Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
So many Dodgers moves were made on Wednesday that it was really overwhelming. I must’ve made about 500 cocaine/meth jokes about Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi the other night on Twitter, simply because I was exhausted just watching all this unfold, and you know they didn’t sleep for like four days. Understandably then, some minor moves got lost in the shuffle, along with some news we’ve been expecting for a while.
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The return for Jimmy Rollins has long been up in the air, primarily because it was thought the deal could expand to more players or teams. But yesterday, it was reported that left-handed starter Tom Windle and the recently acquired right-handed starter Zach Eflin would be heading to the Phillies, according to Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com.
I’ve been over Eflin before in relation to the trade for Yasmani Grandal, and nothing changes.
Zach Eflin is entering his age-21 season and will either be assigned to A+ or AA. He’s a pitchability type that relies on his fastball/changeup too much at the moment, and he probably needs to sharpen his breaking ball to remain a rotation option. In 24 starts at A+ last year, he had a 3.80 ERA in 128 innings, striking out 93 and walking 31.
If it sounded like I didn’t think much of the prospect return, it’s because I didn’t. Not because he couldn’t be valuable as a trade chip or whatever, but potential back-of-the-rotation arms are a dime-a-dozen, and a little slip here or a lack of development there and they’re organizational depth.
Tom Windle has the build and arm strength to be a potential mid-rotation starter, but after 2014 he reminds me of Chris Reed in terms of delivery question marks and stuff profile issues. Windle is around 90-91 mph as a starter, but can get it up to the mid-90s in shorter bursts. While he has a slider that flashes plus, his change is a work in progress. He’s a good prospect, no doubt, but I think he ends up coming out of the bullpen.
The prospect cost is hardly nothing, but in terms of the relative cost for what is probably a four WAR upgrade over the current roster options at shortstop, it’s about as good as you’re going to get. Both prospects traded are guys that Dustin and I had outside of our top 10 and probably even top 15.
Of course, all that analysis might be pointless since, as speculated earlier, the deal may still expand.
Source familiar with Jimmy Rollins deal says teams still aren't sure what exact final makeup of trade will be, amazingly enough.
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) December 11, 2014
Still, it seems pretty likely that those two names are going to be involved in some capacity.
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In yesterday’s Rule 5 Draft, the Dodgers took nobody in the major-league portion, but on the minor-league side, the team selected Alexander Santana, Peter Lavin, Nate Samson, and Randy Fontanez.
Alexander Santana is a 23-year-old right-handed reliever that put up a 3.20 ERA and a 48/10 K/BB ratio in 39.1 innings between A-, A, and AA for the Orioles. Just based purely on the numbers and his age, this seems like an intriguing selection.
Peter Lavin is a 26-year-old outfielder that had a .287/.332/.441/.773 line between A+ and AA for the Phillies organization. He can play all three outfield positions, but figures to be more of a pick to fill out the AA or AAA roster.
Nate Samson is a 27-year-old utility type that can play shortstop, second base, third base, and both corner outfield positions. Between Independent-ball and AA, he put up a .310/.385/.452/.837 line and was last with the Diamondbacks organization.
Randy Fontanez is a 25-year-old right-handed reliever that had a 3.74 ERA and a 66/27 K/BB ratio in 65 innings between A+ and AA for the Mets.
The Dodgers lost no players in either phase of the draft.
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Recovering from Tommy John surgery, Chris Withrow underwent surgery for a herniated disk in his back, according to Ken Gurnick of MLB.com.
Dodgers reliever Chris Withrow, still recovering from June Tommy John surgery, had surgery last week to repair a herniated disk in his lower back.
Withrow has suffered from chronic back disk problems throughout his professional career. The surgery has a three-month rehab, but is not expected to delay his return to competition, which wasn’t expected until the middle of 2015 as he recovers from the Tommy John surgery.
It’s unfair to expect him to get back to 2013 levels when he comes back in 2015, but I was hoping he could help the bullpen out down the stretch by providing depth. And while they say this surgery doesn’t affect his recovery time, surely it doesn’t help the rehab process he’s undergoing.
Hopefully the setback doesn’t result in anything worse in terms of his overall health and the timetable for recovery.
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In terms of short stints with the Dodgers, Ryan Lavarnway can be added to the list along with Ryan Jackson and Andrew Heaney.
Dodgers DFA Lavarnway.
— Dylan Hernández (@dylanohernandez) December 11, 2014
