence and value. After all, in his 312 1/3 innings since the start of the 2017 season, he has compiled a 2.36 ERA with 9.7 K/9 against 1.5 BB/9. Even with the reduction in his velocity and swinging-strike rate on display this year, Kershaw has been among the most effective starters in baseball. And the years of unquestioned dominance that came before still represent an important background factor.

All things considered, there’s not much reason to think that Kershaw can’t beat 2/$65MM in free agency. Whether he reaches the open market could still be in question, to be sure. It’s not hard to imagine a new agreement of some kind with the Los Angeles organization coming together before Kershaw is forced to decide on the opt-out clause (or, if he does exercise it, before qualifying offer decisions are finalized). Then again, he and the team know much more about his medical situation than do the rest of us, so perhaps there’s still some possibility he’ll simply opt into the remainder of the deal.

Regardless of how it comes to pass, Kershaw will presumably end up with a more-or-less market-driven rate of pay, even if a deal comes with the Dodgers before he’s formally a free agent. After all, Kershaw’s reps at Excel Sports Management no doubt have a good idea what they think he’s worth, as does the L.A. front office.

For those of us on the outside looking in, it’s a bit more difficult to gauge. The Dodgers and others will surely be stingy, in particular, with the length of the commitment for a pitcher entering his age-31 season. But the focus here will be on the total cash posted rather than on how many seasons it’ll be spread over. Knowing what we know now, and presuming Kershaw finishes the season at his current trajectory and without any significant new injury issues, which level of total guarantee do you think he’ll sign at?

Guess Clayton Kershaw's Next Contract

$90MM to $125MM 27.10% (2,185 votes)

$125MM to $175MM 26.41% (2,129 votes)

$65MM (opt-in) 19.88% (1,603 votes)

$175MM+ 16.10% (1,298 votes)

$65MM to $90MM 10.51% (847 votes)

Total Votes: 8,062

Kenley Jansen Anticipates Offseason Surgery To Address Irregular Heartbeat

By Jeff Todd | September 10, 2018 at 6:46pm CDT

Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen firmly anticipates the need for an offseason heart procedure, MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick was among those to report on Twitter. It’ll be a repeat of the procedure he had in 2012 to deal with an irregular heartbeat.

Jansen, of course, missed time recently when he experienced a recurrence of the symptoms that led to his original procedure. Indications at the time were that an offseason surgery would again be necessary, though it was not clear until his comments today that it was all but certain to take place.

There has been no change to Jansen’s availability down the stretch and into the postseason (if the Dodgers qualify). After all, the issue was already known. And presumably the hope will remain that he’ll be ready for a full spring camp in 2019, though details remain unknown.

Of course, Jansen’s cardiac health will remain the top priority. It’s certainly scary to hear of the ongoing issues, though certainly it’s promising that he has been able to continue his career and encouraging to know that he’s being watched closely by experts.

Soon to turn 31, the outstanding right-hander has not been at his dominant best thus far in 2018. He struggled in particular for a stretch in late August after returning from his recent scare. But the veteran has righted the ship over his past several appearances and still owns a healthy 2.89 ERA, with 10.3 K/9 against 2.2 BB/9, over his 62 1/3 innings on the season.

That’s still quite productive, but it’s nothing close to the typical version of Jansen. To take but one example: he currently carries a 2.98 SIERA (the ERA estimator that looks most favorably on his 2018 output). That means that this season will break a remarkable seven-year streak in which Jansen posted SIERA marks of 1.88 or lower.

Whether Jansen can still deliver a vintage performance the rest of the way, and into the future, remains to be seen. He is under contract through 2020, with $56MM of earnings over the three seasons yet to come, so there’s plenty at stake for the Dodgers. Clearly, though, the most important thing is that Jansen remains healthy.

Dodgers Recall Julio Urias

By Steve Adams | September 10, 2018 at 2:31pm CDT

After a rehab process that spanned more than 14 months, left-hander Julio Urias is back in the Majors. The Dodgers announced Monday that they’ve recalled the 22-year-old from Triple-A Oklahoma City — his first look in the big leagues since undergoing shoulder surgery last June.

Urias’ rapid ascent to the Majors is among the most impressive we’ve seen out of a pitcher in recent memory. The still-young lefty arrived on the scene in May 2016 — well shy of his 20th birthday — and gave the Dodgers 77 innings of 3.39 ERA ball with 84 strikeouts against 31 walks across multiple big league stints over the remainder of that season. Urias was one of the game’s 10 best prospects before debuting in ’16 and was looked at as a potential building block for the Dodgers’ rotation before last summer’s surgery.

That’s still the best-case scenario for Urias, of course, though surgery to repair the anterior capsule in his left shoulder at such a young age was a disheartening development that created a somewhat increased degree of uncertainty moving forward. For the time being, it’s likely he’ll be used out of the bullpen, as he’s only thrown 11 2/3 innings across three minor league levels since returning from that surgery. He’s racked up 19 strikeouts in that time but also issued six walks and been tagged for seven earned runs.

Some rust is to be expected for Urias, but a healthy run in September and perhaps in October, even in a relief role, would be a significant step forward as the Dodgers map out his trajectory in 2019 and beyond. It seems likely that Urias will again be viewed as a starter in the future, though Los Angeles will keep a close eye on his workload as he distances himself from major shoulder surgery.

Quick Hits: Judge, Seager, Rays

By Kyle Downing | September 9, 2018 at 8:28pm CDT

Yankees sophomore sensation Aaron Judge is still feeling pain when he swings a bat, per a tweet from Marc Carig of The Athletic. Certainly there’s still time for him to regain his health and strength in advance of the postseason (we still have three weeks until October, after all), but the news has to be disconcerting both for the Yankees organization and for Judge himself. The outfielder has been out of commission since July 26th after sustaining a chip fracture in his wrist, and though it was reported as recently as yesterday that he could be nearing a return after he was able to participate in on-field drills, the news that his pain level (still describes as a “4” on a 1-10 scale) casts some doubt on the notion that he could be back on the field within the next week or so.

Corey Seager expects to play shortstop for the Dodgers next year, as he tells Ken Gurnick of MLB.com. Seager has had massive misfortune this year in regards to injuries; he suffered a UCL injury early on in the season that required the infamous Tommy John procedure, and had to undergo a second procedure on his hip soon thereafter. Recently, though, he’s expressed confidence in his recovery from these surgeries. Seager is already off of crutches, and he looks forward to resuming a throwing program next month. “Based to this point, I’ll be ready to go,” Seager said. “I should, ’quote unquote,’ have a pretty normal spring. It will probably be a little slow in the beginning, but should be pretty normal.”
In light of the Rays’ success with creativity this season, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times details some of the most interesting aspects of the club’s strategy in 2018. Carig explores various aspects of the club’s advances back to contention, highlighted by the purging of veterans in order to bring focus to a new, young core. The coming out parties for players like Jake Bauers and Joey Wendle have been fun to watch, to be sure. But equally interesting has been their improvements in much broader aspects of the game: a few mentioned by Carig include the team’s improvement on the hard contact and line drive front, trimming of strikeouts, spike in batting average, and, of course, the adoption and implementation of the “opener” strategy.

NL West Notes: Jansen, Myers, Giants

By Mark Polishuk | September 9, 2018 at 1:33pm CDT

Kenley Jansen’s latest bout with an irregular heartbeat left the Dodgers closer more irritated than scared, he tells ESPN.com’s Ramona Shelburne. Jansen had dealt with similar heart issues in 2011 and 2012, the latter resulting in heart surgery. After the problem arose again last month, his immediate reaction was that “I thought my season was over. I’m like, man, f— this. Not again. We’re trying to go back to the World Series. I have a chance to win another Trevor Hoffman award. Man!” Shelburne’s piece details how Jansen dealt with the heart problem that evening, and how he has been trying to balance staying healthy while also making an earlier-than-expected return to the field.

Interestingly, Jansen noted that he likely wouldn’t be playing if the Dodgers weren’t in contention. “To tell you the truth, I wanted to have the second surgery right now so we could just fix it and I’d know everything was OK,” Jansen said. “But I know what an opportunity our team has this year and my responsibilities here.” That second surgery could come after the season is over, though while Jansen continues to play, he is sitting out the Dodgers’ road series against the Rockies this weekend on doctors’ recommendation, as his last two irregular heartbeat episodes occurred while in Denver’s thin air. Jansen is hopeful, however, that he would be cleared should the Dodgers end up facing the Rockies in a postseason series.

Here’s more baseball news from around the Golden State…

With Wil Myers still very much a work in progress at third base, “the Padres seem to be leaning toward moving” Myers between positions in 2019 rather than make him a full-time option at the hot corner, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes. Myers has spent much of his six MLB seasons at first base or right field, though he has also played multiple games as a center fielder (33 starts), left fielder (28 starts) and third baseman (18). Of course, he has yet to provide much defensive value wherever he has played, though if Myers is at least a passable option at multiple positions, the Padres can shift him around the diamond every day while opening up playing time for others. For his part, Myers feels he is making progress at his latest position and feels he can still contribute to the team as a primary third baseman.
The Giants should explore the idea of trading Madison Bumgarner this offseason, ESPN’s Buster Olney opines. Bumgarner is controlled through the 2019 season via a $12MM club option that is sure to be exercised, and the Giants would certainly get a good return for even just one year of the star lefty’s services. Of course, the team declined offers for Bumgarner at the trade deadline and has given every indication that it plans to contend in 2019. Olney, however, sees parallels between the Giants and the Phillies teams from earlier this decade, who suffered for holding onto a veteran core too long rather than recognize that a rebuild was necessary. Keeping Bumgarner next season or extending him may not make sense, Olney feels, for a Giants team that could soon face its own rebuild.

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