The Dodgers have agreed to minor league contract with right-handers Jordan Yamamoto and Dylan Covey. Yamamoto announced his own deal with the Dodgers on Instagram yesterday. Taiwan’s United Daily News first reported that Covey, who spent 2021-22 pitching for the Rakuten Monkeys in Taiwan’s CPBL, was signing with the Dodgers (hat tip: CPBL Stats, on Twitter).
Yamamoto, 26, was one of the four players who went from Milwaukee to Miami in the Christian Yelich blockbuster several years ago. He turned in a solid debut effort with Miami in 2019, pitching to a 4.46 ERA with a strong 25.2% strikeout rate against a rough 11.1% walk rate through 15 starts — a total of 78 2/3 innings. That looked to set the stage for Yamamoto to be a contributor on the Miami staff for the foreseeable future, but the righty was blasted for 23 runs in just 11 1/3 innings during the shortened 2020 season.
That nightmarish 2020 season was perhaps impacted by some health troubles. Yamamoto’s 2019 season ended with an IL placement due to a forearm strain, and his velocity in 2020 was down more than 1.5 mph from its 2019 levels. He was traded to the Mets in the 2020-21 offseason but pitched in just 6 2/3 Major League innings for New York in 2021, as a right shoulder injury shelved him for much of the season. Overall, Yamamoto has a 6.05 ERA in 96 2/3 big league innings, although that’s skewed heavily by the 2020 season. Subtract those 11 1/3 innings, and Yamamoto is at a much more palatable 4.43 ERA in 85 1/3 frames.
Covey, 31, has pitched in parts of four big league seasons, logging time with the White Sox each year from 2017-19 and with the Red Sox in 2020. He’s been tagged for a dismal 6.57 ERA in that time, but he has a strong track record both in Triple-A (2.63 ERA, 95 2/3 innings) and in the Chinese Professional Baseball League, where he tallied 198 1/3 innings of 3.63 ERA ball while pitching for the Monkeys.
The Dodgers already have a deep rotation mix with Clayton Kershaw, Julio Urias, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May and Noah Syndergaard locked into big league spots (and Walker Buehler rehabbing from Tommy John surgery). That’s not counting top pitching prospects Bobby Miller, Ryan Pepiot and Gavin Stone, each of whom could factor into the plan as soon as this season. Righties Michael Grove and Andre Jackson, both on the 40-man roster, represent further depth options. Both Yamamoto and Covey will add some experience to that group.
Zoinks!
I swear I’m developing a brain tumor as a result of reading these comments.
Bad news, possible tumor. Good news, that would confirm its existence
Expect that depth to be challenged as other than Urias the other 4 struggle to stay healthy most seasons
And even he doesn’t make it past 5 maybe 6 innings
Other than the 13 starts the past two years where he went over 6.0 IP, of course.
Pitching depth is an issue? Good thing they are paying Bauer 22 million not to pitch for them!
Notice how nobody is willing to pay him $700k to pitch for them?
There is a different between bringing him in and already having him count for a massive amount of CBT space and deciding to might as well use him if they are going to limit themselves with the luxury tax
Your argument falls under the sunk cost fallacy. My point is nobody seems to want him, even for practically nothing, and this is the true measure of his value to teams, not how much the Dodgers have to pay to be rid of him. And FWIW, nobody outside of baseball really knows how his salary will count towards the CBT, and assumptions aren’t the same thing as knowing.
He would be the 3rd best SP on the Dodgers as is, but somehow that’s a sunk cost
He’d be the first-most disruptive member of any roster. Sticking with a bad investment and hoping to get something out of it because of how much you paid for it, instead of doing something better — that is the sunk cost fallacy.
I didn’t invent this concept. You could look it up.
You’re entire argument is flawed because as is, he would be one of the better starting pitchers on the team. Last time I checked the goal is to win games. They were a very cohesive unit last year and it did them no good in October.
No sir. The fact that nobody wants him for near zero dollars should tell you all you need to know about what he’s worth. The arm comes along with the rest of the person, and that’s the problem.
Sunk cost fallacy, a classic cause of poor decision-making. You really should look it up, especially if you are going to call my argument flawed.
I went to the same highschool as Covey. Hope he makes it for his hometown team
we used to wreck that school in soccer every year. i guess the baseball team was much better. glad to see we have another local guy since we lost everyone but Barnes.
First Thor and now this Yamamoto signing. These could be 2 great under the radar transactions that pay big time this year for LAD especially with the annual Kershaw injury.
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Hey, hey, it’s the Monkeys!
They don’t monkey around!
As a close relative you should know.
Does the Yelich trade count as a bad one for Mil since they are now stuck with his deal, or is it considered good because he had 2 career years I’m MIL right after being traded?
The trade itself no. None of the players the Brewers sent to the Marlins have had any real success and none are even still with the organization (Brinson’s headed overseas) while Yelich won an MVP and led the Brewers to the NLCS and within one game of going to the World Series in 2018. The Yelich contract extension on the other hand, whoof…
Luckily the Dodgers didn’t do a contract extension like Yelichs’ with Bellinger.
I’m going to say yes. True – all of the players the Marlins received had bad MLB experiences, but that Yelich contract is a huge albatross which really constrains them. I’m sure the Yankees and Dodgers could get away with it but it really hinders what the Brewers can do.
The trade wasn’t bad, the subsequent extension is another issue and a similar mistake the Brewers could have made if they had signed Yelich as a free agent even if they never make the trade
Good luck Jordan . Hope you can stay healthy.
really like these moves. i hope they never see time in the rotation… but only because everyone managed to stay healthy (and the youngsters got turns when they did need some spot starts). But my gut tells me JY is gonna be a surprise bullpen piece down the stretch.
Covey is a cool story. 1.4 WHIP in the cpbl will be hard to get back to the mlb. Was teammates on the monkeys with Bradin Hagdin from Modesto ca. Farmland to mlb to jpl to cpbl. Baseball can take you places even if you don’t stick it in the show