After staying mostly quiet for the first two and a half days of the 2019 meetings, the front office crew of the Dodgers has addressed the club’s “omnipresent” need that we discussed on Tuesday—the bullpen.
According to the latest news, Los Angeles has agreed to terms with former Oakland right-hander Blake Treinen.
Jeff Passan of ESPN was the first to reveal the news. The reported contract is worth one year and $10 million.
J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group confirmed the signing approximately one hour after Passan’s tweet. According to Hoornstra, “there are no incentives or options in Treinen’s contract. It’s a straight one-year, $10 million deal.”
Several reports suggest that Treinen had numerous suitors with similar offers, but he chose the Dodgers because of the team’s likelihood to succeed next season.
We talked about Treinen yesterday in the early column when discussing possibilities about the Dodgers complementing closer Kenley Jansen and their other late-inning options.
The 31-year-old Treinen is coming off of a disappointing season which saw him tally a uncharacteristic 4.91 ERA and a 5.14 FIP over 57 appearances and 58-2/3 innings. These numbers came one year after he posted a ridiculous 0.78 ERA and 1.82 FIP with 38 saves in 68 appearances, leading to an appearance in the 2018 All-Star game.
Over the course of his six-year big league career, the 6-foot-5, 225-pounder has made 345 appearances, producing a 2.97 ERA and a 3.35 FIP with 391 punchouts over an even 400 innings of work.
Treinen was selected by Oakland in the seventh round of the 2011 draft out of South Dakota State, but eventually broke in with the Nationals in 2014. After four seasons on the senior circuit, things began clicking for the native of Kansas after he was dealt to the Athletics a few weeks before the 2017 trade deadline.
During the second half of his 2017 campaign, he posted a 2.13 ERA and a 3.08 FIP with 42 strikeouts and 13 saves in 35 games.
According to Brooks Baseball, Treinen mainly utilizes a sinker which sits in the 96-98 MPH range. He also mixes in an occasional slider and change.
Should Treinen be able to find success similar to his 2018 campaign, it will provide the Dodgers with a much-needed, late-inning arm to complement all three of Jansen, Pedro Baez and Joe Kelly.
