Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Two moves in one day? Andrew Friedman must be feeling frisky, because I can assure you he doesn’t really care what the fans think about the Dodgers’ offseason thus far. From Jeff Passan of ESPN:
With the way the Dodgers have been avoiding spending any real money — present or future — this almost seemed inevitable.
Noah Syndergaard, 30, is getting a $13 million deal for one season, with a chance to make $1.5 million in incentives.
Meh.
Shane is going to have an in-depth write-up about Syndergaard (probably tomorrow), but for now, I’ll give you some surface-level stuff.
——
Syndergaard signed with the Angels last winter on a 1-year, $21 million deal. He was traded to the Phillies at the trade deadline. At both stops, he was decidedly mediocre. He had a 3.83 ERA and 3.95 FIP with the Angels and a 4.12 ERA and 3.66 FIP with the Phillies. The minor improvement with Philly is a little encouraging, but for a guy who used to routinely strike out hitters at a mid-to-high-20% clip, his 16.8 K% last season is a big red flag. Luckily, he minimized the damage by walking just 5.5% of the hitters he faced.
If anyone is going to be able to get him back to his 2015-19 self, it’s Mark Prior and the Dodgers. In those five years, he was one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball:
- 3.31 ERA
- 2.92 FIP
- 20.7 K-BB%
- 0.79 HR/9
- 18.7 fWAR
The Dodgers’ rotation looks a little better at this point, but it’s still lacking.
- Julio Urias
- Clayton Kershaw
- Dustin May
- Tony Gonsolin
- Syndergaard
——
We’ll see what the Dodgers can do. I’m lukewarm on the deal overall. I mean, there’s no such thing as a bad 1-year deal, but I’m skeptical he can return to form. Also, he’s kind of a jerk. But we know that doesn’t stop Friedman from signing players, as long as they can play ball good.
