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Acquiring players to counter specific moves by other teams is like drafting for need. It’s always best to do what’s best for your team and, in the draft, it’s almost always best to take the best player available.
So, when the Mets and Juan Soto agreed to terms on Sunday night, naturally, folks thought the Dodgers might need to counter that move with a late-inning reliever for those high-leverage situations.
The two names mentioned in reports yesterday that the Dodgers have interest in are free-agent lefty Tanner Scott and Brewers reliever Devin Williams. While either would be acquired to do more than face Soto in the NLDS or NLCS, it’d be foolish to think the Dodgers didn’t have their eye on a late-October meeting between the two clubs, not unlike this past season — minus Soto being on the Mets.
With the Dodgers already bringing Blake Treinen back, they’ve done a little to solidify the late innings. With Scott or Williams, that would only further solidify things, especially since we saw what the Dodgers did in the 2024 postseason with their bullpen. The Blake Snell signing, coupled with the hope Tyler Glasnow can be healthy, might make the team a little less reliant on the ‘pen in the playoffs, but having a strong back-end definitely isn’t a bad thing.
Scott, 30, is the best free-agent reliever available this offseason. He was acquired from the Marlins by the Padres at the trade deadline for a hefty price. Not only would signing Scott hurt the Padres, the Dodgers wouldn’t have to worry about him facing Shohei Ohtani. Ohtani is 1-for-9 with three strikeouts against Scott in his career. That doesn’t include the 0-for-4 with four strikeouts Ohtani took against him in this year’s NLDS.
Aside from being a bit wild, what’s not to like about this Statcast profile?
He checks a ton of boxes for the Dodgers (and all teams, really). He’s in the Top 1% of average exit velocity against, HardHit% and his fastball is one of the best among relievers in the game — especially in 2024.
| Pitch | BA | SLG | wOBA | EV | Whiff% |
| 4-seam FB | .134 | .179 | .217 | 79.5 | 28.8 |
And while his slider gets hit slightly more (.231/.316/.272/84.0), it produced a 38.8 Whiff% — a top 35 rate among relievers.
As for Scott vs. Soto, like most, Soto has had the upper hand, if even in a small sample size.
- 4-for-10
- 1 double
- 3 walks
- 1 strikeout
Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic wrote, “Scott’s premium stuff has wowed Dodgers personnel.” That, to me, signals the interest might be more legit than you’d expect from Andrew Friedman and friends.
But let’s not sleep Williams, who has long been one of the game’s best relievers.
The 30-year-old righty is coming off an injury-shortened season that still saw him pitch to a 1.25 ERA, 2.06 FIP and a 30.7 K-BB%. He has a high-90s fastball and a changeup to end all changeups. It acts like a screwball and has been nicknamed the “Airbender.”
Yeah, that’s wild.
Let’s look at the numbers. This is all since he debuted in 2019.
| Pitch | BA | OBP | SLG | wOBA | EV | Whiff% | HardHit% |
| Changeup | .139 | .223 | .200 | .199 | 82.9 | 46.2 | 23.2 |
Williams’ changeup ranks first in everything except exit velocity (2nd) and HardHit% (3rd). This is among all pitchers, too, not just relievers. It might be the best pitch in baseball, and I don’t care what Pete Alonso has to say about it.
And against Soto…
- 1-for-4
- 1 double
- 1 walk
- 2 strikeouts
Smaller sample size than Scott, but his changeup is so good that it’s a weapon against both-handed hitters, but especially lefties. It isn’t Eric Gagne‘s changeup; it’s better.
——
Either reliever would be a welcome addition to the Dodgers’ bullpen for the regular season and October. Adding one of Scott or Williams to the stable of arms already in house can only be a good thing. Scott will only cost money — probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 years, $60 million, while Williams would cost prospects or potentially young MLB players. Williams is free agent after the season as well.
The Dodgers’ bullpen had a bit of a strikeout issue in 2024, and Scott or Williams would help alleviate that problem a bit. Either way, if the Dodgers made their biggest splash with Snell, supplementing that with an elite-level reliever would be a smart move.
