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Alex Wood

Dodgers To Activate Alex Wood; Walker Buehler To Return Wednesday

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The Dodgers will activate left-hander Alex Wood from the injured list Tuesday, manager Dave Roberts told Ken Gurnick of MLB.com and other reporters. Wood will work from the bullpen upon his return. Meanwhile, righty Walker Buehler will come off the IL on Wednesday, per Roberts. Buehler has been out for a little over a week with a blister.

Wood’s in his second stint with the Dodgers, who signed him to a one-year, $4MM contract last winter after an injury-plagued season with Cincinnati. Unfortunately, this has been yet another limited year for the oft-injured Wood, who made his lone start/appearance of the season July 25 before landing on the IL with shoulder inflammation.

When healthy, the 29-year-old Wood has been highly effective in the majors, where he has pitched to a 3.42 ERA/3.50 FIP with 8.25 K/9, 2.58 BB/9 and a 49.1 percent groundball rate in 842 innings. While most of Wood’s experience has come as a starter, he has amassed 43 appearances in relief. He’ll return to that role for a World Series hopeful LA team that dealt swingman Ross Stripling to the Blue Jays on Monday, leaving the Dodgers with Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin and Julio Urias as their starting five.

Pitching Notes: Hader, Bumgarner, Pearson, Dodgers, Beeks, Wright

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On a night in which White Sox ace Lucas Giolito fired the first no-hitter of 2020, let’s check in on several other notable pitchers…

  • The Brewers are “listening” to offers for star reliever Josh Hader, but it’s not likely the club will trade the 26-year-old left-hander before the Aug. 31 deadline, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic writes (subscription link). Milwaukee was also willing to entertain proposals for Hader last winter, but it elected to retain him heading into this year – his first of four potential arbitration seasons. For a bargain price this season (a prorated $4.1MM), Hader has given the Brewers 9 1/3 scoreless, hitless innings with 13 strikeouts and five walks. He’s obviously not someone the Brewers are going to give up for anything less than a massive offer.
  • After throwing a 70-pitch bullpen session Sunday, Diamondbacks southpaw Madison Bumgarner could be closing in on a return from the injured list, per Steve Gilbert of MLB.com. Bumgarner has been on the IL since Aug. 9 with a mid-back strain, but he came out of his bullpen session unscathed, which manager Torey Lovullo called “very encouraging news.” The former Giant’s first season as a Diamondback has been anything but encouraging, though. After inking a five-year, $85MM contract in the offseason, Bumgarner has logged a 9.35 ERA/8.79 FIP with 6.75 K/9, 3.63 BB/9 and a 23.7 percent groundball rate in 17 1/3 innings. The 31-year-old averaged a career-worst 87.8 mph on his fastball during that four-start stretch, but Lovullo revealed Bumgarner’s “velo ticked up a little bit” during sim games.
  • Right-hander Nate Pearson, whom the Blue Jays placed on the IL on Aug. 19, has been diagnosed with a flexor strain, according to Scott Mitchell of TSN. He’s hoping to play catch this weekend, Mitchell reports, though it remains unclear if the rookie will return in 2020. Pearson struggled to a 6.61 ERA/7.60 FIP with 7.71 K/9 and 6.61 BB/9 over four starts and 16 1/3 frames before going on the shelf.
  • Dodgers righty Joe Kelly has been on the IL since Aug. 10 with shoulder inflammation, and a return isn’t imminent for the reliever. Manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday (via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com) that Kelly remains “a ways away” from rejoining the Dodgers. When Kelly does come back, he’ll have to serve a five-game suspension stemming from a July 28 dustup with the Astros. Meanwhile, Dodgers lefty Alex Wood won’t come off the IL before the end of the month, Gurnick tweets. Wood, who’s also dealing with shoulder inflammation, has only made one appearance this year (on July 25).
  • The Rays’ injury-laden pitching staff may have lost yet another hurler Tuesday, when southpaw Jalen Beeks left their game with an elbow/forearm issue. Manager Kevin Cash didn’t come off as optimistic afterward, saying (via Juan Toribio of MLB.com), “It sounded similar to Kitt, but we don’t know anything yet.” Cash was referring to righty Andrew Kittredge, who went on the 45-day IL on Aug. 12 with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament. A similar fate would be a season-ender for Beeks, who has been terrific in 2020. The 27-year-old has notched a 3.26 ERA and a much more impressive 1.74 FIP with 12.1 K/9 against 1.86 BB/9 across 19 1/3 innings.
  • Veteran knuckleballer Steven Wright hasn’t taken a major league mound since July 13, 2019, but the former Red Sox righty informed Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe that he’s not ready to call it a career. “I just don’t want to sit back in a few years and wish I had tried it,” said the soon-to-be 36-year-old Wright, who threw 35 pitches from a mound last week and told Abraham, “I’m throwing two bullpens a week and I’m feeling healthy for the first time since 2016.” Wright was an All-Star that year, but he then faced knee problems, Tommy John surgery, a performance-enhancing drugs suspension and an arrest on domestic violence charges (which led to a 15-game ban) during the ensuing seasons.

Dodgers Activate Will Smith From IL

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11:08 am: Smith has been activated from the IL, the team announced. Ruiz was optioned to the alternate training site to clear roster space.

9:27 am: Dodgers catcher Will Smith is likely to come back from the injured list and start behind the plate in this afternoon’s game against the Rockies, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Ken Gurnick of MLB.com) last night. The 25-year-old successfully caught a bullpen session yesterday, Gurnick adds.

Assuming he is indeed activated today, it’d make for a brief absence. Smith went on the shelf last week with (seemingly minor) neck inflammation. In the interim, Austin Barnes has gotten the lion’s share of starts behind the plate, with top prospect Keibert Ruiz getting his first couple games of big league action. The return of Smith, owner of a career .243/.338/.545 line (128 wRC+) over his first 237 MLB plate appearances, only lengthens a lineup that has been among the best in baseball this season.

In his piece, Gurnick also provides updates on a handful of other injured Dodgers. Most notably, left-hander Alex Wood and corner infielder Edwin Ríos are eyeing returns of their own within the next week or so.

Dodgers Place Alex Wood On Injured List

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The Dodgers have shelved southpaw Alex Wood after he came down with shoulder inflammation. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by righty Josh Sborz.

This is worrisome news from all quarters. Wood had hoped for a return to form after an injury-riddled 2019 showing, while the Dodgers have already had several health issues crop up elsewhere on the starting staff. David Price opted out of the 2020 season citing concern regarding the ongoing pandemic. Clayton Kershaw was scratched from his Opening Day start just hours before he took the hill and placed on the IL with a back issue. And the game at large can ill afford the rash of pitching injuries that seems to be cropping up after a quick ramp-up to competitive action.

All that said, the Dodgers do still possess quite a bit of quality, healthy arms. Walker Buehler has emerged as one of the game’s elite starters, and Los Angeles can support him in the rotation with Ross Stripling, Julio Urias and top prospect Dustin May. Right-hander Tony Gonsolin was effective in last year’s debut campaign and looms in the team’s player pool, as do well-regarded prospects Josiah Gray and Mitchell White.

Wood has battled injury troubles throughout his career, and it’s easy to forget just how effective he can be when he’s healthy and at his best. From 2015-17, the still-29-year-old Wood logged 364 1/3 frames for the Dodgers and registered a tidy 3.29 ERA (3.39 FIP) with 8.7 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, 0.84 HR/9 and a 51.3 percent grounder rate.

Rebound Candidate: Alex Wood

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On a per-inning basis, left-hander Alex Wood has been one of the most effective pitchers in Major League Baseball throughout his career. He debuted in 2013, just one year after the Braves chose him in the second round of the draft, and has regularly kept runs off the board at an excellent clip. Now 29 years old, the soft-tossing Wood owns a terrific 3.40 ERA/3.49 FIP with 8.24 K/9, 2.55 BB/9 and a 49 percent groundball rate over 839 innings.

All of Wood’s above-average production has come as a Brave and a Dodger. He spent last season with the Reds, who acquired him in a blockbuster deal a few months before the campaign began. Wood, the Reds hoped, would help their rotation reverse its fortunes after a horrid 2018. It turned out that the Reds made enormous strides in that area in 2019, but Wood had nothing to do with it. Rather, they can thank Luis Castillo, Sonny Gray, Anthony DeSclafani and the now-departed Tanner Roark for the progress they made.

The Reds could have retained Wood in the offseason and anticipated a bounce-back effort, but they instead saw him leave via free agency. That came after a poor year in which Wood was limited by injuries, which have been a problem for him all too often. Wood has racked up fewer than 155 innings four straight years, including 35 2/3 last season. Back troubles limited the Reds’ version of Wood, keeping him from debuting until the final week of July. Wood only lasted a month after that, totaling seven starts of 5.80 ERA/6.38 FIP ball with 7.57 K/9 and 2.27 BB/9. His groundball rate (38.2) dropped by almost 12 percent from the prior year along the way.

The 2019 season was undoubtedly a disaster for Wood, though he nonetheless entered the free-agent market as one of the most accomplished hurlers available. He does, after all, rank 28th among starters in ERA and 32nd in FIP dating back to the beginning of his career. New teammate and fellow southpaw David Price is among several prominent names grouped with Wood in those regards.

Wood and Price may well end up playing significant roles for the World Series-hopeful Dodgers’ rotation this season. Price is a lock after coming over in a headline-grabbing trade with the Red Sox, and Wood might join him after reuniting with the Dodgers on a one-year, $4MM guarantee as a free agent. Despite his impressive track record, Wood couldn’t land a job via the open market until Jan. 12. Still, it’s tough to find fault with the gamble on the deep-pocketed Dodgers’ part.

This has been a difficult year-plus for Wood, but he has been an asset for almost all of his time in the majors. With that in mind, it would be fair to give him the benefit of the doubt for now. If Wood’s healthy in 2020, he may emerge as a steal for Los Angeles, arguably the favorite to win the World Series this year. With Wood complementing Price, Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw and Julio Urias, and with Dustin May in reserve, maybe this will finally be the season the Dodgers return to the top of the MLB mountain.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Images.

AL East Notes: Morton, Betts, Margot, Blue Jays, Wood, Sanchez

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Former Astros righty Charlie Morton became the latest player to address Houston’s electronic sign-stealing scandal, telling MLB.com’s Juan Toribio and other reporters that “personally, I regret not doing more to stop it” during his time with the club in 2017, while also admitting that he wasn’t certain what steps he could have taken to directly halt the sign-stealing system.  Morton has already spoken to some Rays teammates about the situation, and added that he didn’t believe the Astros were still doing anything illicit last October, when Houston defeated Tampa Bay in the ALDS.

2017 was a particularly unique year for Morton, as he wasn’t just a big part of a World Series-winning team, but his entire career was revived while pitching for the Astros, turning him from a borderline journeyman to his current top-of-the-rotation status in Tampa.  Despite his own fond memories, however, Morton knows and accepts that the Astros’ achievements have been overshadowed by the scandal.  “Certainly the public perception of that win has changed, and my peers, too….There are moments during the World Series that will always be special to me, that won’t be ’tainted.’  But certainly that’s justified, that’s a justified perception to have, and what people have expressed,” Morton said.

More from around the AL East…

  • Between all of the uncertainty surrounding the Mookie Betts trade and yesterday’s Padres/Rays trade that sent Manuel Margot to Tampa Bay, there has been some speculation that the Padres could be clearing center field for a late strike at acquiring Betts.  However, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe (Twitter link) suggests the opposite, noting that since Margot was reportedly part of the Betts negotiations between the Red Sox and Padres, sending Margot to the Rays indicates that San Diego decided to go in another direction.
  • The Blue Jays went into the offseason prepared to aggressively search for pitching, only to have to ramp up their approach when the free agent market moved much quicker than anticipated, Sportsnet.ca’s Shi Davidi writes in a wide-ranging overview of Toronto’s winter moves.  Davidi’s piece provides a breakdown of how the Jays pursued their targets, ranging from big names (i.e. Gerrit Cole, Yasmani Grandal) on both the rotation and position player fronts, as well as looking for value by checking in with seemingly just about every pitcher available.  The Winter Meetings seemed to be a key pivot point, as one player agent told Davidi that the Jays began to take a “totally different” approach in negotiations: “It’s like they realized what they’d been doing wasn’t working and decided to change things up.”  In essence, the Toronto front office reversed its strategy, abandoning the plan of acquiring an ace-level arm first and then adding more pitchers to a new tactic of signing mid-rotation hurlers (i.e. Tanner Roark, Shun Yamaguchi) before finally landing a big fish in Hyun-Jin Ryu.
  • Adding to the long list of pitchers known to have garnered interest from the Blue Jays, Davidi reports that Toronto was also “in the mix for” both Alex Wood and Angel Sanchez.  Wood ended up signing with the Dodgers, one of his former teams, in mid-January on a one-year contract worth $4MM in guaranteed money (and another $6MM in incentives).  Sanchez bounced around multiple farm systems from 2011-17 with a Major League resume that included only 12 1/3 innings for the 2017 Pirates before finding success pitching in Korea over the last two seasons.  While Sanchez received some looks from the Jays and other MLB teams, he ended up heading from South Korea to Japan, signing a multi-year deal with the NPB’s Yomiuri Giants.

Dodgers Designate Casey Sadler

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The Dodgers have designated right-hander Casey Sadler for assignment, the team announced. The move clears roster space for left-hander Alex Wood, whose deal with the team is now official.

This could go down as a short Dodgers stint for Sadler, whom they acquired from the Rays last July. In terms of bottom-line results, though, Sadler was quite effective with both teams in 2019. The 29-year-old put up a stingy 2.14 ERA over 46 1/3 innings between the clubs, also notching a terrific 51.8 percent groundball rate and walking only 2.53 batters per nine.

Sadler also posted a career-high 95 mph average fastball velocity in the majors last season, but he barely struck out six hitters per nine. He also managed a bel0w-average 9.1 percent swinging-strike rate, and ERA indicators such as FIP (4.38), xFIP (4.78) and SIERA (4.58) weren’t high on his work.

Last year may have been a mixed bag at the MLB level for Sadler, but there’s no disputing that he was a standout in the minors. Sadler worked 38 2/3 innings innings in Triple-A ball and recorded a 3.26 ERA with 12.3 K/9 against just 1.4 BB/9. That performance, not to mention Sadler’s run prevention in the majors last season, may put him on other teams’ radars. However, the fact that Sadler’s out of minor league options could work against him.

Dodgers Sign Alex Wood

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The Dodgers have agreed to a deal with free agent left-hander Alex Wood, reports Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic (via Twitter). The deal will guarantee the ACES client $4MM on a one-year term, with incentives that can push the total to $10MM, Rosenthal adds (via Twitter). Wood has already passed his physical, Rosenthal further reports. Wood himself has confirmed the agreement on Twitter.

The reunion marks a nice birthday present for Wood, who turned 29 today. The lefty has done his best work in Dodger Blue, combining for a 3.46 ERA and 3.50 FIP over 434.2 innings in three-plus seasons in Los Angeles. Over that time, Wood only managed an average strikeout rate (22.3%), but he proved stingy with walks (6.7%) and induced ground balls on over half the balls in play against him. That mid-rotation output prompted the Reds to acquire him (alongisde Yasiel Puig and Kyle Farmer) last offseason for a pair of well-regarded prospects.

Unfortunately, a back injury limited Wood to seven ineffective starts in Cincinnati. He didn’t make his season debut until July 28, and only once did he exceed six innings in a start. Never an extremely hard thrower, Wood’s 89.98 MPH average sinker velocity last season, per Brooks Baseball, was down over two MPH from his career-best 2017 effort.

2019 struggles notwithstanding, it’s not hard to see the upside for both parties. Wood was an above-average starter as recently as 2018. He has four career seasons in which he was worth at least two wins above replacement, per Fangraphs, and as noted, he remains quite young for a free agent. Injuries have hampered Wood in recent seasons, to be sure, as he’s been on the injured list each of the past four years. There’s little long-term risk here for the team, though, and their $4MM investment is minuscule for a franchise which ended the 2019 season with an estimated $210MM payroll, per Roster Resource.

Wood, meanwhile, gets an opportunity to reestablish his health. Should he reclaim his prior form, he’d likely earn some or all of the available incentives. More importantly, he can reenter the open market at a still-young 30 next offseason in search of the multiyear deal for which he seemed ticketed before his 2019 tribulations.

Wood joins a crowded Dodgers’ rotation mix behind Clayton Kershaw and Walker Buehler. LA hasn’t been shy about moving pitchers in and out of the rotation under manager Dave Roberts. Wood figures to compete with Kenta Maeda, Julio Urías, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May, and the newly-signed Jimmy Nelson for rotation innings. Surely, some or all of those pitchers will log some time out of the Dodgers’ oft-maligned bullpen as well.

So continues an offseason trend for the NL West favorites. Nelson, Wood, and reliever Blake Treinen have all been brought in on one-year deals this offseason. All three have shown high ceilings in the past, but struggled through injuries or ineffectiveness (or both) in 2019. They may not be the stars Dodger fans have been coveting, although each brings quite a bit of upside. None, it should be noted, would preclude the Andrew Friedman-led front office from striking on a bigger name if the opportunity were to present itself.

Free Agent Faceoff: Wood Vs. Walker

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The market for starting pitchers has shrunk substantially since free agency opened at the beginning of November. Gerrit Cole, Stephen Strasburg, Zack Wheeler, Madison Bumgarner, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Dallas Keuchel and Cole Hamels have all found contracts. Jake Odorizzi, whom MLBTR ranked as the game’s 10th-best free agent at the outset of the winter, accepted a qualifying offer from Minnesota. The Twins also re-signed Michael Pineda and just picked up two more starters in Rich Hill and Homer Bailey.

With all of those pitchers and several others (Kyle Gibson, Tanner Roark and Julio Teheran, to name some) off the board, it looks like a pretty bare-bones group at this point. So, if you’re still banking on finding a No. 1, 2 or 3 type of starter in free agency, you may be out of luck. Even a surefire No. 4 or 5 seems like a lot to ask right now, but there are at least a few unsigned starters with upside who won’t cost a bank-breaking amount to sign. Left-hander Alex Wood and righty Taijuan Walker are two examples.

Between Wood and Walker, the former wins this battle in a landslide as far as major league track record goes. The 28-year-old flew under the radar to some degree from 2013-18, an 803 1/3-inning stretch in which he combined for a sterling 3.29 ERA/3.36 FIP with 8.27 K/9, 2.57 BB/9 and a 49.5 percent groundball rate with the Braves and Dodgers. Thanks to that run, the Reds acquired Wood last offseason with the expectation he’d give them front-line production. Instead, though, back problems limited the relatively soft-tossing Wood to seven starts and 35 2/3 frames of 5.80 ERA/6.38 FIP ball.  Since then, there hasn’t been any reported interest on MLBTR’s pages in Wood, who has quickly gone from coveted starter to buy-low candidate.

Walker’s in a similar position – someone who could be a high-reward pickup at a reasonable cost. Now 27, Walker was an extremely hyped prospect with Seattle, which chose him 43rd overall in 2017. However, Walker didn’t prove to be irreplaceable to the Mariners over a fairly small sample of action, and they wound up trading him to the Diamondbacks in a late-2016 blockbuster.

Walker and his ~94 mph fastball were quite effective in his first season in Arizona – 3.49 ERA/4.04 FIP with 8.35 K/9, 3.5 BB/9 and a 48.9 percent grounder rate in 157 1/3 innings – but he has barely pitched since. He tossed 13 innings in 2018 before undergoing Tommy John surgery that May, and totaled just one frame last season (in the D-backs’ final game) after shoulder injuries stunted his TJS recovery. Arizona then cut Walker loose via non-tender instead of paying him a projected $5MM-plus in arbitration. Since then, at least one team – Walker’s old employer in Seattle – has shown interest in signing him.

Walker and Wood appear as if they’d be sensible additions for the Mariners or any other team that wants to take a back-of-the-rotation risk on a short-term deal. Odds are that neither player will secure a multiyear guarantee, though a one-season contract with a club option for 2021 could be a worthwhile gamble. Wood seems likely to rake in more money (MLBTR predicted he’d get a one-year, $8MM pact), but does that make him a better bet than Walker? Which of the two would you sign?

(Poll link for app users)

NL Notes: Keuchel, Cards, Mets, Reds, Wood, Fish, DJ

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Dallas Keuchel and the Braves are squaring off against the Cardinals in a memorable NLDS, but the left-hander recently told Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he’s surprised the Redbirds didn’t make a bigger effort to sign him when he was a free agent from November to June. “Honestly, I was fully expecting an offer from them,” said Keuchel. “Just never really came about.” Keuchel, whom the Braves signed to a one-year, $13MM deal after a protracted standoff between him and the entire league, added that he viewed St. Louis as “a good destination,” which could be notable with the soon-to-be 32-year-old set to hit free agency again in the coming weeks. Meantime, his club will try to eliminate the Cardinals in a do-or-die Game 5 on Wednesday.

  • The manager-needy Mets may have a couple in-house candidates for the job in quality control/outfield coach Miguel Rojas and Single-A manager Edgardo Alfonzo, per Mike Puma of the New York Post. The 38-year-old Rojas, who’s the son of longtime MLB outfielder/first baseman/manager Felipe Alou and the brother of former outfielder Moises Alou, has been a member of the Mets organization for 14 seasons (including eight as a minor league skipper). Now 45, Alfonzo’s best known for a highly productive run as a second/third baseman for the Mets from 1995-2002. Having coached in the organization since 2014, Alfonzo’s hoping New York considers him to replace the fired Mickey Callaway, Puma reports.
  • If the Reds are going to re-sign pending free-agent left-hander Alex Wood, Mark Sheldon of MLB.com estimates it would happen by way of a minor league contract. Considering Wood’s past success and relative youth (29 in January), getting him to accept a non-guaranteed deal may be unrealistic. Regardless, it’s inarguable Wood is coming off a contract year to forget. Acquired from the Dodgers last winter, Wood made only seven starts and threw just 35 2/3 for the Reds this year as he battled nagging back issues. Wood managed an ugly 5.80 ERA/6.38 FIP with 7.57 K/9, 2.27 BB/9 and a 38.2 percent groundball rate when he was healthy enough to take the ball for Cincy.
  • It’s already known the Marlins had interest in DJ LeMahieu last winter, but Joe Frisaro of MLB.com writes the Fish “made a strong push to sign” the second baseman in free agency. The former Cub and Rockie ultimately accepted a two-year, $24MM contract from the Yankees, with whom he has enjoyed a career season. The low-budget Marlins, meanwhile, ended up guaranteeing a mere $4.5MM to players in free agency, inking infielder Neil Walker (who served as a lesser version of LeMahieu for the club) and reliever Sergio Romo to one-year contracts.
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