Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Saturday that he doesn’t feel the need to ask the front office to promote left-handed wunderkind Julio Urias because the team’s executives already know Roberts wants it to happen, tweets Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times. Roberts stated May 7 that Urias was atop the Dodgers’ list of potential call-ups, but the club has since promoted Mike Bolsinger and Chin-hui Tsao instead, as noted by the Times’ Bill Shaikin (on Twitter). Urias, for his part, continued making his big league case Friday night by throwing five scoreless innings for Triple-A Oklahoma City. The 19-year-old has now worked 27 straight scoreless frames and has posted a 1.10 ERA, 44 strikeouts and eight walks in 41 innings on the season.
More on the Dodgers, who entered play Saturday at a disappointing 21-22:
- Los Angeles heavily pursued Orioles setup man Darren O’Day when he was a free agent over the winter, reports Shaikin. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman went so far as to have conversations with O’Day, not just his agent, but the 33-year-old elected to re-sign with Baltimore on a four-year, $31MM pact. “As persuasive as Andrew Friedman is, and the Dodgers are a great franchise, it’s a long way from home,” said O’Day. “If I was a single guy, I’d probably be wearing white and blue.” The Dodgers have shuffled through several eighth-inning options this year, as Shaikin writes, which perhaps could have been avoided had they landed O’Day.
- Southpaw Hyun-jin Ryu will start for Oklahoma City on Wednesday, Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register was among those to report (via Twitter), and could rejoin the Dodgers as early as June 9, according to J.P. Hoornstra of the Los Angeles News Group. Ryu, who hasn’t appeared in a major league game since October 2014, is working his way back from May 2015 shoulder surgery. The 29-year-old was a stellar part of the Dodgers’ rotation during his first two seasons, totaling 344 innings of 3.17 ERA/2.97 FIP/3.27 xFIP ball.
- The news isn’t as positive on right-hander Brandon McCarthy, per Plunkett. McCarthy’s throwing program has been temporarily halted after he experienced arm-related discomfort following a recent live batting practice session, said general manager Farhan Zaidi. However, the Dodgers don’t think this setback will affect McCarthy’s scheduled early July return from 2015 Tommy John surgery.
Urias isn’t the answer to any question the Dodgers have right now. O’Day might have been though.
Agreed at least for the moment. Stretch him out if they are in contention the last month then go ahead. No need to stifle his development for two years. Now this bullpen we will see if Friedman and Zaidi have the answers in house or elsewhere. At this point there are two spots that are glaring. It’s time to DFA Tsao and bring up Rhame.
As every fan wants to know already knows, middle relief has been the issue with this team for at least the last two seasons. The Whiz Kids have been in charge for that entire time and have done nothing to fix it. The only reason they have not been fired for gross negligence is because the plan they are implementing doesn’t have anything to do with fielding a winning ball club, it’s about reducing payroll and making Dodgers Inc more profitable. Time to face up those facts. So where are all the people who post here about how Friedman and Zaidi are the smartest minds in baseball, and we just need to trust them? Where are the people who said it was all Don Mattingly’s fault?
BlueSkyLA, I couldn’t agree more. This ownership and FO have no intention to win, none. It’s intention is to see how far they can push the fan base without lowering income. I can tell you that my 35 year fan-ship is stretched to the brink.
Also, where are the apologists that I’ve had to deal with all off-season on social media? All the FO fans who acted like we didn’t know or understand baseball. All I hear is crickets now.
Makes me think that our FO is going to bring all our young pitchers up around the same time frame
It’s not like there are many options. DeLeon isn’t throwing. Urias is a ways off. Cotton hasn’t been the same since being a long reliever. Montas and Rhame are maybe the two that I can see in June.
They could trade to patch up the gashes in the roster but of course that would mean parting with some cheap controllable players. Anybody still that is going to happen?
I think you’re way off, Blue. The Whiz Kids had a deal for Chapman fall through, and they were willing to pay the right amount for Greinke (the DBacks clearly paid too much). I think the plan these guys have is an excellent one, and it could very well set up the Dodgers as amongst the best teams in baseball (which they actually have been during the stretch you criticize) for a long, long time.
One bad month doesn’t change any of this.
Two bad months, the first third of the season. The problems with this team are even more obvious now than they were at the beginning of the season, and they are not fixed no matter how long they remain obvious. Yes, they have a plan, to make the Dodgers more profitable. So if you measure success based on corporate profits then indeed the plan is working.
They were 12-6 to start the season, and have won more games than everyone except I believe the Cardinals since 2013. They’ve had a bad month since then.
Who would you have traded away and for whom? Let’s just get this on the record so that we can compare the next five years of Urias, Seager, Pederson, Thompson, Montas, DeLeon, etc. with the list of players you think the Dodgers should have traded for or signed by now.
Let’s put it this way, signing Price and Greinke would have worked out just as badly so far this year. So would have trading for any number of big name free agents. How is the Angel franchise looking after all their signings over the years, which led to zero WS Championships, and nothing notable in he playoffs.
I much prefer the Dodgers’ youth-oriented approach.
12-7, and most of those loses were bullpen failures. After that they proceeded to lose six in a row to end the first month of the season below .500. Without Kershaw this is a last-place team, no question about it.
Nobody seriously thought the Dodgers would get Price and Grienke, but the betting odds were they’d end up with one of them. Instead they got Kazmir, who is just plain awful, and to make matters worse, if he continues to stink up the joint the Dodgers will be stuck with him for another two years. And this looks like smart roster management to you? So much for the youth movement. Either way I’m going to predict that Grienke gets his game together better and faster than Kazmir.
The Dodgers could easily package up any of Hatcher, Baez, Libertore, or Garcia with any of a dozen midrange prospects for the middle relief we all know they need. If they paid down most if not all of his contract they could throw Crawford into a deal. Not going to happen. Instead will we have to wait and hope that Montes is better than advertised. Otherwise, they have nobody.
The deal for Chapman did not fall through. The Dodgers pulled out. Big difference. Big mistake.
Agreed. As much as I don’t like to see problem children on my team, the Yankees are likely to be rewarded for taking the gamble on Chapman. The Dodgers wouldn’t push that button because they are being run like an insurance company. It’s all about risk management. According to their magic formula Chapman was rated as too much of a risk. Grienke too.
Ignorance is bliss. They have taken on payroll since the new regime not cut it. They did however acquire the young talent so they don’t have to go out and buy the most expensive free agents. They have like 8 legit big league pitchers that are hurt right now.
I agree, and as a life long Dodger fan they should have stayed in on chapman. I don’t care what he does off the field or the 1 month suspension. They sh kid have revisted the deal after the news broke and lessened the prospect package like the Yankees did. They barely gave up any top talent to acquire him. The other biggest mistake this management team did was to not sign Miller when he was a free agent. No one talks about that. He is a bargain not at 9mil per and had been the leagues best reliever the last 2 seasons. Chapman and Miller and of course Jansen and lights out after 6 innings. The other major blown deal was not keeping Frazier in the Reds White sox deal. Let’s atleast hope Montas is as advertised. 30 hr right handed power is not easy to come by.
What’s frustrating is that the Dodgers were so close to genuinely competing for a WS title the last couple of years but clearly rebuilding now to a cheaper, more sustainable payroll. If they had gone “all in” last year or this season, e.g., trade or sign for Hammels, Price, Cueto or kept Frazier, I think the fan base would have been more understanding of the eventual rebuild. Paying $60M to Oliveras who never stepped onto Dodger Stadium or similar outrageous bonuses to Guerrero and other Cuban players, rather than investing in known MLB stars. It was humorous when the Dodgers were paying half of Marlins’ salaries when it seemed like the money was endless, but all these blunders seem like fire-able offenses now.. Although Dodgers still have the highest payroll in baseball, we’re heading towards a team mostly made of prospects and recycled veterans… $50-60M for 2-3 superstars and $40-50M for remaining role players. It’s the salary structure for a small-market team….
Because the Dodgers are being run by people who ran small market teams. After awhile what we are seeing in LA stops being a coincidence. If you accept the substitution of “profitable” for “sustainable” we are in total agreement. We are talking about a team with easily $400M in annual revenue. They can easily sustain whatever payroll they choose to sustain. They are choosing less to make more and they are hoping we don’t notice the inferior on field product.
We could so easily have Kershaw, Hammels, Cueto, Maeda and Ryu/Andersen/5th starter as our SPs and Chapman and Jensen as the closers. And a lineup of Gordon, Seager, Gonzalez, Frazier,Ethier/SVS, Puig, Pedersen, Ellis. We obviously would lose Urias and Deleon and some other top propects but this team could genuinely compete for a WS title for 4-5 years while the farm system replenishes. Will the FO ever get this right?
Don’t forget the Guggenheim Group grossly overpaid to McCourt,, so that investment/loan needs to serviced by the current revenue. What seems McCourt-like is the sheer number of FO salaries and the lavish/foolish spending on Cuban players rather than proven MLB stars. It’s almost as if they were gambling to see what sticks but none of the Cuban players have really worked out. $60M for Oliveras…. really? I think all of that the fanbase would overlook if the Dodgers had won a WS title during the honeymoon period. And now, we’re again left with a mediocre team and no TV unless I’m forced to switch to Time Warner/Charter. I feel cheated and betrayed…
They paid $2B for the team and then immediately signed a media contract worth over $6B. So no, they did not overpay. If anything, they made a killing. Now if they can get their annual payroll down to under $200M they could easily net a tidy 10% annual ROI. I know it’s impolite to mention it but the Dodgers are a business, and the people who bought the team are investors. To us the name of the game is baseball, but them it is return on investment. That’s why they spent so much on a management team with a solid reputation for running teams on the cheap.
I agree that the money on Olivera was waisted, but to be clear they are the 28mil signing bonus. The other 30mil Atlanta is on the hook for. And the Time Warner deal was for over 8 billion.
Yes the Yankees have 3 of the best relievers and might deal one of them. The crap part of that is we should already employ two of them. Chapman and Miller. It’s obvious this from office and Freidman doesn’t spend on relievers. Why haven’t they locked up Jansen. He’s a top 5 closer hands down and he only arm worth a damn in our bullpen. They didn’t have a problem paying Wilson and league over 18 million last year to not play for us. They have all the money a team could ever want. Yet hey spend it on bad signings and for players to go away. Definitely not the mastermind dream team they were suppose to be.
The Dodgers offense will come together soon and the bullpen will be addressed by the trade deadline. The way I see it, the Yankees have three bullpen arms, which they don’t need come July. If we can add a setup man and bring up Urias mid-season the problem is solved. Funny how people panic when the Dodgers go in a slump….