Ahead of Sunday’s season series finale against the Braves in Atlanta, the Dodgers announced that they have recalled right-handed pitcher Tony Gonsolin and activated infielder Jedd Gyorko from the 60-day injured list.
To make room on the active roster, the team optioned righty relief pitcher Josh Sborz and infielder Edwin Rios back to Triple-A Oklahoma City.
The 25-year-old Gonsolin was recalled for the third time this season and will make his fourth career start in Sunday’s finale. In his three starts this season, he is 1-1 with a 3.21 ERA (5 ER/14.0 IP), including 10 innings of one-run ball over his last two starts. Gonsolinn was 2-4 record with a 4.35 ERA (20 ER/41.1 IP) and 50 strikeouts in 13 starts for Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Seemingly, we’ve been talking about Gonsolin all year and felt since the beginning that he could likely contribute as a reliever down the stretch-run of the regular season. During his career, the Vacaville, CA native has touched triple digits multiple times, but those cases occurred when he was throwing in relief. In a starting role, his four-seam usually settles into the 94-97 MPH range.
According to MLB Pipeline‘s scouting report, “Gonsolin’s upper-80s splitter devastates hitters with the way it dives at the plate, and his low-80s curveball has become a consistent plus offering with nice shape. He also uses a mid-80s slider to give hitters a different look.”
Gyorko, 30, was originally placed on the injured list on June 8 by the Cardinals with a lower back strain. He appeared in 38 games for the Cardinals, batting .198 (11-for-56) with two homers and seven RBI, before being traded to the Dodgers on July 31 for left-handed pitcher Tony Cingrani and right-handed pitcher Jeffry Abreu.
Gyorko has spent parts of seven major league seasons with the San Diego Padres and Cardinals, compiling a .246 (625-for-2540) batting average with 112 homers and 351 RBI. The infielder was originally drafted in the second round by the San Diego Padres of the 2010 MLB draft out of West Virginia University.
Theoretically, the right-handed hitting Gyorko will join the competition for the team’s super-utility role. He has appeared as an outfielder limited times in the bigs, but has made his living moving all around the infield. The native of Morgantown has appeared in 389 career games at second base, 269 games at third base, 60 contests at shortstop and 28 games at first base.
He will get the start at first base on Sunday.
Gyorko will wear uniform No. 26, the former number of another very fine second baseman, Zeppelin fan and current member of the Los Angeles front office crew.
The 25-year-old Sborz was recalled on Friday and did not appear in a game during his latest stint. He has thrown in two big league games for the Dodgers this season, allowing six runs on six hits in 3.0 innings of work. In 41 games for Triple-A Oklahoma City, he is 4-3 with a 4.27 ERA (22 ER/46.1 IP) and 63 strikeouts, including a 2-0 record with a 2.31 ERA (3 ER/11.2 IP) and 17 strikeouts over his last 10 games.
Ríos, 25, has appeared in 17 games for the Dodgers, hitting two homers and four RBI with a .286 (10-for-35) batting average. On Wednesday, he became the 17th Dodger this season to record a multi-homer game and the third rookie, joining Alex Verdugo and Will Smith. In 92 games with Oklahoma City, he slashed .266/.339/.551 with 25 homers and 75 RBI.
In five minor league seasons, Rios has hit .294 (479-for-1627) with 89 homers and 310 RBI. The Puerto Rican native was originally drafted in the sixth round of the 2015 First Year Player Draft out of Florida International.
Sunday’s lineup vs. lefty Fried:
- Pollock CF
- Turner 3B
- Smith C
- Bellinger RF
- Gyorko 1B
- Seager SS
- Garlick RF
- Negron 2B
- Gonsolin P
(Juan Dorado provided some information furnished in this report)
I like this lineup.
We face a relatively tough left hander, Max Fried. Atlanta favored -135. 10 1/2 O/U.
Goin out on the limb here:
Dodgers win 6-5.
We’re favored now afterBelli’s bomb! Looks like his last two months may look more like his first two months!
So that’s the answer to our playoff bullpen woes!
The thing that worries me the most about May is with all his stuff he doesn’t get much swing and misses!
Perhaps they should have tried the relief experiment with May at Triple-A OKC. Sometimes, the moves that management come up with defy logic.
Yeah, that sucked.
And ….. also the reason why I don’t gamble.
More strikeouts than hits. Never a good sign.
First time for May. Against a first place club. Don’t give up on the idea. His stuff is good enough. He can figure it out.
Give the Braves pitchers some credit. They shut the Dodgers down when they needed to and all it took was a rookies wildness and a pitch right down the pipe for a grand slam homer, and that was that. They win the season series with the Braves, 4-2. Reinforcements coming on Tuesday, Kike and Taylor will be back for the Toronto series. Unfortunate that Dodger fans will not see the young Guerrero. He is on the IL and will miss the series. But Biggio and Bichette will be there. Chips off of the old block.
Atlanta is a worthy team. I’m not concerned about losing that series. I’m confident we beat them in a postseason series.
Our overall record is important of course, but what’s also important is keeping the playoff roster healthy and taking long looks at younger players, some of whom might actually be there in October.
All my friends are diehard Braves and Astros fans and some of them even texted me today saying they don’t believe Atlanta can beat us in a playoff series. They just don’t have the big 3 starting pitchers to match ours. We need to figure out how to have Buehler only pitch at home in October.
Get home field advantage. That will help.
Braves have to go on a very big run to catch them. 8 back with 36 to play. Dodgers have Kersh, Buehler and Maeda set for the Blue Jays series. Which means it would be Ryu, probably Gonsolin and Kersh for the Yanks. Going to be a fun week. As long as they avoid a long losing streak, and with this starting pitching they should, they will be fine. Ryu and Kersh and Buehler are pretty much unbeatable at home. With Kike and Taylor coming back, they are even more versatile on the roster. I would not want to be the person telling Negron, who has been very valuable, that he was headed back to AAA. But with those two returning to the team, he is just a redundant piece. Unless they decided to give Pollock some off time to heal that groin a little more.
One other thing I am going to go out on a limb about, I do not expect to see Lux added to the active roster come September unless they change their mind set that they have now. In order for Lux to be called up, they would need to add him to the 40 man. That would require as we all know that someone on there is released or put on the 60 day IL. Now my thinking is that White is about the most expendable piece on there and I would not hesitate to DFA that guy. Will Friedman do that? Who knows. But with the pieces that will become available over the next two weeks, I am not sure the Dodgers feel that Lux would get much on field time. I am pretty sure they will bring Barnes back. He hit his 6th homer since his demotion. But they will bolster the pitching staff and bring Rios back that’s pretty much a lock. Next year they will no longer have that 40 man option in September.
That’s a good point Bear. My feeling is Lux has earned it. The 40 man roster churn is an easy move, and we don’t need Barnes. But I follow your line of thought. Personally I prefer seeing Lux over Negrón.
I think the most disposable player is White, and he is redundant once Taylor and Kike are back, and he has been far less productive than Negron. Also Freese will be back in September and I doubt White was anything more than a stop gap measure that did not work out.
It will be the nteresting if Barnes will hit when he returns
I kinda doubt it.
Makes sense to me to keep alternating May and Gonsolin as starters/bullpen just to monitor innings. One of them could be a 4th starter when the time comes, my guess would be May. Gonsolin looks more like a reliever at this point. He’s also a few years older so maybe he’s better suited for high stress later innings. At least one spot in the post season bullpen depends on Hill. He’s he the 4th starter? Nobody knows.
Hey Scoop, an old friend of ours on the other site posted an article from fangraphs about Minor league hitting co-coordinator , Aaron Bates. I do not know how to post that stuff, but I am sure you would be interested in reading it.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-dodgers-aaron-bates-talks-hitting/
Excellent read Bear.
My first thought – I was taught, and I taught, a little differently. There was no coming down on the ball. The flight plane from a 6’+ pitcher throwing overhand from a mound was always down, so the swing was always slightly up. Quick hips, then hands through the plane, barrel back ….. then barrel on ball, always over the plate – inside outside up down early late….. Always barrel on ball OVER THE PLATE. The strike zone is only about a foot deep. That is where you make contact. Where the catcher catches the ball is sometimes 3’ later (and why framing should not be a thing…. wake up blue) Once you learn how to to do it, even inside fastballs can be barreled the opposite direction. All that said, I don’t believe I ever faced a 96 mph fastball. Best I ever saw, or coached against was around 90. Now damm near everyone throws as hard as Koufax did. (I read that Koufax never threw over 93. He could, but brought it down to 93 to control it. He also threw over 300 innings a year). Many now are throwing 95+, which is a couple feet quicker than Koufax.
The guys talking in this article know wtf they are talking about.
Good find buddy. Tell B I said hey. We didn’t always agree but he was respectful and took more crap than he deserved.
Won’t matter. Depending on how soon they clinch and how much rest they want Smith and Martin to have, Barnes is more of an insurance policy than anything else. I also believe he will either be traded or non tendered this winter depending on their plans for Ruiz going forward.
Ruiz and Smith. We don’t need anybody else, though I’m sure a 4A catcher will employed at OKC.