Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. We’re back! Thanks for your patience while I took some time off during the offseason. I hope Santa was good to you all.
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So, I decide to take some time off and the Dodgers go crazy. I decide to come back early to write about Teoscar Hernández returning and I get double pneumonia. All of which teaches me a valuable lesson: never decide.
Depending on who you hoped would or would not return, it was a mixed bag of news the last six weeks.
Let’s play a game of “Deal or No Deal,” in chronological order.
No deal: Brent Honeywell
I include him because he became a fan favorite during the postseason. Max Muncy talked about Honeywell’s selflessness, as he was willing to go out there and pitch multiple innings in games that were out of hand in order to save the arms of the bullpen. The Dodgers non-tendered him on Nov. 22. He has pitched for five teams in three major league seasons and will probably be pitching for his sixth at some point next season. Heck, he could even pitch for the Dodgers again one day. And he did fill an important role in the postseason, but don’t let the sentiment obscure the fact he had a 9.35 ERA during it. As with all former Dodgers, we wish him well, except when he is facing the Dodgers.
Deal: Blake Snell
The Dodgers signed the left-handed Snell to a five-year, $182-million deal on Nov. 30. Soon after, he proposed to his girlfriend, Haeley, and she said yes. The deal includes a $52-million signing bonus and $60 million in deferred salary.
Snell also said that Haeley was instrumental in getting him to sign with the Dodgers.
“It was really easy, just because Haeley wanted to live here,” Snell said (here’s guessing the $182 million didn’t hurt his decision). “It’s something we’ve been talking about for a while. And when you look at the team, you look at what they’ve built, what they’re doing, it’s just something you want to be a part of. Look at the first three hitters in the lineup. It’s tough to go against. So to be on the other side and know they’re going to be hitting for me, it’s pretty exciting.”
Tommy Edman of the Dodgers was thrilled Snell signed. “I always hated facing Snell, so I’m glad I don’t have to face him anymore. At one point this past year, I was looking at my stats against pitchers, trying to see which pitcher I have the most at-bats against with zero hits, and it was Snell,” Edman told MLB Network Radio.
Snell is a good pitcher. He won the Cy Young with Tampa Bay in 2018 after going 21-5 with a 1.89 ERA and with San Diego in 2023 after going 14-9 with a 2.25 ERA. Last season, with the Giants, he went 5-3 with a 3.12 ERA. You may remember him best when he was with Tampa Bay in 2020. He was dominating the Dodgers in Game 6 of the World Series, giving up one hit and striking out nine through five innings. He gave up a hit to Austin Barnes with one out in the sixth, and for some reason Rays manager Kevin Cash decided he was done, replacing him with Nick Anderson. The Dodgers breathed a sigh of relief and went on to win the game and the Series.
The Snell signing shows how different baseball has become. When he won the Cy Young in 2018, he averaged 5.8 innings a start. In 2023, it was 5.6. Last season, he averaged 5.2. He has made 211 starts in his career. One complete game. He has averaged 5.2 innings per start and has pitched very well. It’s just a different game. If Snell pitched in an earlier era, he would pitch more innings. If guys such as Koufax, Hershiser and Valenzuela pitched today, they would not be allowed to pitch so many innings. Koufax would have pitched well past age 30, but would he be the legend he is today? If the Dodgers treated their starting pitchers like the old days, would they have won two World Series titles in the 2020s? We’ll never know. Many people pine for the old days, and I understand why. But all we can do is enjoy what is in front of us.
The big drawback about Snell is his injury history. But of course, the Dodgers seem to like pitchers with rich injury histories. Snell had arthroscopic surgery on his pitching elbow in 2018. He missed the last couple of weeks of the 2021 season because of an adductor injury, starting the 2022 season on the injured list with the same injury. He had two stints on the IL near the start of last season and at the end of June had a 9.51 ERA. But he was sterling after that and it appears the Dodgers might go with a six-man rotation next season, giving him plenty of rest between starts.
Snell was born Dec. 4, 1992 in Seattle and grew up a Mariners fan. He and Haeley have a son, born in June. His nickname: Snellzilla.
To see all of Snell’s stats, click here.
Deal: Blake Treinen
The key man in the postseason bullpen, Treinen signed a two-year, $22-million deal on Dec. 10.
Treinen came into Game 5 of the World Series in Yankee Stadium with two out in the bottom of the sixth inning, runners on first and second and the Dodgers trailing 6-5. He got Anthony Volpe to ground out to second for the final out. In the seventh, he struck out Austin Wells and Alex Verdugo, then got Gleyber Torres to ground to third. The Dodgers took a 7-6 lead in the top of the eighth, and Treinen returned to the mound in the bottom of the inning. Juan Soto grounded to first, but Aaron Judge doubled and Jazz Chisolm Jr. walked. With Giancarlo Stanton waiting to bat, Dave Roberts came to the mound, and it looked to everyone like he was going to change pitchers. But he didn’t. As recounted by Jack Harris:
Instead, the manager placed his hands on Treinen’s chest as he posed a simple question.
“Do you have one more?” Roberts asked, as Stanton stepped to the plate.
“Absolutely,” Treinen answered.
“OK,” Roberts said. “This is your last guy.”
As the manager headed back to the dugout, Treinen turned to his teammates.
“This is my guy,” he said, before quickly upping the ante: “I got this inning,” he declared, as Muncy later recounted.
Stanton popped up on the first pitch and Treinen quickly got the ball back, not even looking to the dugout to give Roberts an excuse to come back out. “If he wants to come get me, then come get me,” Treinen later explained. He struck out Anthony Rizzo, setting the stage for Walker Buehler to close it out in the ninth.
And that was well worth $22 million over two years.
Deal: Michael Conforto
The Dodgers signed the free-agent outfielder to a one-year, $17-million deal on Dec. 10.
Conforto, 31, hit .237 with 20 homers and 66 RBIs in 130 games and had a 116 OPS+ (meaning he was 16% better than a league average hitter) for the Giants last season and is a career .251 hitter. He hit 33 homers with the Mets in 2019 and has a career 120 OPS+. If he puts up a 120 OPS+ with the Dodgers, then this is quite the bargain. He will basically replace Jason Heyward, giving them a left-handed threat in the outfield and off the bench. Conforto can play all three outfield positions, but will probably be mainly a left fielder with the Dodgers. He usually draws a lot of walks (last season was a bit of a down season in that department) so he has a solid career .349 on-base percentage to go with his .251 batting average.
With the Mets in 2015, Conforto became only the third player in history to play in the Little League World Series, the College World Series and the MLB World Series, joining Ed Vosberg and Jason Varitek. Conforto represented the Northwest Region in the Little League World Series in 2004 and was the best player on the 2013 Oregon State team that advanced to the College World Series. The Mets took him in the first round (10th pick overall) in the 2014 MLB draft.
His mother, Tracie Ruiz Conforto is a three-time Olympic medalist in synchronized swimming. He is married to Cabernet and they have a son, Camden, who turned 1 in December.
You can see all of Conforto’s stats here.
No Deal: Walker Buehler
On Dec. 28, Buehler signed a one-year, $21.05 million deal with the Boston Red Sox, with a $25 million mutual option for 2026. Coincidentally, $21.05 million was also the amount teams could offer certain free agents as a qualifying offer. The Dodgers did not offer that to Buehler. He signed for the exact amount with Boston. Things that make you go hmmmm.
Jack Harris takes a look at why it was always likely Buehler would leave here.
Buehler, of course, was great from 2018 to 2021. Looked like the next Clayton Kershaw for the team. Then he had Tommy John surgery in June, 2022 and didn’t return until almost two years later. He went 1-6 with a 5.38 ERA and looked terrible. Then, after a poor start in the postseason against the Padres (in fairness, the defense let him down a lot in that game), he became Walker Buehler again. Four shutout innings, with six strikeouts, in his one start against the Mets in the National League Championship Series. Five scoreless innings against the Yankees in his World Series start against them, and then he pitched a perfect ninth, striking out the last batter, to get the save in the Series-clinching game.
You never know what the future may hold, but if he never pitches for the Dodgers again, he etched his name in Dodger lore with that ninth inning. But, the Dodgers had to ask if it was worth giving him $20 million to come back and perhaps regress again. We’ll see if they made the right choice, but right now they seem to have plenty of starters (of course, they say that every year).
Let’s look at the list of potential starting pitchers for the Dodgers next season:
Ben Casparius
Tyler Glasnow
Tony Gonsolin
Landon Knack
Dustin May
Bobby Miller
Shohei Ohtani
Blake Snell
Justin Wrobleski
Yoshinobu Yamamoto
That’s 10 potential starters on their 40-man roster. Plus, unless something unexpected happens, they will sign Clayton Kershaw before spring training, which would give them 11. And they still might sign Roki Sasaki, which would give them 12. And maybe they will trade for another starter, there’s still plenty of offseason left.
So was letting Buehler go a bad idea? We’ll know more once he starts pitching next season. As for now, reply hazy, ask again.
Deal: Teoscar Hernández
The pleas of many Dodger fans were answered when the team and Hernández agreed to a three-year, $66-million deal. Hernández was the emotional heart and soul of the team last season, play with a joie de vivre that has been sorely missing before he joined the team. Not many people can take throwing sunflower seeds at a player and turn it into a beloved tradition after a home run. Add in the fact that he had many key hits during the season, to go with his 33 homers and 99 RBIs, and, well, it’s nice to have him back. Everyone talked about Ohtani, Betts and Freeman, as well they should have, but the Dodgers don’t win the title last season without Hernández, who will probably move to right field.
It got a little worrisome when the Dodgers signed Conforto. Would they bring Hernández back? But both sides worked and wanted to make it happen.
Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes was being lobbied at home too, saying his 8-year-old daughter “has been asking me every day since the end of the season, ‘Are we bringing Teo back?’ ”
“The Dodgers, they’re different,” Hernández said when the deal was finalized. “They think about everybody. Not only the players, not only the things I can do on the field. For me, they just give me the confidence. I never got that really in the other places that I worked. They trust in everything that I can give them, and to this team and this organization. And that was one of the biggest things for me, that pushed me to the best job that I can do.”
Hernández also said the fans were a big part of his decision. “I appreciate since the first day that I got here Dodgers fans were cheering for me,” he said. “They were giving me the support that I need to have the season that I had last year. When you have that support as a player, you have to give 110% every day.”
Other teams talked more years and more money than the Dodgers did, but Hernández came back for less of each. Remember that next time you get down on the mercenary nature of the game.
Deal: Hyeseong Kim
The Dodgers signed the South Korean left-handed hitting utilityman for three years, $12.5 million on Friday.
During his eight seasons in the Korean Baseball Organization, he hit .304 while playing second base, shortstop, third base and left field.
Kim, who will turn 26 on Jan. 27, is a four-time winner of the KBO’s version of the Gold Glove, winning it at shortstop in 2021 and at second base the last three seasons. He has stolen at least 20 bases every season.
Kim hit .326 last season and .335 in 2023, with a little power (26 doubles, 11 homers last season). It’s impossible to say how he will hit in the majors, but he gives the Dodgers solid defense.
Deal (away): Gavin Lux
On Monday, the Dodgers made room for Kim by trading Lux to Cincinnati for Mike Sirota, who was the Reds’ third-round pick in the 2024 draft and has not played in the minors yet. He’s an outfielder. Which feels an awful lot like they just gave Lux away.
Lux had a solid 2022 at second base, hitting .276 and leading the NL in triples. With the departure of Trea Turner, it looked like Lux had a bright future as the Dodgers shortstop before he tore his anterior cruciate ligament near the end of spring training in 2023, causing him to miss the season. He came back in 2024 and was ready to play short again, but was a terrible fielder, causing the Dodgers to move Mookie Betts to short and Lux back to second base. He had a bad first half, hitting .213/.267/.295 before rebounding after the All-Star break, leading the Dodgers with a .304 average.
He was no great shakes defensively at second either, but will be the starting second baseman for the Reds and seems like one of those guys who will haunt the Dodgers every time they play against him.
No Deal (so far): Kiké Hernández
What the Kim signing does is throw into question the status of two players: Chris Taylor and Kiké Hernández.
Taylor is in the final year of his deal and is owed $17 million. Although his overall numbers were terrible, he did hit .303 after the All-Star break last season, second on the team behind Lux.
Hernández is the only position player on the 2024 World Series roster who is not signed, and before the Lux trade, it seemed unlikely he would be back. But the door is cracked open a bit now.
Worst-case scenario, maybe they can acquire him on Aug. 31 in time for the next postseason, where he excels.
Let’s take a look at the position-player roster for next season as it stands right now. They will probably carry 13 position players.
Starters
DH-Shohei Ohtani
C-Will Smith
1B-Freddie Freeman
2B-Hyeseong Kim
3B-Max Muncy
SS-Mookie Betts
LF-Michael Conforto
CF-Tommy Edman
RF-Teoscar Hernández
That leaves four spots on the bench. Austin Barnes gets one, because you need a backup catcher.
That leaves three spots among these players:
Miguel Rojas
James Outman
Andy Pages
Chris Taylor
That’s four players for three spots. Meaning one has to go. If they re-sign Kiké, then two have to go. They could send Outman down, but at some point you have to give the younger players a chance. They could make a trade. Someone could get injured. I mean, you have to wonder just how badly Freeman wrecked his ankle by continuing to play on it and if he will be 100% by opening day.
Then there’s a guy such as Dalton Rushing, who hit .271/.385/.512 in the minors last season, split between double A and triple A. He played catcher, left field and first base. When does he get a chance in the majors?
Of course, the Dodgers don’t have to make any decisions today. But spring training could be very interesting.
OK, this is already long enough, so we will stop here for now. There’s more to catch up now, but these were the key moves so far. We’ll talk about other things next time and get to our Hall of Fame voting.
Survey time
Before the break, I asked you if the Dodgers should bring back certain players (using the contract predicted by mlbtraderumors.com. Here are your responses, after 22,230 votes:
Should the Dodgers re-sign Walker Buehler for the predicted one year, $15 million?
Yes, 90.2%
No, 9.8%
Should the Dodgers re-sign Jack Flaherty for the predicted five years, $115 million?
Yes, 30%
No, 70%
Note: Flaherty is still a free agent.
Should the Dodgers re-sign Teoscar Hernández for the expected three years, $60 million?
Yes, 97.7%
No, 2.3%
Should the Dodgers sign Juan Soto for the expected 13 years, $600 million?
Yes, 13.9%
No, 86.1%
Note: Soto signed with the Mets for 15 years, $765 million.
Should the Dodgers re-sign Kiké Hernández?
Yes, 89.8%
No, 10.2%
Should the Dodgers re-sign Blake Treinen?
Yes, 95%
No, 5%
If the Dodgers could re-sign only one, who would you prefer?
Teoscar Hernández, 84%
Walker Buehler, 14%
Jack Flaherty, 2%
Your memories of Fernando
From Kevin Lee of Westlake Village: My fondest memory of Fernandomania was the little LP they released. I think it was English on one side and Spanish on the other. I was probably 5 at the time. I remember playing that record on the Spanish side all the time and I don’t speak Spanish. It just sounded better. I think my parents may even still have it. I might have to dig it out.
From Alice King of Sacramento: I am a 90-year-old woman who became a Dodger fan at age 38 thanks to Vin Scully, whose broadcasts on the radio reeled me in. But I have been a season-ticket holder since 1981 because of Fernando. His remarkable performance in the 1981 World Series caused my husband (not a sports fan) to say, “Why not get season tickets?” What wonderful times I have had, thanks to Vin and Fernando, (and my husband), all now gone.
From Chip O’Grady of Chico: I grew up in L.A. in the 80s and 90s and loved the Dodgers (still do). A group text shot through the family when the news of Fernando’s passing came. We are all over the country now and rarely talk, but this news prompted us to reach out to one another. I don’t have any remarkable game memories of him as I was too young to enjoy Fernandomania, but I knew of the legend and enjoyed the end of his Dodger career. My memories come from high school when my older brother and I attended St. Francis with Fernando’s sons, Fernando Jr. and Ricky. My brother played baseball with Fernando Jr., and I played football with Ricky. Fernando was always at the games and mostly kept to himself. My dad would nudge me and say, “Hey there’s Fernando.” I always had too much respect for him to go bug him so I never met him. I just met him with my eyes and through his son Ricky.
————
Please share your memories of Fernando Valenzuela, to be published in upcoming newsletters. Put Fernando memories in the subject line of your email and send to me at fernandomemories@yahoo.com.
In case you missed it
Dodgers trade Gavin Lux to Cincinnati Reds in wake of Hyeseong Kim signing
Dodgers sign Hyeseong Kim, finalize Teoscar Hernández return as roster takes shape
Plaschke: From Fred-die to Decoy, Dodgers owned every top-10 moment in 2024 L.A. sports
Dodgers’ meeting with Roki Sasaki didn’t include in-person pitches from Ohtani or Yamamoto
Analysis: How will Dodgers reward Dave Roberts? Will they land Roki Sasaki?
Shohei Ohtani and his wife announce they are expecting their first child
Shaikin: By re-signing Teoscar Hernández, Dodgers raise the financial stakes even higher
Plaschke: Fans are heard, title hopes are solidified, Teoscar Hernández is back with Dodgers
Mookie Betts ‘thought about throwing a ball at’ Yankees fans who grabbed his glove, wrist
Here are 11 Fernando Valenzuela murals to visit in L.A.: ‘He did so much for the Mexican community’
Analysis: Why October hero Walker Buehler was always likely to leave the Dodgers
And finally
The Dodgers look back at the 2024 season. Watch and listen here.
