3:15pm: The Rays have officially announced the deal.
10:18am: The Rays are receiving minor league lefty Jeff Belge in the trade, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports.
10:10am: The Dodgers and Rays have agreed to a trade sending right-hander J.P. Feyereisen from Tampa Bay to Los Angeles, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan (Twitter link). The Rays will receive a minor league pitcher in exchange for Feyereisen, who underwent shoulder surgery last week and is expected to be sidelined into late August. The Rays designated Feyereisen for assignment yesterday to make roster space for newly signed Zach Eflin.
It’s a long-term play for the Dodgers, as Feyereisen is still controllable through the 2026 season via arbitration. The Rays would surely have loved to keep Feyereisen until this spring, when they could place him on the 60-day injured list and free up his 40-man roster spot. However, Tampa Bay also has righties Shane Baz and Andrew Kittredge recovering from Tommy John surgery and in need of 60-day IL spots when camp opens. As such, carrying all three until Spring Training would’ve effectively amounted to Tampa Bay operating with a 37-man roster instead of a 40-man roster for the balance of the offseason.
Feyereisen’s DFA raised plenty of eyebrows yesterday, as the right-hander rattled off 24 1/3 scoreless innings for the Rays in 2022 before being shelved by the shoulder injury that eventually led to the recent operation to repair both his right rotator cuff and labrum. A year prior, Feyereisen had turned in 56 innings of 2.73 ERA ball, albeit with a bloated 14.1% walk rate that created some skepticism about his ability to sustain that pace.
The now-29-year-old righty (30 in February) not only improved his command in 2022 but sent his walk rate plummeting to 5.8% — a mark that’s leaps and bounds better than league average. All told, Feyereisen has 89 2/3 innings of experience at the big league level and has pitched to a 2.31 ERA with a 23.8% strikeout rate and 12% walk rate. However, if he can sustain any of the 2022 strides he made in terms of strikeout rate (29.1%) or walk rate, he has the potential to be a vital late-inning arm for the Dodgers for three-plus seasons. And, because he’s unlikely to pitch much this season, his first trip through the arbitration process next winter shouldn’t produce a particularly large salary.
Belge, 25, was the Dodgers’ 18th-round pick in 2019 and spent the 2022 season pitching for their High-A affiliate, where he logged a 3.66 ERA in 32 innings and fanned a whopping 36.7% of his opponents — albeit against a concerning 12.5% walk rate. Belge was older than the average competition in the Midwest League in 2022 — his second stint at that level — but has drawn praise from FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen for a 96 mph heater and above-average slider.
The Dodgers have a trio of open spots on the 40-man roster, so it’s far easier for them to roster Feyereisen for the time being, even if he’ll now bump them up to 38. They’ll part ways with a hard-throwing lefty who has a penchant for missing bats and could begin the 2023 season in Double-A. By the time 2024 rolls around, it’s possible that both Feyereisen and Belge are ready for work in their respective teams’ big league bullpens, though Belge is far from a sure thing given his shaky command and a history of eye troubles dating back to a freak injury in his childhood days.
Found their shortstop I guess
Wow, two teams that have an excellent history of pitching development swap an injured pitcher. Only one of them can be right.
Roster space needed for Rays
Or the Rays just have too many injured pitchers on their 40 man? Maybe read the article?
I read the article, smartie. The Rays felt that Feyereisen was their 41st best option on a 40 man roster. Injuries or not, the Rays could have cut someone else. The Dodgers didn’t share that opinon. Maybe you should engage in some critical thinking rather than just hurling insults rolsie!
Or maybe the dodgers have less injured arms in their current 40 man? Do you even have a functioning brain? You either didn’t read the article or did not comprehend it. Either way, yikes.
Wow, what a hater! But don’t bother replying as I’m putting you on mute. Good riddance.
Muting is just proof you know you’re wrong. You just don’t understand this very basic move
Dodgers lost about a dozen players this off season, while only adding a couple players to the roster. Shelby Miller and now J.P. Feyereisen.
Geez, you guys argue over anything and everything on this site. Even injured set-up men.
Rols, some people just need a safe space…..
One team is guessing ‘right’ with this guy. One team is saying we will keep you on the roster even though you are hurt. One team is saying we are choosing you to let go. Both are valid choices. Saying one team of these two strongly run franchises who have had the same people at the top of them. One of them are right reading the tea leaves in this particular moment in this players journey correctly. It will be interesting to see where this goes. It’s not flame worthy material to go after someone about IMO. But go for it. Your response was crass and he responded with ‘smartie’ not exactly scathing.
Who did the get? Ned Ryerson?
“Or maybe the dodgers have less injured arms in their current 40 man?”
*fewer injured arms. Unless you mean that the arms on the Dodgers, while injured, are not as injured as the arms on the Rays
@Hammerin A Debate on opinions is a good thing but people take things so personal and some people are just rude for no reason. Goes both ways.
Can you say “we’re resetting our CBT obligation?”
And maybe they are both right. I like this for the Dodgers better than the Rays, certainly, but perhaps the other guy has a higher upside. Even if not, the Rays were forced to trade him once they put him on DFA, because he would have been a waiver claim otherwise, losing him for nothing. I had hoped my team would make the play for him. Oh well. Time will tell.
Had to mute that guy too…Talk about being WAY over aggressive for no reason hahaha wtf!
Hey, TJ, what did the Rays FO say to their scouting about this transaction?
“Is that a Belge or you just happy to see me?”
Close Clip. They said is that a Bellinger or are you happy to see me?”
If it’s Belge or Bellinger, either one will end up on “the mound” for relief…
Both names victims of pure siircumstance!!!
Yes, but I’m sure they both have the problem in hand…
Hahahahahaha Curly bringing it home for the WIN!!! Wiiise Guuy!!
I appreciate that TJ, I’ve toned it done since I’m off my meds…
Yeah, a little ridiculous if you ask me…
Sometimes the best ability is availability, and the Rays needed the space..
I still find it surprising that they couldn’t just release some other player that’s on the 40 man roster, yet ultimately heading to AAA..
Huge steal for the Dodgers…Completely jealous the Braves didn’t take a flyer on him since they have a few open spots, and they really only need another OF and maybe another UT option..
We’ll see who goes back. And obviously we in the pubic don’t see the medicals. But this could be another sneaky good move by Dodgers. Will get him for 2024-2026 if he pans out and his 2024 arb salary would be super low coming off injury. Caveat: The Dodgers roster looks like it is at 38 with him, so depending on other off season moves and trades, Dodgers may not be able to hold on to him until spring either.
“And obviously we in the pubic don’t see the medicals.”
Sometimes taking the L is a win.
I likd this move for the Dodgers.
Dodgers the cash to pay for his rehab and hope to get his upswing in 2024.
He’s projected back in August this year so they might be able to get a couple months out of him in 2023 as well.
It’s a low key, low cost move that could pay dividends later on. Would not be surprised if he was a very effective reliever next year.
LAD fans will love this move by the end of next year. Really wish the Rays could have figured something out…they received nothing in return (twenty-five years old and still in A ball? Eek.).
But we’re supposed to be in a win now mode. Friedman loves to not have his cake and eat it too. Which is why we choke ever season.
“they received nothing in return (twenty-five years old and still in A ball? Eek.).”
I know nothing about Belge aside from what’s on his stats page, but he did pitch in college and didn’t start his minor league career until age 21. Then had the year off in 2020 due to COVID. So maybe that’s something? He does have 14 K/9 and looks like he was battling control issues (7 BB/9 in 2021 with 4 BB/9 last year).
Dave Roberts is the reason the team chokes in the playoffs, almost by design it seems. I predicted they would get ousted in the first round as they did. You could see the team go into hibernation in the last week of the season when they rolled over for the Rockies.
Roberts loyally implements the Andy Friedman game plan and plays the Andy Friedman roster. So you might want to revaluate your statement.
Not much was expected after cutting him. Hey at least Belge is a hard throwing nasty lefty pen piece with control. Knowing Rays they will make throw just fastballs now in hopes he gains enough control to come up and get two outs at a time.
A good pitcher DFA’d because of a pretty alarming surgery. I had a similar surgery and could not throw the same. But I’m sure the Rays would’ve liked to keep him to see how he recovers.
Odds are they don’t get the same guy after surgery. Rays trade arb players anyways. Dodgers gave them enough upside to get a sure return now.
Absolutely, the Yankees have James Norwood now so they’re all set!
Surely you jest
Smart by the dodgers. He’s a good pitcher.
Smart by Dodgers. Unfortunate circumstance for Rays. That said; did Rays get a future set up to closer or straight closer candidate in Belge?
Not sure he’s closer candidate at all. But I bet he gets to the MLB
They got a high ceiling lottery ticket. One of those high K arms, but struggled with control..
Some work out, most don’t
Not unless he dramatically cuts his walk rate. The K rate will decline as a 24 year-old faces AA and then AAA batters. But they will also become more discerning at the plate. It is up to him to cut the walk rate. It is hard to coach strike-throwing.
Probably an over simplification here, but maybe the Rays see something fixable in his mechanics. 2019 the W/9 dramatically decreased when Fairbanks went from Texas to the Rays in season.
Yeah, the Rays have that kind of magic. We’d all be rich if we had a dime for every pitcher who throws 95+ with a high walk rate and teams think they can fix him. But the Rays have that history….
Biggest Dodgers move of the offseason.
Glad to see the Dodgers add someone to fill the Danny Duffy role on the roster. They definitely need to any another pitcher or two who is unlikely to ever pitch for them. They wasted multiple years on Danny Duffy, Jeff Nelson, Tommy Kanhle, and extended Blake Treinen while he was already injured to make sure they had him taking up space this season.
Kanhle might have been the worst, as they got him right, overused on back to back days to blow Game 4 of the NLDS and now he went back to Yankees.
For a smart organization, the Dodgers make their fair share of questionable moves.
You say all his misses but what about taking a chance on Morrow or Treinen the first time. Even Jimmy Nelson wasn’t really a miss since he was good when healthy. Misses like Duffy won’t hurt the Dodgers at all.
Rays needs offense not more pitching! They were terrible offensively and have no starting catching. As a diehard Rays fan this is very confusing!!
Also, Nelson only pitched 29 innings as a Dodger in 2020-2022 seasons. Small sample size and definitely not value.
Morrow and Treinen I believe were healthy when the Dodgers signed them. A little bit different.
Another injury signing was Cole Hamels. Of course, an injured Buehler turned into a value pick but then he got hurt. The Dodgers don’t fear injuries but I think they need to put on their injury risk management caps a little bit more often before these signings.
Treinen was healthy when they originally added him, I’d put him in the bounce back, not injury category. The results of the current $7 million dollar contract invested in an injured Treinen is a TBD investment.
Nelson (once, second investment not so much) and Morrow are good positive examples.
However, when you add up all the money spent chasing already injured players, you might be better off just paying for healthy pitchers. Cole Hamels was another recent million flushed down the crapper too.
Signing Hamels or Nelson isn’t preventing them from doing anything else. It’s not like they made a spot for Hamels after signing him. These risk are minimal and I don’t know why your complaining about these type of moves and not Fields for Yordan Alvarez, which is something that actually really hurt them.
It doesn’t prevent them from doing anything else, it just induces them to not do something better. They aren’t signing one reclamation project after another thinking them to be worthless, they sign them in the belief that they’ve spotted value missed by the other teams. But when you hit the zonk button that many times the message should be maybe you aren’t that much smarter than everybody else, so try another strategy already.
“It doesn’t prevent them from doing anything else, it just induces them to not do something better.”
This statement is simply not true. For example, in the same deadline they traded for Duffy, they went out and got the more reliable Scherzer. Another example was in 2017, knowing that Morrow was unreliable and never really had a healthy season, they traded for Watson, Cingrani, and Fields at or near the deadline. They still signed Hudson last year even after Kahnle was due back. It just didn’t work out for them because Hudson and Treinen weren’t healthy in October, so they had to use Kahnle more.
You complain about reclamation projects, but the Astros bullpen was filled with them. The Dodgers won in 2020 and their high priced closer didn’t save any games.
Sure, it’s true. The concept is called opportunity cost. It comes from finance and investing but applies to other decision-making situations as well. It’s comparing the result of what you did to what you might have done instead. If you make a bad decision and then have to change course to rectify it, then you’ve still made a bad decision. And now you’re paying for it. Paying for it is better than pretending that your original decision will eventually come up roses (see: sunk cost fallacy), but you’re still paying for it.
Scherzer is a poor example if you’re trying to prove the contrary. They had to get him because of the unwise signing of that chucklehead. Hmm, there’s that opportunity cost thing again. Seems it exists after all, even in baseball.
“They had to get him because of the unwise signing of that chucklehead. Hmm, there’s that opportunity cost thing again. Seems it exists after all.”
Like I said, there are more serious complains about the FO than minor moves like this, and Bauer is definitely one of them.
Sure, some bad decisions are more consequential than others, but that doesn’t make them good decisions, or even neutral. The Dodgers are opting for dumpster diving this offseason. They are choosing to do this instead of getting what we all know they need, even as all those better opportunities evaporate.
Well put, JerseyShoreScore.
Don’t forget about Cole Hamels
This isn’t a bad move. He will add depth for a September call up when he should be healthy or rehabbing. He was on a roll until the injury.
Major shoulder surgeries can be problematic for a pitcher.
What were the Tigers doing?
Battle of the Belge here
Heard he turned down a 14 year offer from the Padres.
Tampa is having a Feyer Sale. The Feyer has Reisen. Los Angeles is the new Phoenix.
underrated comment
Interesting development. If he was DFA, then that means about 27 or 28 teams passed on him. If the kid has the upside that has been stated, not one team took a flyer. Yet, the Dodgers, where money is no object to just buy what they needed decided to stash this guy til late season next year.
Itll be interesting commentary if this kid is a force, and the excuses by the 27 or 28 GMs who passed. The dumba$$es in PIT will toss out some double speak since we fans are stupid and they are soooo smart.
They have an opportunity to trade him before the dog piling starts.
I wonder where the RS fans are that thought he’d be a bargain basement pickup by Bloom, only to realize that he would never get to Bloom, assuming that they read any of Mr. Adams’ comments, or comments from other posters.
He can have Blake Treinen’s locker. In fact they can share it.
I had no clue about the season this guy had! I get only 25 innings but dang!
future Tampa Cy Young candidate Jeff Belge
First off, Belge is a lefty and as we all know, anyone who can throw a baseball effectively with their left hand can be of value to any team. Second, he is a guy who strikes out a LOT of guys, but his problem is command and control. He simply walks too many guys. And, at 25, his time is now, which means the Rays are going to have to work on that control if they’re going to put him in their bullpen this year.
Knowing how well the Rays work with pitchers, I wouldn’t bet against this guy succeeding. Just maybe not right away.
111 regular season wins.
Get eliminated in the NLDS and only win one game.
Lose a lot of players in free agency and sign no one besides a “legacy” contract.
Dumpster dive or trade for relief projects.
What a disaster this off season has been.
Welcome to the battle for third place, Dodger fans.
But never forget, Andy Friedman is a genius. He can win pennants with his mind.
Great signing. He’ll be healthy when the playoffs roll around. Exactly when most clubs are scrambling for reinforcements. Wish the Cardinals had made the move.
Jeff Belge gets better as he moves up.