Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — It’ll happen dozens of times during the season. The score will be 7-3 in the sixth inning, and it’s time for Dave Roberts to make a pitching change. Whether the Dodgers are ahead or behind at that point is almost irrelevant. The team is going to need somebody to finish out the game, and there’s no way a good manager is going to burn one of his best relievers in this situation. So that’s where the guys we’re highlighting today come in. The guys that every team needs, but don’t get into the “tense and tight” situations late in the game. Luckily, the Dodgers have a lot of guys in camp this spring who can fill this role, including some non-roster invite guys with big league experience. All of them might find their way onto the pitching mound at one time or another this season.
Roster Locks: Kelly, Brasier, Graterol, Hudson, Treinen, Vesia
My colleague Cody Snavely has already written up a nice piece for the site identifying these guys as potential arms for “high leverage” situations. I’m not going to discuss them too much here, only to say that Joe Kelly (2023: 39.1 IP, 4.12 ERA) and Alex Vesia (2023: 49.2 IP, 4.35 ERA) could go either way this year. Vesia found himself in OKC for parts of 2023 and really struggled in the early part of the year. Kelly, who will always have a place in the hearts of Dodger fans for his buzzing the tower with Carlos Correa, nevertheless seems to have a love/hate relationship with the strike zone. If he has trouble locating his pitches, he might find himself doing more mop-up duty than in years previous. Daniel Hudson (2022: 24.1 IP, 2.22 ERA) is another guy to keep an eye on as he returns from injury. We’d love to see him back to his pre-injury form, but at his age, it’s far from a given. Ditto for Blake Treinen (2021: 72.1 IP, 1.99 ERA). Brusdar Graterol (2023: 67 IP, 1.20 ERA) and Ryan Brasier (2023: 59.2 IP, 3.02 ERA) had impressive years in 2023, and I feel pretty confident that their spot high on the depth chart is pretty secure.
Potential Long Guys & Spot Starters: Grove, Yarbrough, Hurt
We’ve discussed these guys in our piece about the battle for the final spots in the rotation. However, given the state of things this year, and the eveventual return of Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw, I’d imagine these guys are going to see most of the action this year out of the pen. Michael Grove (2023: 69 IP, 6.13 ERA) is the wild card in this one. I could see him landing in Oklahoma to start the year just to keep him in a rotation. However, he has had his moments in the Cactus League, so we’ll see if he snags a spot in the pen to start the year. Ryan Yarbrough (2023: 89 IP, 4.52 ERA) is going to be a good tool this year, simply because the staff has so few lefties on it in the first place. Kyle Hurt (MiLB 2023: 91 IP, 3.91 ERA) has the least big-league experience in this group, and I would see him more as an opener on a bullpen day than anything else.
Returning arms in the pen: Feyereisen & Varland
These two guys were around last year, but didn’t really make an impact. J.P. Feyereisen (2022: 24.2 IP, 0.00 ERA) was always a long-term commitment as he was acquired during the LAST offseason, while the Dodgers knew full well that he was rehabbing an injury and wouldn’t be available in 2023. I seem to recall that there was some hope of getting him late in the year, but that never happened. So, like the Dodgers seem to love doing, they paid the guy to get better while he was on the IL. So now he’s back and supposedly healthy. He’s been in a handful of Spring Training games this year, and hasn’t looked that good to be honest. His Cactus League ERA is north of 8.00 with a WHIP of 2.4. Small sample size, to be sure, but it’s a far cry from the eye-popping numbers he was putting up with Milwaukee and Tampa Bay prior to his injury. In an interview, he opined on what he saw his role as with the Boys in Blue: “I’m going to guess I’m going to be in those middle innings,” he said, “maybe in a certain time when my repertoire seems fit for the certain lineup we’re facing. We have every back arm that you could want with the boys we have in the bullpen. It doesn’t really bother me what my role is. Hopefully I can help the team and throw some innings.”
Gus Varland (2023: 20.1 IP, 6.64 ERA) did pitch with the Dodgers last year after being acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers. He did serviceable work for the most part. In fact, he posted a nifty 1.29 ERA in August before getting knocked around a bit in the last month of the season. But most of Varland’s inflated numbers last year came when he was in a Brewers uniform. As for 2024, it could go either way for him. I don’t imagine he’ll be much of a factor on the big league side of things this year. Most likely he’ll be spending the bulk of the season in Oklahoma.
Rounding out the Opening Day roster
There are more pitchers on the roster, but I’m not seeing any of them on the field when the Dodgers start things up at the Ravine at the end of March. Landon Knack is in Korea, but he’s more of a starter. Like Knack, Nick Frasso, a highly ranked prospect, has already been optioned to the minors. As have Matt Gage and former Ranger farmhand Ricky Vanasco. Once Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw are back in the fold, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine Gavin Stone and Emmet Sheehan fitting in somewhere in the bullpen as well. In addition, there are some intriguing names that are on the non-roster invite list this spring who have a solid chance of cracking the roster at some point during the year. The most recognizable name among the non-roster pitchers this year is probably Nabil Crismatt, who had a couple of decent years for the Padres before being just god-awful last year and getting traded to the Diamondbacks. He’s been pretty bad in Spring Training at Camelback Ranch this year (ERA over 8.00), so I’m guessing he just gets released at the end of camp. Another intriguing name is Dinelson Lamet, who looked so awesome for San Diego in 2020 before injuries sidetracked a promising career. He might be able to pitch his way onto the roster at some point during the year. He’s had a decent Spring Training (2.45 ERA in four appearances), so we’ll keep an eye on what the Dodgers do with him. The non-roster player who’s pitched the best in Arizona this year is veteran T.J. McFarland, who’s posted a nifty 1.35 ERA in his Cactus League appearances.
There are other pitchers in camp, like River Ryan, who don’t figure to be bullpen pieces this year, but continue to develop and will be definite factors in the future of the team. If I had to guess, I’d say probably when Opening Day rolls around the bullpen will probably look like it does now in Korea, with Varland and Hurt starting the season in Oklahoma and Gavin Stone slotting in the five-spot of the rototation. But, as with everything, pitching depth is absolutely necessary to make it through 162, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see any or all of these guys on the big club at one time or another in 2024.
DODGERSBEAT RATING: C
