The Los Angeles Dodgers have been struggling at the plate as of late, and they’ve lost their leadoff hitter and right fielder to boot.
On Sunday, Mookie Betts was placed on the IL, dealing with bruised ribs. Betts sustained the injury on a miscommunication on a fly ball with Cody Bellinger, who ended up running into him and causing the discomfort.
Betts is expected to miss at least two weeks at the minimum to heal. In the meantime, the Dodgers are mostly left without a right fielder.
On Sunday, manager Dave Roberts sent Eddy Alvarez out to cover right field. He had an error that lead to a run in the second, and couldn’t make a possible play late in the game that could have saved at least a run.
After the game Roberts noted that on Monday there would be an addition to the team to platoon with Alvarez either internally or externally.
As such, the Dodgers have traded for Trayce Thompson, an old friend of the team. Thompson was in the Detroit Tigers organization, and was about to exercise an opt out of his minor league contract, as he was not expected to see any major league playing time with the Tigers.
Trayce was with the Dodgers organization from 216-2017, where he played 107 games, compiling a .207/282/.407/.694, with 14 homers, 13 doubles and 5 stolen bases.
He has been with a couple teams in the meantime, including Oakland, both Chicago White Sox and Cubs, and Cleveland Guardians. He played in six games for the San Diego Padres this season, where he garnered only one hit in 16 plate appearances.
This year for the Tigers Triple-A team, he has been tearing it up, having an slash line of .305/.365/.721 with an OPS of 1.085, and against lefties that OPS number was 1.256. He also has 17 homers.
In return for Thompson, the Dodgers will pay the Tigers cash considerations.
Hard to believe the Dodgers don’t have any in house options better than Trayce Thompson.
Totally agree! This is the best a team can do w/World Series aspirations??????
Trayce Thompson is not very good. Hopefully he is improving, but I’m not optimistic. It’s hard to believe we can’t come up with someone better.
At least he is an OF, and RH. Has never done much at MLB level, but who knows? If they got someone more proven, then he rides the bench when Betts returns.
If has to be a RH hitter, I’d rather see Outman
Outman hits lefty.
I also don’t think he’s ready because he’s still in AA and striking out more than would be optimal.
Maybe by the latter part of next year, because he did look good in Spring Training.
Scoop outman has no track record. Thompson is a proven 205 career major leaguer. Bit of insult to the guys on the farm. Oh. We don’t have anyone on the farm that can hit 205. Darn.
Hits lefty? Track record? Strikeouts?
I don’t care. He’s an exciting young player that just might run into one now and then. And he’s ours.
No, we go with Trayce Thompson. Boring choice.
Make me eat crow Trayce.
Thompson was a good clubhouse guy and team player when he was briefly here. He is athletic and is a decent defender. He was hitting Ok for the Dodgers initially before he was hurt. Maybe the Dodgers will get lucky, as they certainly haven’t been this year and Thompson will make decent contact. Alvarez has 200 numbers across the board so he should do better than that and he is a natural outfielder. They got him for essentially nothing but a few $ so not a bad risk. They obviously do not want to bring up Vargas or Outman who is on the 40 man roster. So not a bad move. IMHO
Yep they want a RH hitter. They should probably promote Outman to AAA but unlikely to bring him to Dodgers before seeing him at OKC
At this point I’d be happy to see Muncy hit .205!
I’d be happy to see him back on the IL or in AAA. Same with JT.
Trayce can not do any worse than JT and Muncy. They are the real problem.
Is there a reason Roberts keeps pulling Gonsolin out early? Is he determined to make sure he doesn’t get enough innings to be eligible for the ERA crown? Is there a clause in Gonsolin’s contract? Anyone know?
My only guess, and this could be completely off base, is that they are keeping his innings lower because he’s already past the most he’s thrown in a season. Only thing that makes sense to me
Trying to make sense of Robert’s decisions LOL..For a team that is all analytical he is allowed to make really bad decisions. He keeps cutting Catman’s innings it might be financial. It’s a long season true. Gonsolin is pitching so well I hope he gets enough innings to qualify for the awards.
True I should’ve added the caveat that I know sense isn’t involved lol. I hope he does too
The organization as a whole seems to baby them in the minors, they restrict their innings early on. See Knack, Beeter, Miller, etc. Gonsolin is not that young, he’s a mature 28 year old man who should be able to go over 100 pitches consistently, as long he is being effective.
They always pull him early because somebody’s got to feed the cats.
Just a guess, but he’s never pitched a lot of innings in any one season and he’s headed for a lot of innings this year. They don’t want him conking out like Buehler and Urias did last year.
Also, it’s really hot in Cincy tonight and he’s scheduled to pitch Sunday so won’t have that extra day of rest.
I’ve asked the same question. He does this with Urias too and sometimes the others, then he complains about a tired bullpen. Clown managing.
It’s 8-2 right now. Thankfully Freeman is heating up and Smith has been hitting the ball hard with little to show for it. It’s amazing they have scored 8 runs with the bottom half of the lineup going 0 for. Except Lux, at least he brought in Thompson if someone is going to strike out at least make certain he can defend!!
😂 I say put the cats in the bullpen and let Price feed them.
Excellent, Gary. This is why we’ve appointed you Chief Strategist at TBPC.
Does the position pay? I could use some extra coin, with stocks down.
Would you accept bitcoin?
Andrew has all of his dollar budget tied up with Bauer and not knowing if they’ll cut back his suspension, but if you’ll take crypto currency I think we might have something to talk about.
Nah, I’m old school. I will just do my best for free
Well………………………..ok, but you know what they say, “You get what you pay for.”