Dodgers @ Pirates June 25, 2016: The Nick Tepesch Era Is Over

Last night’s game was one of the ugliest you’ll see played in the major leagues. The Dodgers will try to look past it today behind Kenta Maeda against southpaw Jeff Locke. Like most of the Pirates’ pitching staff, Locke is struggling tremendously so far this year, with an ERA, FIP, and xFIP all over five in 83 innings. Locke has basically stopped missing bats, though a very surface-level analysis makes it hard to figure out why. Locke is coming off of a start in which he shut out the Giants for 6-2/3 innings, but in the games before that he allowed seven runs to the Mets and 11 to the Rockies. The Dodgers have loaded up with right-handed batters to try to combat Locke, though Corey Seager and Adrian Gonzalez still get their respective starts.

	Dodgers			Pirates
	4:15 p.m. PT			Pittsburgh
2B	Hernandez		1B	Jaso
3B	Turner		LF	Marte
SS	Seager		CF	McCutchen
CF	Thompson		3B	Freese
1B	Gonzalez		RF	Joyce
RF	Puig		2B	Harrison
LF	Van Slyke		SS	Mercer
C	Ellis		C	Kratz
P	Maeda (R)		P	Locke (L)

The Nick Tepesch era has not lasted long, as he was designated for assignment earlier today. The Dodgers are short on pitching depth, sure, but Tepesch was visually the worst the Dodgers had available. At least with Mike Bolsinger, he has a decent enough curve to add to his 88mph fastball. Tepesch doesn’t, and that’s why the Pirates teed off on him. That slot in the rotation will come up again on Wednesday, and the Dodgers will need to scramble to find somebody to go instead. Jose De Leon is not available because he is pitching today and is still gathering arm strength.

Carlos Frias will not be eligible to be recalled by then, but might be an option if somebody moves to the disabled list. Frias was optioned last week so the team could keep Will Venable around for two more games, then Venable cleared waivers and accepted his outright assignment anyways. The big downside with Frias is that he has only pitched once in the last 13 days. Jharel Cotton is also an option. Cotton is having a homer problem in AAA, but I’m not necessarily convinced that a home run spike in the PCL is much to worry about. The Dodgers can always trade off Cotton and Frias for awhile if they need to, but that would require extending Julio Urias out for awhile longer. During his pre-game interview, Dave Roberts also mentioned that a bullpen game was an option. That’s a bad idea, don’t do that. Honestly this whole situation seems mismanaged, though it’s hard to know just when the team knew that Frankie Montas would be out for awhile.

To take Tepesch’s place on the roster, new acquisition Chris Taylor has been recalled. Taylor had eight plate appearances in Oklahoma City before returning to the majors. He had hits in five of them, and struck out the other three times. Even in 8 plate appearances, a 1.000 BABIP is fun. He actually has a 1.000 BABIP in two places now, because he did it with Seattle this year as well (two strikeouts and a single in three plate appearances).

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