Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Following the earlier deal with the A’s, the Dodgers made another trade today, this time with the Marlins, dealing reliever Dylan Floro for reliever Alex Vesia and prospect Kyle Hurt.
Alex Vesia is a left-handed reliever who will be entering his age-25 season this year. He has just a five-game stretch in the majors, throwing 4.1 innings with five strikeouts and seven walks. He also has a 18.69 ERA, so things could’ve gone better for him in his audition. That said, he also put up impressive minor-league numbers, throwing 100 innings while striking out 138 and walking just 26, totaling a 1.62 ERA. He also had a 40.2 inning scoreless streak at one point.
Vesia’s stuff seems unimpressive at first glance, he throws a 92 mph fastball 73% of the time, mixing in a slider and change. Of course, what stands out in his numbers is that he gets a ton of whiffs despite that profile, which is due to his vertical movement on the pitch. The type of arm the Dodgers are coveting is not much of a secret, and Vesia fits the bill.
Vesia also has three options remaining and is under control until at least 2026 depending on when he makes the majors.
Kyle Hurt is a 2020 fifth-round draft pick out of USC who will be entering his age-23 season. Obviously the pandemic didn’t allow for much information to go on here since there was no MILB season, but based on his draft report, the right-handed pitcher doesn’t sound like nothing.
Hurt has long had the size and pure stuff to make him a very strong pitching prospect. His fastball will sit in the 92-94 range and he will top out at 97 mph, and he could find more consistent velocity at the top end of that scale as he continues to add strength to his 6-foot-3 frame. His best secondary pitch is his changeup, which could be a plus pitch in time. He throws both a hard slider in the upper-80s and a slower, upper-70s curve, both of which show glimpses but are inconsistent breaking pitches.
Dylan Floro is entering his age-30 season in 2021, and has been a quality but unspectacular reliever. Over 159.2 innings, he has a career 3.33 ERA and 3.23 FIP, relying not on strikeouts but a sinker that induces 54% grounders.
Floro has three years of team control left, with one option year, and is currently making just shy of a million. While he’s a quality middle relief arm, he lacks the back-end upside the Dodgers seem to be seeking. Thus, they considered him expendable, and they’re likely right with the wealth of pen options they have at their disposal. That said, fortunately he was invaluable for one three-pitch sequence to Randy Arozarena.
Won’t ever be forgetting that.
Much like the Adam Kolarek trade with the A’s, this seems like another deal where the Dodgers basically recycle depth at least. They trade a quality middle relief type on the wrong side of 30 for multiple live arms with double the years of team control.
Floro is the far more reliable option to have a useable 2021 season, but Vesia could be better than him as soon as this coming year, and if not then the Dodgers have a ton of other pitchers ready to take their shot. While not the blockbuster deal many are waiting for, in the past these have been the types of small deals (Floro was one himself) that end up paying off later and allows the Dodgers to operate freely on the bigger ticket items.
