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Dodgers, Tucker Barnhart Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Dodgers have agreed to a minor league contract with free agent catcher Tucker Barnhart, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The Ballengee Group client was released by the Cubs last week.

Barnhart, 32, signed a two-year, $6.5MM deal with the Cubs over the winter. The second season of that contract is a player option, though that’s a moot point for the Dodgers, who are inking him to a new minor league deal. The Cubs will remain on the hook for the rest of Barnhart’s salary both this year and next — minus the prorated league minimum for any time he spends on a big league roster with the Dodgers or another team.

In 44 games with Chicago, Barnhart tallied 123 plate appearances but mustered only a .202/.285/.257 batting line with a 9.8% walk rate and 32.1% strikeout rate. It was Barnhart’s second straight year with all of his rate stats clocking in below .300, as he batted .221/.287/.267 in 308 trips to the plate with the Tigers last season.

Perhaps the Cubs felt Barnhart had a good chance to rebound to his 2015-21 levels of production (.249/.326/.375), but that clearly didn’t happen during his limited time at Wrigley Field. They were likely drawn to his longstanding status as a highly regarded defender as well, but Barnhart has taken some steps back in that regard this year. While he continues to grade as a quality framer, this season’s 19% caught-stealing rate is a career-low. Statcast also pegged Barnhart as the best in the sport at blocking pitches in the dirt from 2018-22, but he’s graded out below the league average in that capacity in 2023. The Cubs turned to 24-year-old Miguel Amaya to team with Yan Gomes behind the plate, and their longtime catching prospect has delivered a .235/.363/.392 slash in 125 plate appearances since essentially replacing Barnhart.

The Dodgers have one of baseball’s best all-around catchers, Will Smith, and have deployed veteran Austin Barnes in a backup capacity since 2015. Barnes, however, is sitting on a career-worst .165/.235/.209 output at the plate this year. He’s been one of the least-effective hitters in the game over his 154 plate appearances, and opponents have gone 56-for-62 against him in stolen base attempts.

The signing of Barnhart doesn’t necessarily jeopardize Barnes’ spot on the roster, but it does give Los Angeles a veteran option if the team wishes to carry three catchers or eventually make a switch. Barnhart’s numbers this year aren’t much to look at, but they’re a bit better than those of Barnes. And prior to this addition, the Dodgers weren’t exactly deep in seasoned options should an injury occur. Journeymen Patrick Mazeika and David Freitas are both on the roster in Triple-A, but neither has much big league time. Top prospect Diego Cartaya is highly touted, but he’s struggled in his first season at the Double-A level and wasn’t likely to be an option, should a need arise. For now, Barnhart will presumably head to Triple-A Oklahoma City, but it’s possible he’ll surface back in the big leagues at some point next month — particularly with rosters set to expand to 28 players on Friday.

Tony Gonsolin To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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The Dodgers announced that Tony Gonsolin will undergo Tommy John surgery. The procedure will be performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache on Friday.

Gonsolin was already known to be out for the remainder of the 2023 season. The club had announced his injury as forearm inflammation when first placing him on the IL last week. They transferred him to the 60-day IL yesterday to close the book on this year.

Now, it seems unlikely he’ll be a factor again until 2025. A Tommy John procedure typically comes with a recovery time pushing or exceeding 14 months. Perhaps he’d be able to make a return late next season, but the safer bet is that he’ll spend the entire ’24 campaign on the 60-day injured list.

Arm injuries have been an unfortunately recurring theme for Gonsolin during his five-year big league career. He lost a couple months early in 2021 with shoulder inflammation. He posted a 3.23 ERA in 15 starts that year and was healthy for the first part of 2022. Gonsolin turned in an All-Star first half and worked to a sparkling 2.14 ERA through 130 1/3 innings. A forearm strain sent him to the IL in late August.

Gonsolin returned at the end of September and made a start in L.A.’s playoff series loss to the Padres. His 2023 debut was delayed by an unrelated ankle sprain, though he returned in late April. The 29-year-old worked 103 innings across 20 outings, struggling to his first below-average season. He allowed just under five earned runs per nine while striking hitters out at a career-low 18.9% clip while his average fastball speed dipped from 93.1 MPH to 92.4 MPH. Things spiraled from late June onward, as Gonsolin allowed four-plus runs in eight of his 11 outings before being placed on the IL.

The Dodgers have now lost a pair of their expected top five starters to forearm surgeries. Dustin May underwent a flexor tendon procedure in early July. The Dodgers indicated May could be back midway through the ’24 season.

Los Angeles was certain to address their rotation next offseason even if May and Gonsolin had been healthy. Clayton Kershaw is an impending free agent, and while the Dodgers would surely have interest in re-signing him, the three-time Cy Young winner will first need to decide whether he wants to suit up for a 17th season. Julio Urías will be one of the top starters in next winter’s free agent class, while the Dodgers will have to make a net $17MM decision on an option for Lance Lynn.

The Dodgers could welcome Walker Buehler back in short stints next month and transition him back to the rotation for ’24. Rookie Bobby Miller has pitched well enough to stake a claim to a spot. That leaves as many as three jobs still to be sorted out between free agency, trade and some combination of Ryan Pepiot, Emmet Sheehan, Gavin Stone, Michael Grove and perhaps a prospect like Nick Frasso or Landon Knack. The pitching pipeline is strong enough they won’t be short on options, but they’ll obviously need to fortify the starting staff with additional certainty.

Gonsolin signed a two-year deal to cover his first couple arbitration seasons in January. He’s guaranteed a $3.4MM base salary for next year. That deal contained up to $3MM in start-based incentives which he won’t be able to trigger even if he makes a late-season return. Even beyond the lengthy rehab process, the absence will be fairly costly for the right-hander. He’ll remain eligible for arbitration through the 2026 campaign.

Pat Corrales Passes Away

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Former big league player, manager and coach Pat Corrales has passed away, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Corrales was 82 years old.

Born in Los Angeles in 1941, Patrick Corrales attended Fresno High School before signing with the Phillies as an amateur free agent in 1959. He worked his way up the minor league ladder and made his major league debut in 1964, though only got into two games that year. He would carve out a semi-regular role as a backup catcher in the seasons to come, bouncing to the Cardinals, Reds and Padres.

From 1964 to 1973, he got into 300 games and made 858 plate appearances. He had a batting average of .216 in that time, getting 166 hits, including 28 doubles, three triples and four home runs. He scored 63 runs, drove in 54 and stole one base. The 1970 Reds won the National League West and then defeated the Pirates in the NLCS to advance to the World Series, though they were then defeated by the Orioles. With the O’s up 3-1 in the series and 9-3 in the fifth game, Corrales was sent up to pinch hit for Hal McRae with two outs in the ninth. Corrales grounded out to finish the series and the season, the only postseason plate appearance of his career. (YouTube link via the Orioles.)

After his playing career ended, Corrales shifted into a managerial role, starring with the Rangers in the late ’70s before serving as skipper for Philadelphia and Cleveland. As a manager, he had a record of 572-634 over parts of nine different seasons. His last season as a manager was 1987, but he went on to spend many years as a bench coach, starting with the Yankees. He served in that role for Atlanta for nine years, including the club that won the 1995 World Series. He also served as a bench coach for the Nationals before being hired by the Dodgers as a special assistant to the general manager in 2012.

We at MLB Trade Rumors extend our condolences to his family, friends and loved ones.

Boras On Bellinger’s Bounceback Season

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Cody Bellinger’s 2023 rebound season with the Cubs has positioned him as one of the top players set to hit the free agent market this offseason. The 28-year-old landed second on MLBTR’s latest update to our Free Agent Power Rankings, and it’s all but a foregone conclusion that he’ll hit the market looking to secure a massive payday this offseason. If there was any doubt about that possibility, Bellinger’s agent, Scott Boras, removed it when discussing his client’s resurgence with USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. Interestingly, Boras called out the Dodgers organization for their handling of Bellinger when he wasn’t at full health.

“He was hurt, plain and simple,” Boras tells Nightengale of Bellinger’s 2021-22 seasons, when he batted a combined .193/.256/.355 in 900 plate appearances. “He has surgery, and the Dodgers asked him to play with a 35% strength deficiency, and then with COVID, he was deprived of the expert medical treatment. He didn’t have the shoulder strength. You don’t just go from a .900 OPS to a .500 OPS without understanding the impact of an injury.”

Bellinger famously injured his shoulder while celebrating a home run during the 2020 postseason. After swatting a go-ahead long ball in Game 7 of the NLCS, Bellinger and teammate Enrique Hernandez leapt and bashed their forearms together, which wound up dislocating Bellinger’s shoulder. He quickly had the shoulder popped back into its socket and continued to play through the World Series, but Bellinger underwent shoulder surgery in the offseason and didn’t look the same during 2021-22. He also dealt with a hairline fracture of his left fibula in April 2021 and later that season suffered a fractured rib when colliding with teammate Gavin Lux on a fly ball.

Fans tend to bristle at just about any public-facing comments from Boras, but in this case, injuries have long stood as an obvious and likely factor to Bellinger’s decline. The question surrounding his drop-off at the plate wasn’t so much one of whether the injuries were a factor, but rather one of whether he’d ever right the ship after struggling through a litany of injuries in under one year’s time.

The 2023 season in Chicago has rather emphatically answered those questions. Bellinger is hitting .321/.368/.546 with 20 home runs, 23 doubles, a triple and 18 steals (in 22 tries). He’s played both center field and first base for the Cubs, drawing above-average marks at each spot, and perhaps most critically has dramatically reduced his strikeout rate from 2021-22’s rate of 27.1% to a career-low 15%.

Bellinger isn’t walking nearly as often as he used to (7.2% compared to his 14.4% peak in 2019), and Statcast shows that he’s not hitting the ball nearly as hard as he did during his 2019 MVP campaign either. That season saw Bellinger average 91.1 mph off the bat with an overall 45.6% hard-hit rate; this year he’s at 87.3 mph and 30%, respectively. The drop in quality of contact is a potential red flag, but the results are undeniably impressive. When Bellinger does make hard contact, he’s managed to make the most of it.

It all sets the stage for a lucrative payday this winter, when the free-agent market will be largely devoid of productive, prime-aged hitters. In typical quotable fashion, Boras quipped that “demand is often created by rarity,” calling Bellinger a “five-tool player” and Gold Glove-caliber defender at multiple positions before adding that “…the demand for that is very, very high.” Bellinger said all the right things free agents typically espouse, about his desire to remain with the Cubs and his affinity for the stadium, fans and culture.

Nightengale also spoke with teammates Dansby Swanson and Michael Fulmer, manager David Ross and bench coach Andy Green, all of whom raved about Bellinger’s importance to the club and his remarkable season overall. The exact asking price on Bellinger won’t be clear until the offseason begins in earnest, but it’s easy to envision Boras & Co. seeking a long-term deal worth more than the hefty sums secured for fellow clients Brandon Nimmo (eight years, $162MM) and Kris Bryant (seven years, $182MM). Both began their respective contracts in their age-30 seasons; Bellinger won’t turn 29 until the All-Star break next season.

Injury Notes: Dodgers, Devers, Manning, Houser

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Dodgers manager Dave Roberts provided a host of injury updates this afternoon regarding various relief options for the club as LA hurtles toward their eleventh consecutive playoff appearance, as relayed by Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. While right-hander Tony Gonsolin will not be an option for the club down the stretch this year, Roberts provided updates on a pair of relievers who could still impact the club in 2023: right-handers Joe Kelly and Yency Almonte.

Kelly threw a bullpen session recently but is still struggling with pain in his elbow, per Roberts. The veteran righty, who threw 3 2/3 scoreless innings with the Dodgers after joining the club at the trade deadline alongside Lance Lynn, went on the injured list earlier this month with elbow inflammation. According to Roberts, Kelly is expected to return in time for the postseason but there is “a chance he’s not gonna be 100%” when he does. Almonte, meanwhile, has a clearer timeline, with Roberts indicating that the 29 year old is two to three weeks from a return from his knee injury.

Most interesting for Dodgers fans will surely be Roberts’ comments on right-hander Walker Buehler, who’s aiming to return from Tommy John surgery before the 2023 season comes to a close. Buehler hasn’t started a rehab assignment, but Plunkett relays that Roberts still believes Buehler’s long-stated goal of returning to the big league mound for games in September is still on the table, with the manager indicating that the club is planning on Buehler to return to the majors toward the middle of the month. While Roberts notes that Buehler’s stuff is in good shape, his command “hasn’t been good” and is something “he’ll have to work through” on his coming rehab assignment.

Healthy returns to the mound from Kelly, Almonte, and particularly Buehler would substantially deepen the club’s bullpen ahead of the postseason. While the Dodgers have been nothing short of dominant of late with just four losses in August, the club’s bullpen is a potential weak point, ranking roughly middle-of-the-pack in the majors with a 3.83 ERA and having been leaned on for the more innings than any NL bullpen besides those in Cincinnati and San Francisco.

More injury notes from around the league…

  • Star Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers underwent x-rays on his wrist after being hit by a pitch during last night’s game against LA and struck from the lineup this afternoon. Fortunately, Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic relays that those x-rays came back negative, per manager Alex Cora. Cora added to reporters that Devers could return to the lineup as soon as tomorrow, depending on how the slugger is feeling. That’s surely a relief for Boston, as the 26-year-old infielder is perhaps the club’s most important and consistent players. Devers is in the midst of another season right in line with his career norms; since his breakout campaign in 2019, he’s slashed .288/.351/.529 with a 19.7% strikeout rate and a 131 wRC+. In 530 trips to the plate this season, Devers has essentially replicated that line, slashing .272/.347/.516 with a 18.7% strikeout rate and a 127 wRC+.
  • Tigers right-hander Matt Manning is preparing to make his next start on Wednesday after exiting his last start with lower back tightness. With that being said, Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press indicated yesterday that Manning actually making his start on Wednesday is not a guarantee. Per Petzold, manager AJ Hinch told reporters that the club will “see how the next couple of days are” regarding Manning’s health before determining whether or not he’ll make his start. Petzold suggests right-hander Spencer Turnbull and left-hander Joey Wentz could be options to take the ball on Wednesday should Manning, who sports a 3.93 ERA in 13 starts with the Tigers this season, require a trip to the shelf.
  • Brewers righty Adrian Houser departed today’s start against the Padres after just two innings, having allowed four runs on four hits and a walk. Milwaukee indicated that Houser’s early exit was due to what the club termed “minor forearm tightness.” As relayed by Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Houser downplayed the injury’s seriousness in conversations with reporters, indicating he expects to make his next start after taking some time off to rest. Houser’s next start would line up for Saturday against the Phillies, though with a day off on Thursday Milwaukee has the ability to give Houser additional rest without using another starter, should he need it.

Dodgers Claim Tyson Miller, Move Tony Gonsolin To 60-Day IL

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The Dodgers announced that they have claimed right-hander Tyson Miller off waivers from the Mets.  To create roster space, Tony Gonsolin was moved to the 60-day injured list, officially ending Gonsolin’s season.

Gonsolin was placed on the 15-day IL on August 19 due to right forearm inflammation, and since manager Dave Roberts said at the time that Gonsolin probably wouldn’t pitch again in 2023, the shift to the 60-day IL isn’t a surprise by any means.  The exact nature of Gonsolin’s injury isn’t quite known, and Roberts today told the Orange County Register’s Bill Plunkett and other reporters that the right-hander had undergone an MRI.  Some type of surgical procedure is being considered, and if Gonsolin did get this surgery, it would impact when he might able to return to the mound in 2024.

The possibility of a longer-term injury is obviously an unfortunate setback for Gonsolin, who has already struggled through a difficult 2023 season that included a sprained ankle in Spring Training and some recurring elbow pain that led to his placement on the IL.  Gonsolin was an All-Star in 2022 but clearly wasn’t himself this year, finishing with a 4.98 ERA over 103 innings.

The Dodgers are in first place in the NL West despite a storm of pitching injuries this season, and the possibility of Gonsolin now missing at least some time next year creates another wrinkle in their 2024 plans.  Julio Urias and Clayton Kershaw will be free agents, Lance Lynn could be a free agent if L.A. doesn’t exercise an $18MM club option on his services, and Dustin May will be out until midseason after undergoing flexor tendon surgery this past July.  That leaves Walker Buehler (who aims to be back from Tommy John surgery before this season is over) and a host of youngsters like Ryan Pepiot, Gavin Stone, Bobby Miller, Emmet Sheehan, and Michael Grove all in the mix for rotation jobs.  Los Angeles certainly isn’t going into a season with such an unproven set of pitchers, so adding some front-of-the-rotation experience will be a key part of the Dodgers’ winter business.

Miller is back with the Dodgers less than a month after he was claimed away by New York off waivers.  Los Angeles previously acquired Miller from the Brewers in July after Milwaukee designated the righty for assignment, so it has quite a whirlwind of organizational change for the 28-year-old in less than two months’ time.

Amidst all these moves, Miller has a 5.40 ERA over 13 1/3 combined innings with the Brewers, Dodgers, and Mets this season.  Now in his third MLB season, Miller previously appeared with the Cubs in 2020 and the Rangers in 2022, with his 2021 campaign split between the Cubs’ and Rangers’ Triple-A affiliates.  Miller has a 4.04 ERA over 594 2/3 career minor league innings, including a 4.11 ERA in 30 2/3 frames of Triple-A work this season.

Dodgers Sign Oscar Mercado To Minor League Contract

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The Dodgers have signed outfielder Oscar Mercado to a minor league deal, MLB Trade Rumors’ Steve Adams reports (via X).  Mercado will report to the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate.

After signing a minors contract with the Cardinals last November, Mercado had his deal selected and he appeared in 20 games for St. Louis before being designated for assignment at the start of July.  Mercado opted for free agency rather than accept an outright assignment, and while he landed pretty quickly with the Padres on another minor league deal, he hit the open market again earlier this week when he exercised an opt-out clause in that contract.

Mercado’s path has now taken him to Los Angeles, where he’ll try to become the latest player to resurrect his career in Dodger blue.  The 28-year-old made his MLB debut in 2019 with Cleveland and finished eighth in Rookie of the Year voting that year, though his star dimmed after a lot of struggles at the plate.  Mercado went back and forth between the Guardians and Phillies on a pair of waiver claims that put him back in Cleveland for the remainder of the 2022 campaign.

Mercado is still a very solid hitter at the minor league level, including a .308/.379/.544 slash line over 283 Triple-A plate appearances this season.  While his career MLB slash line is a much more modest .237/.289/.388 over 973 PA, he has hit left-handed pitching generally better, and Mercado also offers skills beyond the bat.  He can play all three outfield positions in above-average fashion, and he is a quality basestealer, with 25 swipes in 29 attempts at Triple-A this year.

The Dodgers already have plenty of outfield options on their MLB roster, though Mookie Betts has still seen a good deal of second base action and L.A.’s overall hitting depth took a hit when J.D. Martinez was placed on the 10-day injured list.  Mercado might essentially take the minor league depth spot ticketed for Jake Marisnick before Marisnick suffered a hamstring injury that will keep him sidelined until mid-September due to a 60-day IL placement.

Blake Treinen Begins Rehab Assignment

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Dodgers righty Blake Treinen began a minor league rehab assignment at the team’s Arizona Complex League affiliate on Tuesday and is now headed to Triple-A Oklahoma City to continue that rehab, tweets Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times. However, manager Dave Roberts conceded that it’s a “long shot” that the former relief ace will be able to contribute for the Dodgers down the stretch.

Treinen, 35, underwent shoulder surgery back in November and is already passed the 10-month recovery window the Dodgers laid out at the time of surgery. The right-hander said earlier this month that he’d been throwing bullpen sessions and remained optimistic about his chances of returning before the end of the season. With Treinen now heading to Triple-A, he’ll have a 30-day rehab window in the minors.

Treinen spent the majority of the 2022 season on the injured list, pitching just five innings, and hasn’t taken a big league mound since Sept. 5 of last year. His 2021 season was nothing short of elite, however. The veteran righty posted a sparkling 1.99 ERA with a hefty 29.7% strikeout rate, a solid 8.7% walk rate and a strong 52.6% ground-ball rate in 72 1/3 innings.

A sixth-place finisher in 2018 AL Cy Young voting when he saved 38 games with a 0.78 ERA for the A’s, Treinen has routinely been a source of missed bats and grounders when healthy. He’s worked in high-leverage roles for the Nationals, A’s and Dodgers in a nine-year big league career, logging a 2.86 ERA with 87 holds and 79 saves in 503 innings at the big league level.

Roberts, of course, chose not to completely close the door on a potential Treinen return, and it’s further possible that the right-hander could return at some point during the postseason, if he’s indeed healthy enough to do so. Treinen is one of nine relievers on the injured list with the Dodgers, but Roberts still boasts a strong back end of the bullpen led by Evan Phillips, Brusdar Graterol, Caleb Ferguson and resurgent righty Ryan Brasier (1.11 ERA in 24 1/3 innings since joining Los Angeles).

Even if Treinen’s unable to return this season, his progress in Oklahoma City will be worth watching closely. The Dodgers hold a club option on Treinen that’ll be valued between $1MM and $7MM. Presumably, given Treinen’s lack of innings this year, it will land at or near the bottom of that range.

Dodgers Place J.D. Martinez On Injured List

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The Dodgers announced Tuesday that slugger J.D. Martinez has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a groin injury. Infielder Michael Busch has been recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City to take his spot on the active roster.

Martinez, who turned 36 yesterday, has been hobbled by tightness in his groin recently and hasn’t been in the lineup since Aug. 19. The Dodgers can thus backdate his placement on the IL a couple of days. Even a short-term absence for Martinez removes one of the most potent bats from the Los Angeles lineup, as Martinez has had a resurgent season in the power department, batting .256/.309/.547 with 25 big flies and 23 doubles in 390 plate appearances. He also missed about two weeks earlier this season, owing to discomfort in his lower back.

While Martinez has found some renewed pop after hitting “just” 16 home runs in 2022, the uptick in power has come at the expense of some contact. Martinez’s 31.3% strikeout rate is the highest mark of his career, while his 7.2% walk rate is his lowest since 2014. It’s been a worthwhile trade-off in the aggregate, and Martinez’s career-high 93.1 mph exit velocity and 54.5% hard-hit rate speak to the legitimacy of his restored power.

Martinez is playing the season on a one-year, $10MM deal he agreed to over the winter after wrapping up a five-year, $110MM deal in Boston. He’ll be a free agent again at season’s end.

Busch, 25, entered the season ranked as one of the game’s top 100 prospects but hasn’t found much success in limited MLB opportunities thus far. He’s tallied 51 plate appearances and recorded a tepid .200/.294/.267 batting line with a 31.4% strikeout rate in that time. He’s obliterated Triple-A pitching in Oklahoma City, though, mashing at a .323/.432/.615 clip and swatting 24 home runs in 424 trips to the plate. Strikeouts haven’t been an issue in OKC like they have in the big leagues; Busch has fanned in just 18.9% of his minor league plate appearances this year and countered that with a huge 14.4% walk rate.

Busch can step up and take some of Martinez’s temporarily vacated DH at-bats, and he’ll also give the Dodgers an option at second base, third base, first base or in left field. The former No. 31 overall pick has been primarily a second baseman but has 585 innings at third base, 159 innings at first base and 132 innings in left field in his professional career.

West Notes: Kinley, Hancock, Hudson

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Rockies right-hander Tyler Kinley was placed on the 15-day injured list with right elbow inflammation earlier today, as noted by Luke Zahlmann of the Denver Gazette. While additional details of Kinley’s injury and his timetable for return are currently unclear, it’s a devastating blow for the 32-year-old righty, who made just seven appearances this season after working his way back from elbow surgery, which he underwent last June. Prior to his surgery, Kinley appeared to be something of a revelation out of the Rockies’ bullpen last year, with a dazzling 0.75 ERA, 1.74 FIP, and a 27% strikeout rate in 25 appearances with Colorado in 2022.

That strong showing led the club to extend Kinley last November with a contract that guaranteed him $6.25MM over the 2023-25 seasons. Now, it seems likely that the first of those seasons, at least, will bear little fruit. In his seven trips to the mound this season, Kinley struggled badly to a 9.53 ERA with two home runs allowed in 5 1/3 innings, though that of course is a small sample size immediately following a significant layoff from big league action. With the 2023 campaign already essentially lost for the 48-75 Rockies, the club’s top priority regarding Kinley seems likely to be ensuring he’s fully healthy and ready to go for the 2024 campaign.

More from around MLB’s West divisions…

  • Mariners right-hander Emerson Hancock exited today’s start against the Astros after just 31 pitches with a right shoulder strain, per a club announcement. While the club has not yet indicated whether Hancock will require a trip to the injured list, that seems to be the most likely outcome. After all, the 24-year-old Hancock is just three starts into his big league career and has already eclipsed his previous career-high for total innings with 110 frames of work between the majors and minors this season. If Hancock does require a trip to the shelf, the Mariners are well-equipped to weather the injury with fellow youngster Bryan Woo expected to be activated from the injured list later this week.
  • Dodgers right-hander Daniel Hudson has managed just three innings of work this season thanks to first a torn ACL and then a sprained MCL, but the veteran hurler tells Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register that he’s hopeful he can return to the Dodgers in time to be part of the club’s postseason bullpen. If that comes to pass, Hudson would surely provide a boost to the relief corps in LA. While Dodgers relievers rank 10th in the majors with a solid 3.85 ERA, the club’s bullpen has also handled the third-most innings of work in the NL this year, leaving them potentially vulnerable to losing steam as the season heads toward the stretch run. While Hudson seems focused on a comeback attempt this year, the 36-year-old also acknowledged that he’s contemplating the end of his playing days, noting that he’s “been in pretty consistent pain for about 15 months.” With that being said, Hudson ultimately was noncommittal on his plans post-2023, saying, “…maybe I give it another shot. If not, I’ve had a pretty good run and it is what it is at that point.”
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