Right-hander Ross Stripling has been a member of the Dodgers organization since going in the fifth round of the 2012 draft, but he came close to joining one of the majors’ other Southern California-based teams over the winter. Back in February, the Dodgers were on the cusp of a trade that would have sent Stripling to the Angels in a deal headlined by Joc Pederson (more on Pederson here). That plan fell through, however, and Stripling is still a member of the Dodgers. Frankly, that doesn’t look like a bad thing at all for the club.
Set to enter his age-30 season (that’s if we get one), Stripling has established himself as a valuable Swiss Army knife for the Dodgers’ pitching staff. Whether as a starter or a reliever, Stripling has gotten the job done since he debuted in the majors in 2016. He’s the owner of a 3.51 ERA with an almost identical 3.60 FIP across 387 career innings. He continued his sturdy pitching last season, a 90 2/3-inning effort in which he posted a matching 3.47 ERA/FIP across 32 appearances and 15 starts.
With 9.23 K/9 against 1.99 BB/9, Stripling finished 21st among all pitchers who threw at least 90 innings in K/BB ratio in 2019, sandwiching him between the Indians’ Mike Clevinger and teammate Clayton Kershaw. Stripling also induced grounders at a little better than a 50 percent clip, and despite well-below-average velocity (90.5 mph on his fastball), Statcast was generally a fan of his work. He limited hitters to a .294 weighted on-base average, essentially turning them into the 2019 version of light-hitting White Sox utilityman Leury Garcia, and managed an even better .278 expected wOBA. Stripling ranked in the majors’ 84th percentile in the xwOBA category, and that’s nothing new for a pitcher who has held batters to a nonthreatening .284 xwOBA during his time in the majors.
Assuming Stripling does remain a Dodger going forward, it’s unclear how many starts he’ll be in position to rack up. Some of Kershaw, Walker Buehler, David Price, Julio Urias, Dustin May, Alex Wood, Jimmy Nelson and Tony Gonsolin are locks to wind up in their 2020 rotation or, if there is no season, the ’21 version. Others are at least solid candidates to pick up starts. But one of the juggernaut Dodgers’ greatest strengths is their ability to build depth just about everywhere on the diamond. Stripling’s part of that, even if he doesn’t have a defined role, and the fact he’s under affordable control via arbitration for the next three seasons should only make him more appealing from the club’s perspective.
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman has made one shrewd move after another since he took the helm of the team’s front office after the 2014 season. It’s hard to second-guess him, so maybe he was on to something with his willingness to move on from Stripling. Based on what Stripling has done to date, though, keeping him has a chance to go down as a blessing for LA.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Stripling is going to be huge in this crazy shortened season. Thank you Arte Moreno for having Dodgers derrangment and stopping what would have been a great deal for the Halos.
Methinks you did not think this one out! Trading for any rental player before this pandemic was a big slap in the face for the team who acquired said rentals.
Arte is lucky that he nixed the deal. Friedman wishes he could nix the Betts trade too right about now.
Ross Stripling is not a rental. Andy Pages is not a rental. Me thinks you did zero research on these players. Even if this season were cancelled and Joc were to hit free agency it was a great deal for LAA. Rengifo and Ward for a solid big league starter and extremely high upside lottery ticket is a major discrepancy in value.
Young Joc was the rental! Sorry for not clearing that up, killer! Pages’ rookie league numbers don’t do a whole lot for that thing in my pants either!
I believe Rengifo would’ve seamlessly plugged the Chris Taylor/Kike role for years to come in LA. But, I will take your points into consideration! A fair rebuttal! I
Im only concerned about what these players bring on the field. Not what it does for the “thing in your pants”. The Dodgers have plenty of solid utility players even with Hernandez’s inevitable departure.
I see your sense of humor is lacking!
The deal wasn’t even finalized either, the Angels could’ve given up a top 5-15 prospect in the deal for all you know
Yeah .298/.398/.651 isn’t very good.
Even with Pederson being a rental, the Angles would be getting a pitcher who has a 3.22 ERA, 3.44 FIP, 1.171 WHIP, and has been to an all-star game in the past two seasons. He has three whole seasons of control left, and two if 2020 is canceled. Pages is ranked as the Dodgers’ 14th best prospect per MLB Pipeline, and had a 1.049 OPS at Rookie Ball last year. He was 3rd in wRC+ (165) at the Pioneer League last season, so I don’t know how you are not impressed by his numbers at that level.
If all the Angels had to give up is a utility man who wouldn’t be anything more than a Chris Taylor or Kike Hernandez, overall league average bats or worse where the only value is their defensive ability, then I think the Angels are getting the better end of that deal.
Absolutely. Especially after signing Rendon. Pederson playing alongside Trout would have been a great complimentary piece. Better than complimentary. Pujols is old and Upton has been dinged the last year or two, so Adell/Marsh would not be blocked midseason. Angels should have accepted the deal without question.
Dave, it’s a rookie league ball player. Repeating the level. Idc about those numbers whatever they may say.
We have no clue what the deal was…how are you crowning a winner in a trade you dont have the details too? Very odd
Knowing 4 out of the 5 players in the deal is no clue? LOL. It was also widely reported the unnamed LAA prospect was in the 10 range of their list. There is more than enough known to analyze that deal. Its very odd you think were not allowed to talk about this like it never happened.
Yes….. widely reported by the media…… yet neither side has said anything themselves – …….Not sure its a wise idea chasing the fox down the hole here- You have no clue about the deal agreed upon as do I
Of course the teams did not say anything themselves. Execs can’t comment on trades until they are finalized so we will never get a comment beyond “it was never completed”. Ken Rosenthal and Jeff Passan are the most reliable reporters in the sport, whatever they say the trade was, it was. Joc was getting goodbye texts from his teammates and manger but sure this trade was just some media speculation. We know what 83 percent of the deal was, thats a pretty big clue.
Yup it sounds like they said the trade was inconclusive –
Where you found the magical markers to fill in the blanks I will never know
How you crown a indisputable winner after that juncture is beyond incomprehensible to me
Your playing your cards face up here kid
LOL look where you are dude. MLB “TRADE RUMORS”. If you don’t think talking about this topic is appropriate you are in the wrong place. My magic marker is called twitter, come and join us in the 21st century. When every credible source in the baseball world says it, its true. You must have been living under a rock the week these trades were broke. And i never crowned an “indisputable winner”, just said it was foolish for Arte to be impatient and back out of the trade. You’re spending more time acting petty than actually defending your point.
There were 2 unreported players, both going to the dodgers
We only knew 1 player going back for 3 guys. We did not know the deal at all. Stop lying afk
An Angels reporter said one of the players going to LAD was Ward. But you even said below it was not going to be Marsh and the Angels have a thin system beyond their top 2 prospects. So in the end it doesn’t really matter, since their farm system beyond Marsh and Adell is horrendous.
Not knowing the key piece to what the Angels had to give up is “no clue.”
We have no clue how many double headers there will be. We have no clue how many games there will be. We have no clue to when the season will begin or where it will even be played.
And the Angels didn’t need Pederson.
It’s hard for me to get worked up when then is so little we know.
Hmm so we go from Rosenthal and Passan to some Angel reporter now
Next bit of info comes from the mailman right lol?
You see the point here kid? You have no clue what the trade was-
Btw I know Ward is burnt out but he was thier #1 prospect many moons ago….Oh and that guy Renigfro was their #3 prospect a year ago I know the shine wears off the penny for uneducated fans like you once they lose prospect status and start gaining real MLB experience and run into any kinda trouble but lets not lose sight here
You are absolutely clueless. That Angels reporter was just to show Wards inclusion in the deal. The rest of the known players were reported by every news outlet lmao. Your knowledge of prospects and farm systems is horrific. Ward was never their #1 prospect recently and he sure as heck was not ranked above Adell or Marsh. The Angels farm system has been a barren wasteland for years. Where a prospect ranks in their system is irrelevant unless their name is Adell or Marsh.
“Beyond the Boxcore” article Feb 12 2019
Headline
“Do the Angels have the next Josh Donaldson Taylor Ward’? 2019
Fangraphs 2016 Ward #1 prospect…….. 2017 midseaon #3
Fangraphs 2018 Renigfro #3 prospect` ….357 career abs later (forgettable by Angel fans)
Do better
Im a Dodgers fan dude. And thanks once again for proving your terrible knowledge of farm systems. 2016 the Angels had the worst farm in baseball and Ward was just their 1st round pick. Of course he was their #1 at that time. A fangraphs article means nothing. Ward has been underwhelming for a long time. Rengilfo has bounced around 3 organizations and he is only 23. That should tell you all you need to know about him. His ceiling is a decent utility player which the Dodgers have plenty of. You love to fawn over average players.
Ward was never their #1 prospect ( Afk)
Ward was their #1 pick of cource he was their top prospect (AFK 10 mins later)
Fangrpahs article means nothing (Afk)
AFK goes on to tell posters they know nothing about prospects !!! F##$k fangraphs we got AFK and his litter box of anonymous sources !!!
You are very funny this morning, hat tip for that ;)….until then *whispers* turn your cards over………
Your terrible reading skills made that whole post irrelevant. I said Ward was never their #1 prospect ”RECENTLY”. Do you know what recently means or what year we are in? I know well he was their top prospect for one year in 2016. Imagine bringing up someones prospect status that long ago for a deal in 2020. JP Crwaford was the #2 overall prospect in 2016. So despite his anemic big league performances you must still think he has high value LOL. I love how you think you are so much smarter than you really are. But we all knew that when you were banging a wall over me discussing a near trade on a RUMORS site.
I merely told you that you had no idea of what the trade was, which you dont-
Its pretty obv what happened after that…. Im assuming its getting near nap time para tu
Dulces Suenos
Wait am I a kid or an old man in a retirment home? You can’t even keep your weak insults straight. Spend more time defending your point instead of coming up with weak insults. Better yet spend time reading and learning what “recently means”.
I said you didn’t know the deal. It was 2 unreported of 3 guys going to LAD. One reporter said Ward, no one else had that who knows.
Not knowing the value of a deal doesn’t mean the reported details wouldn’t have improved the mlb team for the angels
They angels were dumb to pull the deal out because Moreno had a hissy fit. It would have undoubtedly improved the Angels mlb team. That’s why they’re dumb…. Joc would be the 3rd or 4th best hitter on the 2019 angels and Stripling slides into 2/3 easily
That still doesn’t mean you can say, you know the Entire value of the deal afk….
Angels would have lost Joc for nothing. Great non trade.
This is a very appropriate comment for a Ross Stripling appreciation article who the Angels would have had until 2022. Especially with their horrific rotation needing all the pitching help they can get. But yeah it was all Joc the platoon player who only plays against RHP. Joc would have been the least valuable player of the 3 pieces they got back.
The Angels have a horrific rotation. My guess is that you can’t even name their rotation.
If Canning was healthy, Stripling would be sixth on their depth chart. You can argue he’s better than 1 through 5, but the Angels would not bounce any of their top five out of the rotation for Stripling.
Yes, their rotation is horrific.
angels need a reliable starter.stripling is not.
If Stripling can’t crack that crappy rotation then where are your playoff victories? Your rotation is brutal. Stripling would be your #3 or #4.
Are there any Halo fans realistic over their Swiss cheese starting pitching? Delusional central….
Ohtani, Bundy, Tehran, Canning and mediocre guys like Andriese, Sandoval and Peters. Yes that rotation is horrific.
Heaney
My guess is you don’t know a thing about Sandoval.
Potential is a dangerous word. So is upside. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. But Sandoval has more potential and upside than Sandoval. We don’t know who was in the deal, but if it was Sandoval, for example, it’s a good thing the Angels nixed the deal.
But Andriese and Peters are horrific. But they are also #7 and #8.
Strip has been fantastic in whatever capacity the Dodgers ask him to pitch in. Hope he stays in Dodger blue. If he does end up getting traded I wish him well in the rotation somewhere else. He would have been a great add for the Angels’ staff.
Fantastic? He’s never pitched 125 innings, He has 52major league starts. He’d be the oldest person on the Angels staff, let alone their starting rotation.
He’s a piece you’d like to have, he’s not Walker Buehler.
He never said he was Walker Buehler, but definitley a really good pitcher. In the last two years, he has a really similar ERA and FIP to Kyle Hendricks, Trevor Bauer, Zack Wheeler, and very similar to Stephen Strasburg. If you can get that type of production out of a swingman type pitcher, then I would definitley consider him very valuable.
He said fantastic.
When I look at pitcher, and I’m attempting to project, I look at how often batters swing and miss at pitchers in the strike zone. It is a good measure of stuff.
Out of 142 pitchers who threw 90+ innings, Stripling was 98th.
Canning was 40th. Heaney was 21st.
Fantastic? I like Stripling, but I wouldn’t project fantastic and the Angels would not drop Ohtani, Heaney, Canning, Bundy or Teheren from the rotation for him. So the Angels would go to a sixth man rotation or he would only go in the rotation for an injured pitcher.
As a Dodger fan I think Stripling has the perfect home He may not see it that way, Im sure he wants to be let loose every 5th day but….
Hes 30 (I think most people feel hes like 26/27)
Hes never pitched over 122 inns
Wasnt a highly rated prospect
Is truly a 5 inn guy max
Hes great for us but really I dont think his ceiling or trade value is as high as many Dodger fans think it is-
I like having him as the best long man in the game, I think thats his perfect value, you throw him into trying to be somebodies solid everyday number 3 starter I think your asking for trouble
Lmao. Angels pitching has been so bad for so long, this guy doesn’t realize you can have fanatic players who aren’t required to be your ace hahahahha
He’s been great in LA and would be many teams 2/3 if not better
He’s basically kept on a starters workload+appearance schedule, ready to jump into the rotation in an instant, or suck up 5 innings if the starter gets blown up. He’s so so valuable, and imo underrated just because LA doesn’t have to run him out for 30 starts.
But his numbers, regular and advanced, show the quality for his work. Thank you Arte
We would have to know the details on the trade first to thank him…. for all we know we might have been getting Marsh and Renigfro back for a 30 yr old pitcher, lottery ticket in Pages, and rental in Joc
It was reported it wasn’t Marsh or Adell as either of the guys going back. After that there’ isn’t a lot in LAA system
“… but he came close to joining the majors’ other Southern California-based team over the winter.”
So apparently my Padres either aren’t based in So-cal or aren’t a MLB team. I mean I know they suck but come on!
I lived in San Diego for 10 years and have been watching the NL west as long as I can remember. I can tell you that your Padres are indeed in Southern CA, They could have a real shot at coming in 2nd in the PCL any year now.
The Padres are not really an MLB team, AAAA maybe but probably not that good.
Stripling is so frequently cited as underrated that he is overrated at this point.
Stripling is another border line starter. Yet people act like he would have been the second coming of Nolan Ryan, for the Angels. Stop just stop. He would have been another depth piece for the Angels. I’m the AL West he would have been facing better consistent line ups, than he does in the NL West. The Padres are basically a minor league team. The Giants are an old timers team. The Diamond Backs are mostly a minor league team. The Rockies are the only team with actual major league talent other than the Dodgers in the NL West. The A’s would win 100 games in the NL West. So please stop pretending that this guy was going to save the season for the Angels.
Stripling is better than Bundy. Bundy is probably in your rotation at this very moment. Without Trout your Angels have been a minor league team with a rotation fit for the Korean league.
D-backs and Padres are not a minor league teams
It’s like he’s teetering on the edge. One bad week and he’s a forgotten man. To his credit, he’s yet to have a bad week.
Why constantly does this website say (if we get one or of we have a season).. we ALL KNOW the situation., my gosh.. can’t we just talk baseball as if it’s coming (which the Mlb & mlbpa both want) and if it does not happen .. it does not.. it’s so annoying.. I get I can choose to not go on the this site.. but Tim & all the guys do a great job, but sooooo tired of every post of original MLBTR material saying that!!
Sounds like the theory here is that the Dodgers were smart in trying to trade Stripling and then they were smart to keep him when the trade fell through. Seems like they were going to be smart no matter what they did.
Anyhow… good to hear some props for Stripling. He’d be a middle rotation starter on any other team. Should be mentioned he was working on a new pitch in Spring Training so he could be even more effective going forward.
dodger fans may poo on the angels rotation but cannot explain how and why they were swept 0-4 last season.
Because there are bumps in the road even for 100+ win teams. The Angels 4 wins were a fluke an look at how they went into free fall after that 2 game series in LA.
yup, no enchilada ever since 1988! dodgers are losers!
4 games out of 162.
See? You’re comments are a laugh. Thanks.
I like your content, most of the time. However, I have to point out stupid s^&* when I see it. When did the Padres get booted from MLB? Did they move from San Diego? Did the the city of San Diego move to northern California? Do you have editors? Do said editors know how to read a map?
Dodgers 2020!
What are you talking about, @jgojosh? The article says: “ he came close to joining one of the majors’ other Southern California-based teams over the winter“, implying there are multiple teams based in Southern Cali. Looks like it’s a reading comprehension issue on your part and not and editing issue!
All I know is that the Angels need pitching and Stripling appears to be an upgrade over several of their potential starters. Heck, if he just pitched 101 innings for the Angels last year, he would have been a rock star.
The Angels have gone 10-12 deep the last 4 years due to injuries and ineffectiveness so reinforcements with a solid track record are always welcome.
All I know is that the Angels need pitching and Stripling appears to be an upgrade over several of their potential starters. Heck, if he just pitched 101 league average innings for the Angels last year, he would have been a rock star.
The Angels have gone 10-12 deep the last 4 years due to injuries and ineffectiveness so reinforcements with a solid track record are always welcome.
With the addition of Teheran plus a healthy Heaney and Canning, Stripling would have been our #4 starter.
Stripling is the kind of consistently injured starter that has plagued the Angels staff the past few years. Not sure why some are so enamored with him.
You’re living in fantasy. Canning is not healthy. Ohtani is coming off TJS and is nothing of a sure thing.
Tehran and Bundy are the definition of inconsistent
Stripling would be your second best pitcher after Ohtani, and given his health, could be the angels most reliable arm in 2020 without really thinking hard
Look at Bundy and Tehran’s stats. They are not good for a competing team. A 100 win team would DFA these guys, not have them 3-4 in the rotation. Cmon dude, the angels need arms
If true, that would mean the Angels would push their #5 out of the rotation, pushing the current #4 to #5 and you have Joc Pederson. That means the Angels would have been a better team (had the season started as scheduled).
That was very easy.
10 trips to the DL since 2016. There is a reason that he has never made many starts and medical reason Moreno nixed the trade. .
Stop lying
We all know Moreno doesn’t like being second fiddle to LA and didn’t like the appearance he was getting jerked around. It was and remains an idiotic baseball move to pull the trade Because Boston held up a different trade. Talent should speak more than your owners ego
But you defend your owner hahahaha
Dodgers had 3 of the best soft contact pitchers last season in Ryu, Maeda and Stripling.