NL West Notes: Dodgers, Sandoval, Padres, Buchholz
With the Dodgers trying to stay under the $197MM competitive-balance tax threshold and unsure if they’ll contend this year, they’re not in position to act aggressively on the trade market, says FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal (video link). Given that the athletic Cody Bellinger may be a better fit in center field than at first base, Rosenthal notes that Los Angeles looks like a fit on paper for White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu. However, Abreu is making $13MM – a salary which would be problematic for the tax-minded Dodgers, whose payroll is just above $186MM – and Rosenthal points out that the club may be more focused on bolstering its pitching if it does look to upgrade its roster via trade. The Dodgers’ staff might have taken yet another costly hit Saturday when left-hander Rich Hill exited his start after throwing a mere two pitches, Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times was among those to report. Hill’s longstanding blister issues may have led to his departure, McCullough suggests.
Here’s more from the NL West:
- The Giants are considering using big-bodied corner infielder Pablo Sandoval at second base, John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle relays. Sandoval has been taking grounders recently at the keystone with guidance from infield coach Ron Wotus, who said that the longtime third baseman “looks good. He has quick feet and good hands. So far, so good.” San Francisco’s in position to ponder this experiment because second basemen Joe Panik and Alen Hanson are on the disabled list. Moreover, Kelby Tomlinson and Miguel Gomez haven’t been particularly effective at the plate, while the 31-year-old Sandoval has hit a solid .270/.329/.429 in 70 PAs. That represents Sandoval’s best production in several years, though it’s obviously too soon to determine whether the Panda’s truly turning back into a useful hitter.
- Padres reliever Kirby Yates has emerged as one of the best waiver pickups in recent memory, thanks in part to the development of a splitter, AJ Cassavell of MLB.com writes. Yates, whom San Diego claimed from the Angels in April 2017, has posted a 3.06 ERA with 13.6 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 in 70 2/3 innings as a Padre. The club can take some credit for Yates’ breakout, as it has encouraged the 31-year-old to use his splitter – a pitch he has tossed 32 percent of the time this season en route to dominant results, Cassavell details. “The Angels didn’t want me to get away from the slider,” Yates told Cassavell. “I wasn’t necessarily going to get away from the slider, but I was trying to add a third pitch. When I got here, it was, ‘We like your split, we want you to throw it more.’“
- Veteran right-hander Clay Buchholz‘s minors pact with the Diamondbacks comes with a prorated $1.6MM major league salary, Zach Buchanan of The Athletic tweets. Buchholz will begin earning that sum Sunday when he makes a start against the Mets. It’ll be the 33-year-old’s first MLB appearance since April 11, 2017.
Dodgers Designate Henry Owens
The Dodgers have designated lefty Henry Owens for assignment. His roster spot will go to Erik Goeddel, who was claimed off waivers today.
Owens was once viewed as a significant prospect, but never really took the final steps in his development. The Dodgers claimed him over the winter from the Diamondbacks, who had previously nabbed him off waivers from the Red Sox. Owens is still just 25, and will surely receive further opportunities to put it all together, but he has yet to pitch in the 2018 season.
In his 85 innings at the game’s highest level, Owens carries only a 5.19 ERA with 7.5 K/9 and 4.7 BB/9. The results had been better at Triple-A, despite middling K/BB figures, until a disastrous 2017 campaign. Owens dished out 115 walks to go with his 121 strikeouts in 126 frames split between Double-A and Triple-A, then was tagged for 21 earned runs (with a 15:13 K/BB ratio) in his 21 1/3 innings in the Arizona Fall League.
Dodgers Claim Erik Goeddel From Mariners, Sign Tyler Goeddel
The Dodgers have claimed right-handed reliever Erik Goeddel off waivers from the Mariners, reports J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group (via Twitter). He was designated for assignment earlier this week. Because he’s out of minor league options, he’ll be added to the MLB bullpen. It’s also worth noting that the Dodgers signed Goeddel’s younger brother, Tyler Goeddel, to a minor league contract yesterday, as reflected on the league’s transactions page.
The elder Goeddel, 29, had previously spent his career with the Mets organization before landing in Seattle this offseason. The righty was off to a nice start in the Seattle ‘pen, tossing 7 1/3 innings of one-run ball with nine strikeouts, though he also issued five walks and threw a pair of wild pitches. His average fastball velocity, too, was down about a half mile per hour from 2017 and a mile per hour from its peak levels.
Erik entered the 2018 season with a lifetime 3.96 ERA, 9.4 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 in 104 2/3 MLB innings, though the majority of his best work came in 2014-15. Over the past two seasons, he struggled to a 4.87 ERA at the MLB level, maintaining his penchant for missing bats but also demonstrating shaky control and a proclivity for surrendering home runs. Walks have been an ongoing issue for him throughout his minor league tenure (4.2 BB/9 in 131 Triple-A innings), but home runs haven’t plagued him in the minors.
As for the younger of the two brothers, the 25-year-old Tyler was the 41st pick in the 2011 MLB Draft and the No. 1 pick in the 2015 Rule 5 Draft. The outfielder struggled with the Phillies in his lone big league season, though, hitting just .192/.258/.291 in 234 trips to the plate. He’s a career .263/.344/.358 hitter in 310 Triple-A plate appearances and had been with the Reds’ Triple-A affiliate to open the year before being released.
Minor MLB Transactions: 5/16/18
Here are Wednesday’s minor moves from around the game…
- Right-hander Logan Bawcom is back with the Dodgers organization for a third stint after having his contract purchased from the Sugar Land Skeeters of the independent Atlantic League. The Dodgers’ Double-A affiliate in Tulsa announced the move, and Bawcom started for them today (two runs on six hits and no walks with four strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings). Now 29 years old, Bawcom was originally drafted by the Dodgers in the 17th round back in 2010, and he also spent the 2016 season in their system. Bawcom, still looking for his first call to the big leagues, has pitched rather well in the upper minors throughout his pro career. In 346 innings at the Triple-A level, he owns a 3.38 ERA with 7.5 K/9 against 3.7 BB/9 and ground-ball rates that typically sit in the 41 to 44 percent range.
- The Athletics released outfielder/first baseman Slade Heathcott from their Triple-A affiliate in Nashville, per the Pacific Coast League’s transactions page. The former first-round pick was once considered one of the Yankees’ best prospects, but he’s appeared in just 17 big league games and collected 30 plate appearances (albeit with a strong .400/.429/.720 slash to show for it). Strong production in his brief cup of coffee notwithstanding, Heathcott has never been much of a force in the upper minors. After tearing through Class-A Advanced as a 21-year-old (.314/.382/.486), he’s slashed .258/.329/.415 in 205 Double-A games and .263/.338/.358 in 177 Triple-A contests. His numbers with Nashville this season — .266/.333/.376 in 120 PAs — are a near mirror image of his career stats at that level.
Dodgers Activate Justin Turner, Logan Forsythe
The Dodgers announced Tuesday that they’ve reinstated infielders Justin Turner and Logan Forsythe from the disabled list today. Fellow infielders Kyle Farmer and Tim Locastro were optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City to create room on the 40-man roster.
[Related: Updated Los Angeles Dodgers depth chart]
Turner will take the field for the Dodgers tonight for the first time this season after missing a quarter of the season due to a broken wrist suffered late in Spring Training. In his absence, Dodgers third basemen have combined to post a woeful .209/.291/.374 batting line in 158 plate appearances. Forsythe, Farmer, and Max Muncy have combined for all of the Dodgers’ activity at third base in lieu of Turner this season, and the largely futile results have played no small role in the team’s 16-24 start to the year.
Forsythe, meanwhile, will be returning to the club after landing on the disabled list exactly a month ago due to inflammation in his right shoulder. He’ll slot back into the mix at second base and share time with veteran Chase Utley there, though he’ll be looking to rebound from a slow start that saw him bat just .174/.224/.283 in 49 trips to the plate before his own placement on the disabled list.
In other Dodgers health-related news, Andy McCullough of the L.A. Times tweets that Clayton Kershaw played catch once again today, though it doesn’t sound as if the lefty is nearing a return to the active roster. Via McCullough, manager Dave Roberts indicated that Kershaw isn’t expected to pitch off a mound on the current road trip. It’s been reported that Kershaw will miss a matter of weeks rather than months, though a specific timeline hasn’t yet been put in place on his return to a Dodgers rotation that will also be without lefty Hyun-Jin Ryu until sometime after the All-Star break.
Andrew Friedman Discusses Dodgers’ Poor Start
While the Dodgers had hoped to put an ugly April behind them, they’ve now lost seven of eight games and sit just a game up on the cellar-dwelling Padres. Clearly, it’s not too late for the club to get back into the division race; they sit eight back of the Diamondbacks, a large but hardly insurmountable gap at this stage of the year. But the questions and the pressures are only increasing in Los Angeles, where fans had hoped for a strong follow-up to a 2017 campaign that ended agonizingly close to a long-awaited World Series win.
President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman chatted with Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times about the rough start and what he intends to do about it. It’s well worth a full read, but these are a few of the highlights:
- Manager Dave Roberts does not appear to be at risk of losing his job, with Friedman saying that “[t]here is no doubt in my mind that [Roberts] is the right guy to lead this team going forward.” At the same time, Friedman did not make any express guarantees of job safety for Roberts, who can be retained via club option in 2019. More broadly, Friedman said the preference is to focus on improving rather than assigning blame for a middling run to date. But “if we had to assign blame at this point,” he added, “it should be me who is taking that, and not [Roberts].”
- As Shaikin explains, the Dodgers’ lineup and starting rotation have actually produced at decent rates. While more might have been expected from those units, it’s a fairly short sample and injuries (to Justin Turner and Corey Seager, in particular) have certainly played a role. As Shaikin rightly notes, though, the bullpen has been a major problem for Los Angeles. Friedman acknowledges that issue, and generally expressed ample openness to seeking mid-season upgrades. But significant trades, just aren’t realistic at this point, he says, so the organization’s collective attention is on internal improvement. “When you’re evaluating things in May, the outside is not really a viable option,” says Friedman. “So all of your focus is on helping your own guys to perform up to their ability.”
- Of course, the relief unit lost some key pieces (most notably, Brandon Morrow) over the winter, with the Dodgers choosing to prioritize financial efficiency in finding replacements — due in no small part, it seemed, to the fact that the club preferred to stay beneath the luxury tax threshold. Shaikin pressed Friedman on the question whether the luxury line would continue to constrain the organization’s options as they weigh deadline maneuvers. The Dodgers’ top baseball executive did not commit to a willingness to go past the line, but did say that the competitive balance tax situation will generally be treated “just like trading prospects,” in that the club will need to “optimize the current year while putting [itself] in a position to sustain it.” It certainly sounds, then, as if the club will not be drawing any firm lines in the sand when it comes to taking on salary (versus parting with other resources) in mid-season trade talks.
West Notes: Ohtani, Mariners, Desmond, Reynolds, Dodgers
Though the Angels elected not to use Shohei Ohtani as a pinch-hitter late in Saturday night’s game due to the fact that he was slated to start on Sunday, manager Mike Scioscia suggested yesterday that the team could eventually work to get Ohtani’s bat into the game more often (via Jeff Miller of the L.A. Times). Scioscia called the team’s template for using Ohtani “conservative” but added that the Angels could eventually loosen some constraints on the two-way star’s usage. Scioscia also acknowledged that the team has even considered forgoing the designated hitter on days when Ohtani pitches in American League stadiums, though as Miller notes, that could present problems for a team with a thin bench. “It would take an extreme, you know, something you might consider in September, if it was something that was really critical and you needed his bat in the lineup,” said the manager.
More from the game’s Western divisions…
- While the loss of Robinson Cano due to a broken hand is a significant blow, the bullpen may be the Mariners‘ primary focus when searching for upgrades, writes Bob Dutton for KLAY 1180 AM. Cano figures to be back this summer, and while the rotation has hardly been effective, it’s more difficult to add high-end starting pitching upgrades around the deadline than it is to add relief arms, Dutton notes. Seattle would be hard-pressed to outbid other teams for a top-of-the-rotation arm, and club officials have acknowledged to Dutton that targeting relief help is a likelier course of action. Juan Nicasio has completely melted down over his past couple appearances after a dominant start to the season, while Nick Vincent hasn’t been as effective as he has in recent seasons, either.
- Ian Desmond‘s struggles have become a glaring problem for the Rockies, writes Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. However, manager Bud Black and the Colorado front office still believe the veteran will turn things around despite his .170/.213/.355 slash this season and his unsightly .244/.294/.369 line since coming to the Rockies in the 2016-17 offseason. Desmond’s problems are all the more concerning given the struggles of Ryan McMahon earlier this season, leaving the Rox with little in the way of in-house options. Saunders notes that talks between the Rockies and Mark Reynolds never really took off, though he suggests that if Reynolds loses his roster spot in Washington once Ryan Zimmerman returns, the two sides could again explore a fit. However, Saunders also hears from those within the organization that the team wouldn’t relegate Desmond to the bench in favor of Reynolds, which could make a return to Denver a tough sell.
- Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic spoke to Dave Roberts, Kenley Jansen, Chris Taylor and others about the Dodgers‘ early struggles (subscription link). While the losses of Corey Seager, Justin Turner, Clayton Kershaw and Hyun-Jun Ryu have hurt the club immensely, Rosenthal also contends that the Dodgers’ approach this offseason didn’t do the team any favors. The Dodgers were known to be avoiding the luxury tax threshold — an important factor as they prepare for next offseason’s impressive free-agent class — and thus sought bargain options to replace quality contributors such as Brandon Morrow and Tony Watson (namely, signing Tom Koehler and acquiring Scott Alexander). Of course, it’s worth pointing out that Morrow and Watson were low-cost acquisitions themselves, and Rosenthal notes that the current front office has had success in building bullpens on the fly in the past. With Turner nearing a return and Kershaw expected to be out for weeks, rather than months (per Rosenthal), there’s help on the horizon, however, at a time when the division-leading D-backs are struggling with some of their own injury losses.
NL West Notes: Goldschmidt, Desmond, Rockies, Hill
While still technically an above-average run creator (105 wRC+) this season, Paul Goldschmidt is suffering through an uncharacteristically long slump, hitting just .216/.347/.388 with four homers over his first 167 plate appearances. As Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic notes, Goldschmidt’s soft-contact rate is much higher than his career average, as is his percentage of swinging-and-missing fastballs in the strike zone. The latter statistic has led to Goldschmidt’s 30.5% strikeout rate, which is far above his 22.4% career mark. The Diamondbacks first baseman didn’t share any details about his slump to reporters, except to say that he feels physically fine, so an injury doesn’t appear to be the cause of the problem. Remarkably, the D’Backs are still tied for the NL’s best record despite not having their star slugger hitting at his usual standard, though obviously the team hopes Goldschmidt gets on track soon.
Some more items from around the NL West…
- Speaking of slumping first basemen, Ian Desmond‘s struggles continued today with an 0-for-4 day, dropping his slash line to an ugly .170/.213/.355 over 150 PA. The Rockies are lacking in viable alternatives at first base, The Athletic’s Nick Groke writes (subscription required), with Ryan McMahon recently demoted due to his own lack of production, Daniel Castro and Josh Fuentes both lacking experience at first base, and prospect Jordan Patterson hitting well but carrying a high strikeout rate at Triple-A. It isn’t probable that Gerardo Parra returns to first base, as “his defense lacked and he disliked the idea” of the position change in limited action at first last season. It stands to reason that first base could be a target area for the Rockies at the trade deadline should they remain the pennant race — like the D’Backs, the Rockies have also been competitive (22-19 after today’s loss to the Brewers) despite a lack of production at first base. A new addition, however, wouldn’t help solve the bigger-picture problem of Desmond, who has been a sub-replacement level player since signing a five-year, $70MM free agent deal with Colorado in December 2016.
- Dodgers left-hander Rich Hill was removed during the sixth inning of today’s start due to a blister on the middle finger of his throwing hand, manager Dave Roberts told Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times (Twitter link) and other reporters. Roberts is still hopeful Hill can make his next start, though another blister is an ominous sign given Hill’s long history of similar issues. Hill has already spent time on the DL this season due to a cracked fingernail and infection on that same finger. Though Hill has just a 6.20 ERA over 24 2/3 IP this season, the Dodgers can ill-afford yet another notable injury, especially with the rotation already missing Clayton Kershaw and Hyun-Jin Ryu.
- For more from the division, Connor Byrne published another set of NL West Notes earlier today on MLBTR
NL West Notes: Kershaw, Bumgarner, Padres
A few items from the National League West…
- Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw will choose whether to opt out of the remaining two years and $65MM on his contract after the season ends, and Buster Olney of ESPN looks at several factors that could play into the process. Health is chief among them, which isn’t surprising considering Kershaw’s recent injury issues. The 30-year-old is currently on the DL with biceps tendinitis after missing time during the previous two seasons with back and hip issues. If Kershaw does opt out, Olney wonders if his legacy with the Dodgers will help influence them to give him a megadeal. They’ve shied away from overly long commitments in recent years, including when they allowed Zack Greinke to sign with the rival Diamondbacks for a six-year, $206.5MM guarantee in December 2015, Olney points out.
- The Giants are taking an aggressive approach in ace Madison Bumgarner‘s recovery from a fractured pinky finger, Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group relays. Manager Bruce Bochy indicated that Bumgarner may only need one rehab start and could return shortly after May 25, when he’s eligible to come off the 60-day DL. Bumgarner hasn’t pitched yet this year, and his debut will be an especially timely one for a San Francisco team that just lost fellow front-of-the-rotation starter Johnny Cueto for up to two months with an elbow strain.
- The Padres’ decision to designate veteran infielder Chase Headley on Saturday opened up a spot for infielder/outfielder Cory Spangenberg, whom they recalled from Triple-A. Now, Spangenberg may be in a do-or-die spot with the organization, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune suggests. The 27-year-old Spangenberg will see more time at third base than the 34-year-old Headley did, per Acee, as the bottom-feeding Padres want to find out if the younger player is capable of emerging as a long-term piece. Spangenberg, who has been with the Padres since they chose him 10th overall in the 2011 draft, has offered roughly league-average offensive production (.262/.319/.399, 97 wRC+) across 1,009 major league plate appearances.
- In the wake of Headley’s exit from the Padres’ roster, Dennis Lin of The Athletic (subscription required) opines that “the jury’s still out” on A.J. Preller’s ability to make trades. The fifth-year general manager took on Headley and his $13MM salary during the offseason in order to acquire righty Bryan Mitchell from the Yankees, and that hasn’t worked out at all thus far. Both that trade and the 2015 swap in which Preller sent infielder Jedd Gyorko to the Cardinals for outfielder Jon Jay “have been duds,” Lin writes.
Will The Dodgers Make The Playoffs?
With a major league-best 104-58 record, a National League-high plus-190 run differential and their first pennant since 1988, the Dodgers were a juggernaut in 2017. Because most of that great roster returned this year, expectations were that the Dodgers would once again rank among the majors’ so-called super teams. Instead, as the season nears the quarter pole, Los Angeles’ record places it in company with the dregs of the league.
LA dropped to a stunningly poor 16-23 on Saturday when it lost its third straight game to lowly Cincinnati, which at 13-27 is one of just three NL teams with a worse mark. The Dodgers will have to fight Sunday to stave off an embarrassing four-game home sweep and perhaps an even larger deficit in the NL West, a division they already trail by eight games. Not only have the rival Diamondbacks gotten off to the NL’s best start (24-15), but they’ve manhandled the Dodgers in the process, winning eight of 12 matchups. The two teams won’t see each other again until the end of August, and if they maintain something resembling their current pace, the Dodgers will be out of both the division and wild-card races by then.
Given the talent on the Dodgers’ roster, it stands to reason they’ll at least push for a wild card, though they’re already 6.5 games back in a crowded race. Ten of the league’s 15 teams are over .500, and eight of those clubs have posted positive run differentials. LA is among those clubs, having scored one more run than it has allowed (168 to 167) en route to an above-.500 Pythagorean record (20-19). It seems the Dodgers have been the victims of bad luck in the win-loss department, then, and they’ve definitely had poor fortune on the injury front.
LA’s laundry list of ailments began in earnest late in spring training when elite third baseman Justin Turner suffered a broken left wrist and hasn’t subsided since then. Along with Turner – who hasn’t yet debuted in 2018 – Clayton Kershaw, Corey Seager, Yasiel Puig, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Rich Hill, Logan Forsythe, Tony Cingrani and Tom Koehler are among key Dodgers who have spent time on the DL this year. Kershaw has been out for a week with a biceps issue, and it’s unclear when he’ll return. Meanwhile, the groin strain Ryu suffered earlier this month will keep him out until after the All-Star break.
The injuries to Kershaw and Ryu, not to mention the 2017 shoulder surgery young lefty Julio Urias is working back from, have dented an LA rotation that isn’t blessed with as much depth as it had during the team’s NL-winning showing last year. To their credit, Dodgers starters still rank toward the top of the majors in ERA (ninth) and fWAR (sixth), thanks in part to the much-needed emergence of rookie Walker Buehler.
The team’s relief corps has been ineffective, on the other hand, owing to closer Kenley Jansen‘s shockingly rough start, a lack of help from offseason acquisitions Koehler (who hasn’t pitched) and Scott Alexander, and the loss of now-Cub Brandon Morrow in free agency. Only nine bullpens have posted a worse ERA than the Dodgers’ 4.49, while just two are short of the unit’s minus-0.1 fWAR. No Dodgers reliever has been a greater source of concern than the 30-year-old Jansen, who was utterly dominant from 2010-17 but has seen his velocity drop this year en route to career-worst numbers in the run prevention, swinging-strike, strikeout, walk and home run categories.
A revival from Jansen would obviously help key a Dodgers turnaround, as would a healthier squad. Fortunately for LA, Turner and Forsythe could return during the upcoming week to bolster a position player group that has actually managed respectable numbers thus far. The Dodgers rank middle of the pack or better in runs (14th), wRC+ (13th) and fWAR (ninth) despite having gone completely without Turner and largely without the excellent Seager, who racked up 115 plate appearances before undergoing season-ending Tommy John surgery in late April.
The loss of Seager was and still is a devastating blow to the Dodgers, who could attempt to fill his shoes via trade (there has been Manny Machado speculation, for instance) if they’re in position to make a splash around the July non-waiver deadline. Any move(s) the Dodgers make may be partially geared toward keeping them under the $197MM competitive-balance tax threshold, which they seemingly worked to avoid during the offseason.. Thanks in part to a low-key winter in which Koehler, Alexander and a seemingly reborn Matt Kemp were their only noteworthy major league acquisitions, the Dodgers sit an estimated $10MM-plus under the CBT after blowing past it in previous seasons.
For its part, Dodgers management insists staying below the CBT isn’t a must, though that’ll be worth monitoring as the season progresses. Of course, the $197MM figure may not matter for the team come late July if it doesn’t do a 180 over the next two-plus months. There’s plenty of work ahead for the Dodgers to get back to .500, let alone firmly in playoff position, but it’s possible we’ll end up looking back on their first-quarter woes as a blip. Last year’s version did lose 16 of 17 games from late August to mid-September, after all, though they’d already banked an incredible 91-36 record prior to that slump. The current Dodgers would need to go 75-13 over their next 88 to match that pace. Not happening. But will the team rebound to earn its sixth straight playoff berth?
(poll link for app users)
Will the Dodgers make the playoffs?
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No 65% (4,017)
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Yes 35% (2,194)
Total votes: 6,211