The Dodgers have designated right-hander Casey Sadler for assignment, the team announced. The move clears roster space for left-hander Alex Wood, whose deal with the team is now official.
This could go down as a short Dodgers stint for Sadler, whom they acquired from the Rays last July. In terms of bottom-line results, though, Sadler was quite effective with both teams in 2019. The 29-year-old put up a stingy 2.14 ERA over 46 1/3 innings between the clubs, also notching a terrific 51.8 percent groundball rate and walking only 2.53 batters per nine.
Sadler also posted a career-high 95 mph average fastball velocity in the majors last season, but he barely struck out six hitters per nine. He also managed a bel0w-average 9.1 percent swinging-strike rate, and ERA indicators such as FIP (4.38), xFIP (4.78) and SIERA (4.58) weren’t high on his work.
Last year may have been a mixed bag at the MLB level for Sadler, but there’s no disputing that he was a standout in the minors. Sadler worked 38 2/3 innings innings in Triple-A ball and recorded a 3.26 ERA with 12.3 K/9 against just 1.4 BB/9. That performance, not to mention Sadler’s run prevention in the majors last season, may put him on other teams’ radars. However, the fact that Sadler’s out of minor league options could work against him.
Long lost brother of Donnie
His granddaddy is Sgt Barry of the Green Berets.
I liked this kid with Pirates
waiver claim incoming?
This was one of the stupid moves that the Pirates did last year.I think that he is representative of where the “advanced analytics” fail.Sadler will never win the Cy Young award but he is a decent ML pitcher.
I doubt that the Pirates will admit their mistake.They were not flexible enough to keep guys like him and Agraval who could have been a good 3-4 inning “starter” with Brault ready to come in for 4-5 innings.
I can only imagine that it is frustrating for Sadler to get waived like this from several organizations because he does not strike out ten batters a game.
Sadler hasn’t been with the Pirates since 2018, so either you don’t know what year it is, or you’re just trying to make 2019 sound worse than it was. As for Agrazal, he is not a major league pitcher. He got very lucky his first 4 starts or so. His peripherals were awful. Agrazal was just outrighted off the Tigers 40 man roster, the TIGERS. That should tell you all you need to know.
Ronn-I made a simple mistake in that he left the Prates in Nov 2018,but the absolute genius that you are was smart enough to point it out and I sincerely appreciate that.Next time you can do it without being an
A hole.
As for Agrazal,who are you to say whether or not he is a ML pitcher based on a few starts.I said that he could be a starter like the Rays use.
All I need to know is to consult you when I need expert advice..
Wtf had a good year
Why designate Sadler? He didn’t have a bad season. White would’ve been a better choice.
He’s out of options, and wasn’t going to make the team. They purged all the out of options guys for the most part. Floro will be the next casualty.
White has lost a ton of weight in the off season. He had some sort of thyroid issue, and was the reason he was well.. such a hefty dude to say it nicely. I’m interested to see how he looks in spring. He’s a right handed bat with a pulse, so you’d have to think they’ll keep him around. He’s hit in the minors, and did really well in limited at bats for the Astros in ‘17 and ‘18.
It would be atypical to dump position player depth for a pitcher; it unbalances your expected roster.
Further, the Dodgers have a long history of fixing hitters at this point, and the only real reason to commit to keeping White on their 40 man for as long as they have is to see if an offseason of their instruction can fix him. They’re not going to drop him at this point until they can, at least, see where he is at in spring training. A full offseason to work with their swing gurus and see if he can do the Muncy/Taylor/Turner transformation has already happened, and cutting him before you see if you get the payoff is very silly.
The Dodgers don’t choose to cut or keep people based on what they did last year. They do so based on what they project that person to do next year, and the year after that. Last year’s performance informs that projection, but it isn’t the only thing that does so, especially when you’re dealing with the swing change revolution where a player can completely transform in just a few months of an offseason.
Klentak you better get this one done
This feels like the kind of signing the Phillies front office would pursue. Given the salary, the relatively good performance this guy had in 2019, and how thin our bullpen is, I wouldn’t mind giving him a shot with a MLB deal.
Odds are he doesn’t get passed Giants on waivers, tho.
Hope he clears and stays. He is good
I don’t get this DFA…
I get the feeling LAD grew tired of his macho head games
Get better, George! Get better!
Get well get well soon we wish you to get well!
Yep, you nailed it lady. Good call. Dodgers are known to be after more introspective, sensitive types.
Fax me some halibut.
LAD 40 man is so deep there really wasn’t another option to DFA.
It was more so he was out of options, and he wasn’t going to make the team. Their 40 man is deep, but their definitely were other options. The Dodgers have basically cleared all but all the out of options guys on the bubble. The only guy standing, not for long, is Floro.
Maybe, there aren’t many free agents left.
It’s not just free agents, it’s also waiver claims and or trades. Let’s face it from a pitching perspective Floro faces a unlikely battle to see a mop up role within a pretty crowded staff.
Detroit should definitely claim this guy if he hits waivers
Someone will claim or trade for him
Padres, huge upgrade over Guerra on the 40 man.
He should be expecting a call soon from Mike Elias in Baltimore.
Agree. Welcome to Baltimore, kid
He won’t be missed. Good for a minor league contract somewhere.
It’s a day of former Pirates news. Sadly no moves by actual Pirates.
Ben is making NH seem like a whirlwind.
He should know what the Pirates’ needs are by now.
The Pirates needs start with trading Marte. But with Castellanos and Ozuna still on the free agent market, Cherington can’t really do much right now. When these guys sign, teams looking for a RH outfield bat will come calling.
Marte’s market should not be impacted by Ozuna or Castellanos as neither can play CF. Teams only want Marte for center so they should have active pursuers now.
Why the hell? Why not move some one terrible
Who, specifically?
Who, specifically?
The Invisible Swordsman
Why not move somebody besides Sadler? I mean I know he’s not great. But he had a great season with LA last year. Sad for Sadler..
Very interesting move. I’d love him to come to Boston, Chaim probably knows the kid…we’re going to need all the help we can get like this.
Never fear! Friedman made sure the Dodgers have Joe Kelly locked up for a few more years.
Giants what are you waiting for ??
Claim this guy, so he can come back and haunt the BUMS FROM LA
He has to get waived (as opposed to traded) to get claimed.
He has to get waived (as opposed to traded) to get claimed.
Pretty sure Casey Sadler isn’t going to “haunt” anyone.
Sadler pitched well but those peripherals suggest it was not really sustainable, and he was utilized almost entirely in low-leverage situations against some pretty bad competition.
A back-end bullpen piece who can’t ride the OKC shuttle has little chance of making it through the season on the Dodgers’ roster. They will need that flexibility in order to leverage all of their starting pitchers off and on the IL and in and out of the bullpen. Sadler had the least upside and the least flexibility of guys remaining on the roster. At least Floro has, at some points in the past, been completely dominant. A guy with Sadler’s K rates is incapable of dominance; his upside is extremely limited.
The Dodgers would rather roll those back-end bullpen pieces with arms that, if they click, can dominate.
If you evaluate every pitcher on the Dodgers roster in terms of the upside play you get a feeling for how they construct their pitching staff. There are far more guys than they need, and the ones who click will get the playing time. A guy like Sadler has limited value in that kind of situation, and that’s why even last year, with bullpen struggles, he contributed almost nothing of value to the team. He simply can’t do what they want done from someone in his roster spot.
Did you even bother reading the game logs before making your uneducated comment? “he was utilized almost entirely in low-leverage situations against some pretty bad competition.” False go look at the game logs dude before you lie. “guy with Sadler’s K rates is incapable of dominance” huh do you have stats to back up your claim? “He simply can’t do what they want done from someone in his roster spot.” Again what are you basing your claims on? Wjere are the stats. Sadler is simply being let go because hes 29 and has no options left. He’s an average bullpen pitcher and many teams would welcome him.
Yes, that’s correct. Sadler’s a high floor, low-ceiling pitcher. No team wants to bring soft-tossing, low-strikeout pitchers into high-leverage playoff situations.
Sadler was utilized almost exclusively in ultra-low leverage situations by the Dodgers until the last 3 or so weeks of the season, when he got a limited number of opportunities.
You can review the leverage of Sadler’s appearances here:
fangraphs.com/players/casey-sadler/11209/game-log?…
He was given 5 of them, and overall he pitched alright. But the ceiling for a guy who strikes out 6 batters per 9 innings is quite low, and there’s a reason that Sadler’s ERA estimators were double his actual ERA: his success was built on unsustainable good luck with contact.
The Dodgers are more interested in high-variance relievers, because they want to catch the high variance guys when they swing towards the good and give them the playing time. Sadler saw no bullpen action against the Nationals for a reason: pitch-to-contact pitchers are a postseason liability.
Sadler should catch on with another team, and will probably bounce around as middle inning piece for a 2nd-division ballclub that needs decent innings no matter what they look like. The Dodgers are looking for more than that from a dedicated relief pitcher, because a player with Sadler’s profile will never crack their postseason roster.
I watched pretty much every inning Sadler pitched for the Dodgers this year. He pitched well, but there’s nothing about his performance that suggests he’s likely to pitch anywhere close to that well in the future. He was exeptionally lucky on balls in play: He allowed nearly a 40% hard-hit rate but only a .255 BABIP.
Sadler’s a fine player and I wish him well, but he absolutely was the weakest link on this pitching staff, and certainly the weakest link that no longer had any options (Floro being the other candidate, but Floro having high-strikeout stuff).
Because the Dodgers have so many league-average starters, only a very few of their ‘bullpen’ pitchers will actually make the postseason roster. The ones who do will be the ones with the potential to strike everybody out, because that is what is needed in a relief pitcher in a postseason bullpen. Sadler had one of the lowest strikeout rates of any reliever, and that is not what the Dodgers want from their bullpen pieces.
Nice insight, junts. From following the team last year, I remember him doing well but then not being on the post season roster. Your claims make sense. Why wouldn’t they instead get rid of Kolarek, him being a LOOGY guy with the new 3 batters rule change and all. Seems like Sadler would be more useful during the season than Kolarek would?
I imagine they have more faith they can get Kolarek to pitch acceptably to righties, enough that they will want to have him around for situations where he can go LRL or the like. Further, Adam still has 2 options remaining, so he can ride the OKC shuttle
Sadler has a higher floor – that might be useful during the regular season, but the team is so deep that I don’t think they care. They project to win the division by 13 games at the moment. Their regular season bullpen strategy will, like last year, be based entirely about figuring out if any of the various pieces will rise to the occasion enough to be a major october contributor. The miscellaneous innings will get eaten by starters who aren’t the top 3.
The Dodgers would rather spend 30 innings figuring out if there’s a way to get Kolarek to be relevant enough against RHB that they can carry him for majority-lefty situations, than give 30 innings to Sadler to confirm that, yes, he’s an averageish dude who won’t contribute in the postseason (which they already know).
It’s like how last year everyone thought the bullpen was so terrible because they were spending many innings on figuring out if there was anything in a whole host of dudes who didn’t make the postseason roster at all, because those regular season innings were virtually meaningless to the club. That was intentional – they had to figure out if they could get Ferguson or Floro or Chargois to be useful. In the end, none of those guys made the postseason roster.
The Dodgers have so much talent and so much depth that they are not interested in the median outcome of most of their back-end players. They have far more than they need, and they will give the playing time to the ones who break out and perform better than expected. Because they have so many of them, it’s virtually certain that some of them will do so.
Also, just for fun and LaFlamaBlanca’s benefit, I decided to prove my point about dominance. In the last 15 years, there has been exactly 1 pitcher in MLB to have a FIP of less than 3.00 while striking out no more than the 6 batters per 9 innings that Sadler did in 2019:
Joe Smith in 2011.
No pitcher has gone below 2.50 with a K/9 as low as Sadler’s in over 30 years (Rich Gossage in 1985 and Kent Tekulve in 1981).
It is pretty much impossible to be a dominant pitcher while striking out 6 or less batters per 9 innings in modern baseball. This is not an exaggeration: success with a K rate as low as Sadler’s was not common even in the 1980s and 1990s, much less in modern baseball where he strikes out literally half as many guys as a good relief pitcher.
Further, his FIP does not inspire confidence, even last season when his ERA was at a career-best. His career WHIP is also about average. The truth is though this is exactly the kind of cannon fodder reliever Friedman likes. He’ll probably go after others with a similar profile, the only difference being they will have minor league options remaining. They already have someone with a similar profile on the roster in Victor Gonzales, who they chose to protect.
What Junts said is entirely correct, and to build upon it, the Dodgers have a need in the LH RP section. Their overall RHP/RHRP depth is pretty significant. If you look at their potential playoff choices: assuming health Jansen, Maeda, Treinen, Kelly, & Baez seem pretty easy locks. The bubble will probably consist of Strip, May, Gonsolin, and potential wild cards in Nelson/Sheffield(maybe). The Dodgers may need a RH option say some don’t bounce back as they are supposed to or they see injuries from that group, but Sadler has no real role on this team, and no options.
Wood should be included in that group.
His WHIP was 1.22. He does not throw hard. Thats not good for a bullpen arm. If you actually wanted him pitching in the playoffs you are nuts.
Did you even bother reading the game logs before making your uneducated comment? “he was utilized almost entirely in low-leverage situations against some pretty bad competition.” False go look at the game logs dude before you lie. “guy with Sadler’s K rates is incapable of dominance” huh do you have stats to back up your claim? “He simply can’t do what they want done from someone in his roster spot.” Again what are you basing your claims on? Wjere are the stats. Sadler is simply being let go because hes 29 and has no options left. He’s an average bullpen pitcher and many teams would welcome him.
Pretty sure you’ve copy/pasted this comment twice to stir the pot. Junts and others are spot on in their assessment and provide excellent content from the comments section no less. Some of the information provided in this thread far surpasses what you could find in various LAD focused media outlets. A prime example of an educated fan, citing otherwise doesn’t hold merit.
Seconded
Yep, as they said, Dodgers FO being aggressive.
Angels should grab him
they should!
Get it done Theo
Love your name,
Make Baseball Great Again!
I think this is a case where teams are depending too much on stats versus the eye test. If chicks dig the long ball, Statcast digs the strikeout. I wonder how a young Greg Madrid would be looked at in this era of baseball? Over his Hall of Fame career, he averaged 6.1 K’s per 9 innings. While his FIP was close to his career ERA of just over 3.00, I feel that today’s stats would have hammered Maddux as his potential to be an effective starter. I’m not saying that Sadler is remotely close to Maddux’s talent level, but teams really need to trust their eyes just as much as the stats. To me, pitchers with low ERAs, good control and low K rates are actually more valuable than those with high K rates as they tend to throw fewer pitches and can go deeper into games as a result. There’s no way a Gerrit Cole could throw a complete game with 76 pitches (like Greg Madux did)! He probably couldn’t throw a sub-100 pitch complete game. Pitching to contact is not a bad thing when it results in outs more times than not.
The unique thing is that Sadler throws pretty hard (95 mph), so he must have a straight fastball, but again, good ERA and good results need to count for more than what projected stats tell teams. I hope he latches on with a good team and continues his success.