In what could conceivably be the first of a flurry of deals over the next seven days, the Dodgers on Tuesday traded righty minor-league pitcher Andre Scrubb to the Astros for utility man Tyler White.
At the big league level, the 28-year-old White has been a jack of all trades, having played first, second and third base, in addition to a bit of left field. The North Carolina native has also made six pitching appearances, although most have come in late-inning, mop-up duty. His career MLB ERA is 18.56. In four games this season, the right-handed hitting, right-handed thrower has posted a 21.60 ERA with two punchouts and five walks over 3-1/3 innings pitched.
White, who stands at 5-feet-11 and weighs an imposing 225 lb., was designated for assignment on July 19 by the Astros, seemingly making the deal easier to get done for the Dodgers. Upon his designation, he was hitting .225 (49-for-218) with three homers and 21 RBI in 71 games. He had a breakout season in 2018, batting .276 (58-for-210) with 12 homers and 42 RBI. In parts of four big league seasons with Houston, he has slashed .241/.319/.410 with 26 homers and 101 RBI.
Being that White’s primary position is first base, the deal by the Dodgers doesn’t do much for the team aside from providing depth at the upper-levels of the farm. The depth chart on the parent squad is quite deep, as Joc Pederson has recently seen plenty of time there because of potential overcrowding issues in the outfield.
The 24-year-old Scrubb was originally drafted in the eighth round of the 2016 MLB draft out of High Point University. He appeared in 29 games for Double-A Tulsa this year, going 6-1 with a 2.45 ERA (13 ER/47.2 IP) and 56 strikeouts. In four minor leagues seasons, he posted a combined 21-6 record with a 2.37 ERA (46 ER/ 175.0 IP) and 201 strikeouts over 108 games.
Across three levels of the farm last year, Scrubb went 7-2 with a 2.86 ERA and a 10.3 K/9. He pitched in the Arizona Fall League at the conclusion of the 2018 regular season.
Although he was groomed as a starter on the Los Angeles farm, many pundits feel that Scrubb profiles much better as a reliever. The Virginia native throws two primary pitches—a four-seam that tops out at 96 MPH and a very hard curve ball that might as well be considered a slider.
After the trade, the Dodgers’ 40-man roster now sits at 39 players.
White was assigned uniform No. 28.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
And he is no where near as good as 2 guys who have worn that number, Wes Parker and Pedro Guererro. I made my self clear when I first heard of this trade. It is dumb. It is not what is needed most, and I doubt he is an upgrade to anything we have on the roster right now.
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Do we know yet what the accompanying move is off the 25-man?
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No and probably won’t until tomorrow
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By the way, who is the roster casualty because this clown cannot go to the minors? Beaty>? Kike? Only if he hits the IL I would think. trades are made to improve your team, this does none of that ,
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OK Bear I had some comments for you on a previous post but it looks like we’ll have to move our conversation over here. Where is the rule that says you have to make your most needed move first? You make your trades when they are available to you. I understand that you hate this trade, but complaining about it because it’s not the move we need most urgently doesn’t seem logical to me. You say he won’t be as good as Guerrero. Just keep in mind that if he hits 172 homers in a Dodger uniform he’ll be better than Pedro. And I don’t think you should refer to him as a “clown”. Some people are afraid of clowns and you might scare them away from this website. 🙂
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I really don’t care if they are scared of clowns..maybe I should call him a slug. As for making moves, you do them to improve….I do not believe this improves this team one damn bit
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I can’t figure out why they wanted to move Scrubb. Attitude, professionalism? No clue. I always thought he had a relatively high ceiling, but obviously I’m not around him everyday.
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From what I’ve read they were going to need to put him on the 40-man this winter and maybe they thought they had 40 guys they valued more than him, although (and don’t tell Bear I said this) if one of those 40 guys is White I’ll be surprised.
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Now if you had said they traded for a quality arm for the pen, I might jump up and down and yell yay. But for a guy who is a defensive question mark and more of a first baseman than middle infielder and who we already have in David Freese, I am definitely not drinking the cool aid on this deal.
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There might be more to this Bear. But even if there isn’t this is nothing to get upset over. If it’s the only move made then I’ll join you in a rant. But for now? Meh.
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Great news Bear! You’ve hit on exactly why they made the trade. He’s the quality arm for the bullpen you’ve been asking for. Along with playing 1st, 2nd, 3rd and DHing he’s also been in 4 games as a pitcher this year. ERA of 21.60 (yes, that’s 21). Russell Martin is looking over his shoulder.
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By the way, I can see what you have posted in my email….so don’t tell Bear I said this does not work…..LOL
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Damn. I’ll have to come up with a better strategy. 🙂
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Attention: Austin Barnes has been optioned to OKC. No word on whether Smith will be coming back.
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Smith is coming back. yay a move that makes sense and it really does not mess with the chemistry on the team since he has been up already.
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It should be an improvement at that position. Sure would lengthen that lineup if he keeps hitting. He was in a mini slump for a while there.
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Might have been because he had a thumb injury when he first got back.
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Barnes is already not on the 25 man roster on the web site. OKC bound. I guess that sub Mendoza line BA got too heavy a burden for the team to handle.
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I’ll bet he lights it up at AAA.
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Padres lost;;;;;;;;;;Rock came back and beat DC,,,
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I know I’ve been harping on Barnes but you have to feel for the guy. Good person and teammate. Hope he can turn it around at OKC
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Barnes is a career .300 hitter in the minors. That’s for 7 years. He has a career .304 average at AAA. It all depends on how he takes the demotion and if he really works on his swing. But, remember he probably will not be the primary backstop at OKC because Ruiz is there also. So he might find consistent AB’s hard to come by. Then again he might be on someone’s radar in a trade, not likely, but possible.
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Really feel for Austin Barnes right now. Yes he was struggling with the bat terribly but he never let it mess with his ability to work with the pitching staff in which he was fantastic all year. By all avounts he’s a good guy who everyone in the clubhouse likes and he’s a tireless worker. Sadly this had to be done right now for the benefit of all parties. Barnes needs a few weeks to get his swing back and i bet he starts to light AAA pitching up real soon. Smith needed to be given the keys to the starting spot for an extended period of time so we know what we have in him going into the playoffs. This is not the last we will see of Barnes this year but I hope Smith can take the job and run with it.
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Maybe they will DFA JMart if Barnsey comes back with a vengeance.
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With Ruiz there, just how many reps is he going to get behind the dish????
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Well, knowing the way Friedman likes to run things at OKC, Barnes may see a bunch of time at 2B and whenever they need a DH.
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Lux played second last night.
Bear mentioned something about Smith’s thumb. That would do it of course, but in his last 10 he’s 7 for 41… with 8 Ks and 6 home runs. I think his thumb is fine, he’s just swinging for the fences.
We’re all trying to figure this out. Something is in the works. I’ll just wait til it’s done.
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No fair waiting until it’s done Scoop. We need you to figure this out now, before AF does.
As I see it, Ruiz, Lux and Barnes need to get playing time. It looks like they want Lux to get some reps at second because he’ll probably play there much more often when he gets to L.A. So. Lux plays second and a little short. Ruiz and Barnes alternate between catching and DHing.
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Lux needs to play exclusively at 2B to get ready for his callup. He is not a big league SS as he has had a healthy number of errors in the minors on top of mechanical issues throwing to 1B. At least you can mitigate those issues at 2B.
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Lux played SS the night before.
I don’t know what’s going on, but my guess is they want Barnes to get his swing right, maybe get a little rest in Oklahoma by not catching everyday then be back to handle the staff for the stretch and playoffs. I suppose the organization trusts Smith enough with the job that he will stay in it with Martin if Barnes swallows an olive at OKC. I still don’t trust Smith’s first 26 ML at bats as a harbinger of what his next 100 will be. I can say with a high level of confidence he is not a .999 OPS ML hitter, but I cannot say with any surety how good he really is. Better than Barnes would be a safe bet.
Something is going to happen soon, and I think it will be something relatively big. I’m leaning toward Shane Greene being a Dodger and it won’t cost any of our Top 5. I also believe Zaidi is too smart to not sell. He’s building for a new gianasty and it won’t include Bumgarner, Posey, Crawford or Panda.
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Another vote for “Gianasty” Scoop. You should trademark or copyright that one.
The Giants will have some very tough decisions to make over the next few days. I don’t think anyone in the front office had a clue they would go on a run like this. It makes those decisions very difficult ones. They might go half way and sell off a couple of relievers while keeping Madbum and Smith. That might be the worst decision of all. Your point is well taken Keith. We’ll know based on his actions how much power Farhan actually has. Maybe they brought him in to do the dirty work because he has no previous ties to those players or the fans so they can let him do what needs to be done and he’ll take all the heat for it. Interesting times.
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“Gianasty” pretty clever scoop you’re a real wordsmith aren’t you. We’ll see how much power ownership gave farhan when they hired him. I know FZ is oozing at the big picture, which would dictate trading everybody you can, and start rebuilding the franchise, if ownership gets sentimental and makes A run for the wild card we will know Farhan is handcuffed. The question then will be, why they hired him in the first place, if they’re not going to let him do what they brought him in to do.
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Good points Jefe and Keith.
My take is the giants have a plan, they hired Zaidi to do it, and they know damn well they won’t overtake the Dodgers with this bunch. I think this is the year, and more directly, this is the week, for them to add 2021 and beyond talent. Zaidi knows where to find it and it’s my opinion he’s one of the best talent evaluators in the business. He is going to gather up some A and AA talent and it’s going to begin very soon.
But what do I know. I thought Tyler White was a rapper.
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Seems to me that all Dodger fans are in favor of Farhan selling and replenishing his farm system. I’m sure Farhan feels that way.
I think the Giants fan base vehemently disagrees with us.
I think that Giants ownership is stuck in the middle.
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I don’t want them to sell. I think selling is the smart thing to do. I want them to regress, knowing full well they won’t.
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But if they sell, we might want up with some of what they’re selling. Smith, Dyson, Watson, Moronta would all be worth adding.
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True enough. I’ve been expecting help from somewhere else. For Z to help out F, it would have to be for somebody we don’t want to lose. I look at it this way …. Zaidi trades us Smith, he goes Mariano Rivera in playoffs and we win the Championship. SF fans ain’t gonna like that one bit, but Zaidi will get through it because Ruiz becomes Molina or May becomes Marichal.
I just don’t believe they are going to deal with each other on something big. Something smaller maybe, but not the best relievers SF has.
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