Spring Training 2023

Dodgers Rumors: LA Interested in Free Agent All Star Closer Zack Britton

Story by Chloe Clark • 2h ago

The Dodgers were one of six teams that scouted the pitcher during his recent throwing session.

After Zack Britton became a free agent after the 2022 season, he has been on the market ever since. The pitcher had a showcase in Florida Wednesday morning, and the Dodgers were one of six teams that scouted him.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic shared the news on Twitter this morning:



Britton was selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the third round of the 2006 MLB draft. During his first few seasons in the league, Britton was marked as the Oriole's third-best prospect according to Baseball America. The lefty was one of the best relievers, posting a 1.84 ERA in 367.1 innings from 2014-2020. Due to his Tommy John surgery in 2021, his productivity declined as he posted a 5.89 ERA in 12.1 innings during 2021.

Though the veteran attempted to return to form last season, he still faced injuries with arm fatigue and ultimately went back on the injured list.

Though the Dodgers already have sufficient reliever talent, the recent additions of Alex Reyes and Jimmy Nelson, they are a team always looking to improve, and adding a pitcher of Britton's caliber would certainly do that.

Although Britton is well out of his peak, adding the two-time All-Star would give the Dodgers even more depth and versatility in the late innings since they still have their strong bullpen in place.

Of course, the Dodgers are not the only team interested in Britton's services. The Mets, Giants, Angels, Cubs, and Rangers are also reportedly among the teams that are vying for the left-hander. As of now, it remains to be seen which team will ultimately sign the 35-year-old, but it's clear that he has plenty of suitors.

www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/brittza01.shtml

Dodgers: One More New Rule Change Could Affect the Way LA Has Used Pitchers in Recent Years

MLB is changing their rules on when position players can pitch, and several Dodgers instances from 2022 wouldn't be allowed in 2023.

JEFF J. SNIDER3 HOURS AGO

The Dodgers were one of the most frequent utilizers of the old position player pitching maneuver in 2022, although they were quite a bit different in that most of their PPP instances came when they had a huge lead, whereas most PPP instances throughout the league came from a team in an insurmountable deficit.

Former LA utilityman Hanser Alberto pitched 11 innings in 10 games for the team last year, with eight of his appearances coming in Los Angeles victories. Under new rules being implemented in 2023, though, three of his appearances wouldn't have been allowed, according to Jesse Rogers of ESPN.

Teams will be more limited in when they can pitch a position player. The previous rule allowed them to use one when up or down by six or more runs, but the sides are discussing a tweak in which the leading team would have to be up by as many as 10 or more while the trailing team would have to be down by eight or more in order to pitch a position player. The league and players are finalizing the new rule.

Alberto pitched on back-to-back days against the Brewers in August, with a nine-run lead on August 23 and an eight-run lead the next day. Under these new rules, neither of those appearances would have been allowed.

Of the two Dodgers losses Alberto pitched in, one of them wouldn't be allowed under the new rules. On September 2, Hanser pitched with a seven-run deficit, which wouldn't meet the new criteria.

Alberto's other seven games pitched would still be allowed. He pitched with a 10-run deficit in the other LA loss, and he pitched with leads of 10 runs (four times), 11 runs, and 13 runs (twice).

Alberto is no longer a Dodger, of course, and we don't know if the team will have a designated PPP in 2023 like they did with Hanser. But if so, they'll be more limited in how often they can use him.

Dodgers’ Dave Roberts responds to latest sign-stealing accusations

Story by Bill Plunkett, Los Angeles Daily News • 52m ago

GLENDALE, Ariz. — It just won’t go away.

The clouds that linger over the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox – both of whom received punishments for sign-stealing violations during their World Series-winning 2017 and 2018 seasons – have spread to the Dodgers. A new book released this week written by Evan Drellich, a reporter for The Athletic who helped expose the Astros’ cheating scheme, includes accusations that the Dodgers engaged in some of the same practices that led to the Astros and Red Sox being disciplined by MLB.

An unidentified member of the Red Sox is quoted in the book accusing the Dodgers of cheating to steal signs during the 2018 World Series. An anonymous member of the 2017 Dodgers is also referred to in the book as admitting the Dodgers used a system involving baserunners to relay pitch signs to batters.

“I want to know who that anonymous person is,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said when asked about the accusations.

Roberts said he has not read the book, “Winning Fixes Everything,” but was aware of “a couple little excerpts.”

“To be honest, I haven’t thought too much about it. I’m not going to go there with that,” he said of defending his team. “All the things that went down, punishments and all that stuff, MLB did a great job of being thorough. That’s not my job to be the judge and jury.”

Roberts confirmed that the Dodgers were one of several teams investigated by MLB after the 2018 season “and they came away with nothing.”

MLB made some adjustments to crack down on the use of video to steal signs following the 2018 season. Roberts said there was a lot of gray area before MLB’s crackdown but “they were very clear about it once they started digging in. And we adhered to everything baseball asked us to do.”

Roberts said he was not surprised that the Dodgers would be the subject of suspicion, defending his team as having done everything allowed to gain “a competitive advantage” but not crossing the line as the Astros had.

“I think that sometimes people can’t differentiate between a competitive advantage and using your baseball acumen – talking about sign stealing – within the scope of the nature of the way the game was created versus cheating,” he said.

“Our guys did do a great job of relaying signs and looking at sequences when the catcher gave them. That’s the school of baseball. That’s gamesmanship. There was never anything illegal about that. … That’s part of having smart baseball players and looking for every advantage. If you can’t give good sequences then that’s your problem. If you can’t disguise them well enough, that’s on you.”

It could have been someone else. It could have been Puig. Kike has played both here & in Boston.

I seem to recall Wood whining a bit after losing his regular job in the starting rotation. Then he went to the Reds in the Puig / Kemp deal. He pitched for the Giants the last couple of seasons.

Dodgers put ex-Yankees prospect on 60-day injured list

Updated: Feb. 16, 2023, 1:02 p.m.|Published: Feb. 16, 2023, 12:59 p.m.

By Mike Rosenstein | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
J.P. Feyereisen, take a seat.

The Los Angeles Dodgers place the right-handed reliever on the 60-day injured list Thursday as part of a series of roster moves, according to MLB Trade Rumors.

The Dodgers announced Thursday that they’ve placed right-handers Walker Buehler, Blake Treinen and J.P. Feyereisen on the 60-day injured list. The trio of transactions clears space on the 40-man roster for the previously reported free-agent signings of David Peralta, Alex Reyes and Jimmy Nelson, whose one-year deals have now become official.

Feyereisen’s move came as little surprise. In December, the Tampa Bay Rays designated Feyereisen for assignment before trading him to the the Dodgers in exchange for a minor-league pitcher.

The 30-year-old Feyereisen had surgery on his right shoulder before the trade and was expected to be sidelined to start the 2023 season.

In 2016, Feyereisen was one of the four prospects the New York Yankees received from the Guardians in the trade which sent All-Star reliever Andrew Miller to Cleveland.

In 2019, the reliever was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for shortstop Brenny Escanio and international bonus slot money. Then in 2021, he was traded by the Brewers with right-hander Drew Rasmussen to the Rays for shortstop Willy Adames and right-hander Trevor Richards.

Feyereisen has appeared in 83 games over three MLB seasons, posting an impressive 2.81 ERA.

Man, it just occurred to me who the anonymous source was with the Dodgers. He came to mind yesterday. I had forgotten about this though.



That, my friend, is sour grapes. He played so little in 2017 I dismissed him. That is a major hard-on he's sporting though. Why even say it? The Red Sox didn't make the Series.