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Just over a month ago, Blake Treinen completed his heroic postseason run for the Dodgers en route to the 2024 World Series title, his second ring with the team. He also subsequently hit free agency, leaving a big high-leverage hole in the Dodgers pen for 2025. Well, thankfully he’ll be returning to the team due to a two-year, $22 million contract.
Source: Blake Treinen deal with Dodgers is two years, $22 million. First with agreement: @JeffPassan
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 9, 2024
You’re probably familiar with Treinen already, but a little recap doesn’t hurt anybody.
Prior to his Dodgers stint, Treinen had mostly ranged from elite to average over his career. After signing with the Dodgers in 2020, he’s basically been lights out as a high-leverage reliever. In 154 games and 149.2 innings, he has a 2.29 ERA for a 182 ERA+ with a 169 strikeouts and 45 walks. Perhaps the most remarkable part of that is he missed most of 2022 and all of 2023 due to surgery on his labrum and rotator cuff. That can be a death sentence for pitchers, especially older ones, yet in his age-36 season he had one of his best years yet. Treinen delivered a 1.93 ERA in 46.2 innings, including a 2.19 ERA in 12.1 postseason innings, getting seven outs on 42 pitches in the decisive Game 5.
As far as the contract goes, the predictions from The Athletic, ESPN, and FanGraphs were in the ballpark.
- The Athletic: 1 year, $12 million
- ESPN: 2 years, $23 million
- FanGraphs: 2 years, $30 million
That averages to a 1.67-year deal at $21.67 million total for like a $13 million AAV. I wouldn’t necessarily call this a bargain given Treinen’s injury history and age, but most of the market has been up so far this off-season, so getting a closer-type for minimal risk and lower than expected outlay is a nice job. The familiarity of the two sides with each other, and the trust between them during the 2022 injury saga, probably helped grease the wheels here.
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There’s always risk with pitchers, more so with relievers, and even further with relievers of this age and injury history. That said, Treinen has been a leader and an integral part of the pen for years now, and bringing him back was a rather easy decision as one of the best relief arms on the market. This should set the Dodgers up a lot better in the bullpen for the short-term as they look to repeat in 2025.
Blake Treinen (signed with LAD) was a key part of the Dodgers World Series run with 3 Saves in the post-season. His sweeper is a nasty offering thanks to its combination of velocity and massive glove-side movement
— Thomas Nestico (@TJStats) December 9, 2024
Yet another smart move by the Dodgers https://t.co/hCOhCmhqgV pic.twitter.com/v072MPExqe
