For fans of the Dodgers who have been patiently waiting for a sizable move to happen, they finally got their wish on Tuesday night when the club re-signed veteran reliever Blake Treinen.
Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY Sports was among the first to report the deal, revealing that the contract was for two years with a club option for a third year.
According to Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times, Treinen’s contract includes a $4 million signing bonus and a potential $1.5 million buyout for the 2023 season. His base salary will be $6 million for both the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
With the move, estimations still have the Dodgers under the Luxury Tax Threshold for 2021 with about $5 million to spare.
We discussed some of the preliminary salary cap numbers on Sunday.
The 32-year-old Treinen returns to the Dodgers after going 3-3 with a 3.86 ERA (11 ER/25.2 IP) and 22 strikeouts in 27 games in 2020. He finished the regular season tied for the team lead in wins by a reliever and appearances, while leading the team with nine holds. He appeared in a team-high 11 postseason games, going 1-1 with a 4.76 ERA (6 ER/11.1 IP), including a save in Game 5 of the World Series. He finished the World Series with five strikeouts over 2.2 innings.
Prior to joining the Dodgers, Treinen spent parts of three seasons with the Oakland Athletics, going a combined 18-11 with a 2.44 ERA (48 ER/177.0 IP) and 201 strikeouts in 160 games. In his first full season with Oakland in 2018, he went 9-2 with a career-high 38 saves, a career-best 0.78 ERA (7 ER/80.1 IP) and 100 strikeouts. In doing so, he became the first pitcher in Major League Baseball history with 30 saves, an ERA under 1.00 and 100 strikeouts in the same season. His ERA was the lowest in Major League history among pitchers with 80 or more innings since the earned run became an official stat in 1912. After his 2018 campaign, he was named Major League Relief Pitcher of the Year by Baseball Digest and was on the Baseball America All-Star Team.
The right-hander began his Major League career with the Washington Nationals, going 8-11 with a 3.39 ERA (84 ER/223.0 IP) and 190 strikeouts from 2014-17. In seven Major League seasons, he is 29-25 with a 3.02 ERA (143 ER/425.2 IP) with 72 saves and 413 strikeouts.
Heading into the 2021 campaign, the veteran righty certainly becomes a late-inning option for the team, joining teammates Kenley Jansen, Joe Kelly, Dylan Floro, Victor Gonzalez, Brusdar Graterol and newcomer Corey Knebel.
In mid-December, the Dodgers also signed Brandon Morrow on a minors deal with hopes that he might rediscover some of the stellar form he showed for the club back in 2017.
As far as his repertoire goes, Treinen mainly throws a sinker and a slider, mixed in with an occasional four seam. According to Brooks Baseball, he used his sinker about 60% of the time last season at an average velocity of 97.0 MPH.
(Juan Dorado provided some information furnished in this report)
Pretty much means Baez won’t be back, nor Wood. Roster now at 40, so if AF is going to sign another free agent, someone will have to be DFA’d. They cannot put Kahnle and Ferguson on the IL until they report to spring training, which as of right now is still scheduled to start in mid February. AA and single A spring may be delayed.
Looks like there will still be lots of free agents available at the start of spring training. Friedman may have even asked some guys to hang on until then. I sure hope so, I want to see the Dodgers take advantage of the current market, by upgrading with some cheap premium talent in the bullpen.
Dodgers have 24 pitchers on the current 40 man roster. Besides the two you mention going to the 60 day IL, there is about 5-6 others that we wouldn’t miss if they were traded/DFA, same with 2-3 outfielders. Friedman still has a lot of work to do.
My list is shorter than yours maybe. Pitchers who are DFA options, Sborz and Santana, everyone else is staying, Reks, Raley and possibly Beaty since they are all the same guy. Alexander is going no where, they gave him a new deal.
They could DFA Alexander and give his spot to Hand. The only problem with that is Alexander’s $1 million payout would count towards cap money.
I would go along with that.
The pitchers on the 40 man roster that I saw as potential DFA/Trade candidates are Gerardo Carrillo, Garrett Cleavinger, Andre Jackson, Dennis Santana, Josh Sborz, Edwin Uceta and Mitchell White. I’ll be the first to acknowledge, I don’t know how the Dodgers really view these guys, but if a great free agent value presents itself, seems like losing any of these guys to DFA/trade wouldn’t be a show stopper, but we’re really probably talking about moving at most 2-3 of the least desirable players.
More important question is the 26 man roster, if Dodgers go 13 pitchers and 13 position players this is how I see what we have right now.
Buehler
Kershaw
Price
May
Urias
Gonsolin
Jansen
Kelly
Knebel
Treinen
Gonzalez
Graterol
Alexander
Smith
Barnes
Muncy
Lux
Seager
Rios
Mc Kinstry
Bellinger
Betts
Pollock
Taylor
Beaty
Still need a position player. And as Bearone48 pointed out Beaty is definitely expendable.
13 pitchers already, but don’t know what Price is doing. Alexander, doesn’t he still have a option? And I believe he definitely has trade value if Hand becomes available. Alexander is the first guy I’d move (although I like him), since I don’t see anyone taking Jansen or Kelly if we need a spot.
My dream is Price, Jansen and ??? for Arenado. Solves a lot of problems, including staying under the luxury tax.
One thing’s for sure, the 26-man and 40-man rosters can be maneuvered much easier than the salary cap dollars.
AF might be happy to part with Jansen and there might be a scenario under which a team would take him in order to dump an even higher salary, but it would never be Denver. I just can’t see Andrew doing that to Kenly considering his heart problems that seem to be at their worst in Denver. And of course the Rox know that situation as well and would never take him. He might be OK for a 3-4 game series there but to try to stretch him for 81 games would be crazy. So how about Price and Kelly? Not as much money but probably a bit more likely to happen.
I know those are the guys on the roster boxout, but I hope we don’t have to start Lux, Rios, and Mckinstry all in the infield at the same time this season. I think defensively that infield would be below average. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are all on the team, but I hope we get some veteran help for the infield.
Agreed, a gold glove caliber mashing right handed hitting infielder is a necessity. I can think of at least a couple names who are either available or rumored to be available, but as Dennis stated above, dollars are the hard part.