Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (82-55) were swept by the Atlanta Braves (82-56) to begin their six-game road trip last week before narrowly taking two of three from the Detroit Tigers (63-74) to somewhat right the ship. They begin a nine-game homestand tonight, starting with a series against the Cardinals (68-70), followed by the Nationals (66-74), and the Reds (65-73). The roster expands from 26-men to 28 once the calendar flips to September, and there was much debate as to who the Dodgers would add with the two extra spots, especially considering their lack of production from either corner outfield spot. Calling up top prospect Josue De Paula seemed overly aggressive, but calling upon James Tibbs III who is already mashing in OKC, and has experience in both corner outfield spots made all the sense in the world. Instead, they recalled Alex Freeland who has a .720 OPS since being sent back down to Triple-A.
No offense to Freeland as I quite like him as a player, but I’m not certain he is capable of providing the spark this offense so desperately needs. They’ve determined that they believe both Teoscar Hernández and Kyle Tucker will turn it around somehow, despite having been bad for almost the entirety of the season. Oh well, way too risk-averse in my opinion but it is what it is. The Dodgers will always ride or die for their vets, just have to hope this isn’t the year that it bites them. Separately, they also activated Will Smith and Dalton Rushing, with the latter just being available to hit for the time being. Great news for both of them, and not great news for Ben Rortvedt (DFA) and Alex Thomas (optioned to Triple-A).
The series opener features the right-handed Michael McGreevy up against Eric Lauer who has rejoined the rotation in the absence of Roki Sasaki. St. Louis is five games out of the playoffs as I write this, so they’ll certainly bring their best as they hope to make a push for the postseason down the stretch.
— — —
Smith immediately slots into the fifth spot in the lineup in his return from the Injured List. He’s missed nearly three months, so let’s hope that he’ll be healthy enough for the next two months. With Thomas sent back down to Triple-A, it would appear that Tommy Edman and Kiké Hernández will be the primary options in center field moving forward. Kiké is 35 and Edman has glass ankles, so hopefully they both just find a way to remain uninjured down the stretch. Freeland gets the start at second base in his return to the bigs.
— — —
The 26 year-old McGreevy sits in the low-90’s with his four-seam fastball, but like many other starters with below-average velocity, he has an elaborate arsenal in addition to his four-seamer, including a sinker, changeup, curveball, cutter, sweeper and slider, with his usage rates in that order. He doesn’t manage many strikeouts the way he pitches with just 98 in 142.1 innings, but he gets batters out without giving up a ton of runs, resulting in a 3.86 ERA, a 4.36 FIP, and a 1.25 WHIP across 26 starts. That’s a useful pitcher for any team, and at just 26 with nearly six full seasons left until he hits free agency, St. Louis likely sees him playing a part in this rotation for many years to come as they retool and rebuild. He blanked the Dodgers earlier this season in St. Louis, throwing six scoreless innings while allowing just three hits. With the way this offense has looked lately, they’d be lucky to do better than that tonight.
Lauer is similar to McGreevy in the sense that neither throw particularly hard, each throw a more well-rounded mix than a pitcher who has premium velocity and stuff, neither get a lot of strikeouts (Lauer has just 44 in 69.0 innings with LA), but both find narrow avenues toward quality results. Lauer now has a 3.78 ERA as a member of the Dodgers in 11 starts and 13 appearances. His last outing was against the Braves where he went just two innings and allowed one run on a solo shot, with two walks and one strikeout. He wasn’t particularly sharp and the Dodgers couldn’t hit so it wouldn’t have mattered anyway, but they’ll hope he finds his form again as he slots back into the rotation.
— — —
In other news,
Lost in the shuffle was that Justin Wrobleski is back from the Injured List which is great news as well.
Feels dumb to have a roster spot held by a guy limited to pinch-hitting, but.
Edwin Díaz will be back soon, and he has very limited time to work himself back into the trust tree.
======
First pitch is at 7:10 PT on SNLA.
