In a day when unwarranted accusations against Trevor Bauer dominated many of the MLB’s Google searches, there was also a bit of secondary news surrounding Los Angeles player personnel.
In an official team statement Wednesday afternoon, the Dodgers announced they claimed righty pitcher Bobby Wahl off waivers from the Brewers. To make room for the 29-year-old Wahl on the 40-man roster, the club transferred shortstop Corey Seager to the 60-day injured list.
After a quick glance at Wahl’s primary stats, there’s really nothing to write home about. In a big-league career that spans three seasons, Wahl has made 17 appearances — all in relief — while posting an unsightly 7.63 ERA, a 6.23 FIP, and a not-so-impressive 1.891 WHIP. Over 15-1/3 career innings of work, he has struck out 16 batters while walking eight.
Wahl’s best year in the minors came as a 24-year-old back in 2016 while in the Oakland system. Across three levels of the farm that year, he made 45 appearances and collected 14 saves, posting a 2.65 ERA and a 1.178 WHIP while striking out 65 and walking 28 over 54-1/3 innings.
Originally selected by Oakland in the fifth round of the 2013 draft out of the University of Mississippi, Wahl was traded by the Athletics to the Mets back in 2018 in a deal that landed Oakland former All-Star closer Jeurys Familia.
In 2019, the Mets packaged Wahl with two other minor leaguers in a trade to Milwaukee, scoring centerfielder Keon Broxton.
In limited major league action for the Brewers last year, Wahl made three appearances, registering an 11.57 ERA over 5-1/3 innings of work.
According to Roster Resource on Fangraphs, Wahl has one option year remaining on his contract. He is already shown on Triple-A Oklahoma City’s reserve list.
Brooks Baseball indicates Wahl throwing a four-seam, a change, a slider, and a curve. Last season, Wahl’s four-seam averaged just a tick above 94 MPH.
Seager’s broken hand has kept him out of action since May 15. After recently suffering a setback in his recovery, he wasn’t on track to return from the 10-day IL prior to the All-Star break anyway, so the Dodgers’ decision to transfer him to the 60-day IL is a formality that won’t affect his ultimate return date.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
I think there’s been a paperwork error. AF thought he claimed Hader.
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Or maybe John Axford. He was really big for the Brewers back in the day. Or did Friedman already go that route?
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Bobby Wahl. Had to look him up. Not much to look at.
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Oh yeah? Well, they said the same thing about Tsutsugo when we got him and look how that turned out. Oh wait a minute, maybe I could have picked a better example.
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Nate Jones.
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I’m sorry he didn’t have options left. He really didn’t get a lot of time to prove himself and he did have some good results along with the bad ones.
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Axford may well have been a better way to go than Wahl.
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Maybe Stan Kasten owed Bobby Wahl’s uncle a favor or something.
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Dig deeper Dennis. I want to know if it was his uncle, his nephew or his brother.
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Dodgers always looking for exciting, breaking news on a off day. Tell me again why we need a 40 man roster?
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…for the sake of keeping guys like Andy Burns and Sheldon Neuse around. 🙂
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I thought Neuse had potential. He crushed the PCL in ‘19. Second round pick, OPS’d 1.111 at Oklahoma. He’s 26, OPS’n .778 in OKC. Andy Burns would be a great story, 139 at bats in Oklahoma he’s OPS’n over .900, but he’s 30, and didn’t do much with his 15 at bats in LA. Yeah, I know. It sure feels like AF won’t be looking internally for help the rest of the way.
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Are the Brewers the new LA farm team??? 4 of our pitchers, Nelson, Knebel, Bickford and this guy, all from the Brewers, and all in the last 2 seasons. Oh well, Turner hit for the cycle for the Nats today. One of 5 players who have done it 3 times. Two of them played for the Dodgers at some point in their careers, Babe Herman and Adrian Beltre. Donald Rumsfeld passed away today.
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Rumsfeld. Not a fan. I’ll leave it at that.
Anybody read the Athletic piece on Bauer and the allegations? A lot of detail there. Andy? Care to comment?
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Yesterday Fangraphs had an updated, generally optimistic article on Dodgers’ propects.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/our-2021-dodgers-prospect-list-revisited/
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Good read. Thanks.
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BR has a piece on bullpen trade targets. Paul Fry, Kendall Graveman, Richard Rodriguez, They also agree with some in here the starting rotation is stacked. Hope all who believe that are right.
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I’m a Graveman fan. Would love to see us get him.
Our rotation is stacked? I think that should be put in the past tense.
We had 8 really good guys in ST: CK, Buehler, Bauer, Urias, May, Gonsolin, Price, Nelson
Price has been made into a short reliever. So has Nelson. We don’t know how far back Gonsolin has made it. May is out for the year. Bauer may very well be within the next few days. By my count that leaves us with 3 1/2 starters (Gonsolin being the 1/2 who could go either way). I think we need to get a starter and we need to pounce fast before everyone starts bidding.
With the Twins going nowhere fast and only one year left after this year, there are those who feel Berios may be available. Any Berios fans here? If so, what would you give up for 1 1/2 years of him?
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Reportedly a couple of teams have contacted the Twins about him and the price is said to be pretty high. I think I read that on MLBTR because they were evaluating the players the Twins could make available. Scherzer wants an extension to waive his rights, and although I think that guy brings a winning mentality to any team, I am pretty sure AF would not offer an extension. Arizona kicked off their yard sale with a trade of Locastro to the Yankees. Seems the D-Backs are cleaning house early. I am not sure which starters are going to be available. But the Dodgers pretty thin in that department at this point. I do not believe for a minute that the Bauer situation gets any better, or is resolved in a timely fashion. Just another pro athlete getting himself in trouble and it is not just restricted to baseball. All pro sports have had this kind of thing. And because of today’s mass media, the whole sordid mess is there for all to see. Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb would have been under the spotlight a lot if they played in this era.
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When I interviewed Locastro a few years back, he told me that he was a huge Yankees fan growing up. He must be thrilled.
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Isn’t this the second time they have had him? Yep, I checked. The Dodgers traded him to NY for Drew Finley and cash in the winter of 18. Yanks swapped him to the D-Backs in Feb of 19 for cash and some guy named Ronald Roman, now he returns to NY for a AA pitcher. Finley is pitching in the independent Frontier league.
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Well, I’ve been saying I want another starter and Scherzer would certainly be at the top of my list. He might want another opportunity at a championship so, who knows. I am familiar with Berrios and obviously he would work too. I’d also be interested in any of the 3 relievers mentioned. We are still 4 weeks out. So much, on many fronts, could change between now and then.
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Here’s a proposition: Ross Stripling and Hyun-Jin Ryu in exchange for Keibert Ruiz, Edwin Uceta, Mitchell White, and Sheldon Neuse.
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Wow. Where’d that come from?
I think we might need two additional starters to get to November. This accomplishes that.
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