Which One Of These Pitchers Could Be A Dodger Soon?

As I said yesterday after discussing Roberto Hernandez, “Some other starter is going to appear, potentially soon. I don’t know who it will be, of course, because waivers are going to make the choices slim. But it will absolutely be someone.” 

Now here’s Bill Shaikin talking to Ned Colletti:

Dodgers General Manager Ned Colletti said he also hopes to acquire a swingman to replace the injured Paul Maholm.

“There’s another pitcher out there we’re trying to get,” Colletti said.

Okay, so: speculation time. Brim already ran through some potential options, and clearly, there’s nobody that good. But he also restricted it to a pretty specific set of starters, so let’s expand this to meet some additional criteria to try to get to “swingmen,” perhaps foolishly taking Colletti at his word. (He also said “he would continue to search for late-inning relievers, and for additional back-end starters,” so clearly he’s looking at all options.)

— Has pitched at least 50 innings this season
— Has started at least five times
— Has appeared in relief at least 30% of the time
— Is at least 25 years old
— Is at least theoretically likely to pass through waivers or get to the Dodgers

The first four are pretty easy, giving us 17 pitchers. The fifth one is subjective, and was left up to me picking and choosing. (That is, Alex Wood, Carlos Martinez and David Phelps aren’t realistic because they’re too good, a guy like Drew Pomeranz isn’t making it through waivers to the Dodgers, and one of those 23 is Paul Maholm. I also excluded Daisuke Matsuzaka, since he’s on the disabled list.) Remember that it’s easier to get an NL pitcher than an AL one because it requires fewer teams that the player has to get through.

We’re left with eight pitchers. It’s not pretty. It’s not supposed to be.

Name Team Age G IP K/9 BB/9 HR/9 GB% ERA FIP xFIP WAR
Cesar Ramos Rays 30 33 66 6.82 4.23 0.82 44.10% 3.82 4.26 4.47 -0.1
Sam Deduno Twins 30 24 80 6.98 3.83 0.56 54.10% 4.16 3.97 4.18 0.4
Dustin McGowan Blue Jays 32 37 67.2 6.92 3.72 1.33 37.50% 4.39 4.90 4.79 0.0
Scott Carroll White Sox 29 19 91.2 4.71 3.14 0.98 53.10% 4.81 4.85 4.56 0.1
Franklin Morales Rockies 28 26 106.1 6.18 4.15 1.69 44.50% 5.08 5.73 4.62 -0.4
Trevor Cahill Diamondbacks 26 23 63.1 8.53 3.98 0.71 48.10% 5.12 3.64 3.65 0.5
Carlos Villanueva Cubs 30 31 59.2 8.15 2.41 0.75 41.00% 5.28 3.32 3.73 0.8
Andre Rienzo White Sox 26 18 64.2 7.10 4.59 1.67 45.00% 6.82 5.73 4.72 -0.4

Yikes. Rienzo and Morales have been scarily bad. Carroll is a 29-year-old rookie. Cahill has been a disaster, and is still owed $25 million beyond this year. McGowan probably had another arm surgery while I was typing this, and the Jays are squarely in the playoff race. I suppose Ramos, Deduno and Villanueva are the least objectionable, and “least objectionable” is about the best you’re going to do at this point. I actually don’t mind Villanueva that much; he’s long been a great swingman type for Milwaukee, Toronto and Chicago, and while he’s having the best FIP of his career in 2014, his BABIP has exploded his ERA. Maybe that’s partially the Cubs’ defense. Maybe he’s just getting hit harder; I can’t say I’ve watched him often.

Either way, it sounds like another move is coming. Prepare to be underwhelmed.

About Mike Petriello

Mike writes about lots of baseball in lots of places, and right now that place is MLB.com.