A source told Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal that the Los Angeles Dodgers have acquired reliever Jesse Chavez from the Toronto Blue Jays with less than 30 minutes remaining in Major League Baseball’s Monday trade deadline.
Per Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the Dodgers have sent starter Mike Bolsinger in return for Chavez.
The Dodgers have brought in Chavez to provide depth to a bullpen that has worked a lot this season.
Los Angeles’ bullpen hasn’t been bad, as it has allowed an average of 3.71 runs per game, which is fourth-best in the majors. But the bullpen has appeared in a combined 371 games in relief, second-most in baseball behind the lowly Atlanta Braves.
As a middle reliever, Chavez has never been a shutdown arm coming out of the bullpen. In each of his eight-plus seasons in the majors with five different teams, the 32-year-old has had an ERA under 4.00 twice.
This season, which was his first with the Blue Jays after coming over from the Oakland Athletics, Chavez is 1-2 with a 4.57 ERA. In 41.1 innings, he’s allowed 22 runs on 43 hits.
With the Dodgers, Chavez could appear in the fifth or sixth to eat innings if a starter doesn’t have a quality outing. That way, they wouldn’t have to burn one of their more productive bullpen arms—Adam Liberatore and Pedro Baez, pitchers who pave the way for closer Kenley Jansen.
As the season winds into the dog days of August, Chavez allows the bullpen to stay a bit fresher as the Dodgers chase the San Francisco Giants in the National League West and lead the NL wild-card standings.
The Blue Jays will get a pitcher in Bolsinger who was a struggling low-end starter in Los Angeles. After starting the 2016 season 1-4 with a 6.83 ERA, he was demoted to Triple-A on June 19 and hasn’t seen the majors since.
Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.
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Needing to upgrade their pitching staff this offseason, the Toronto Blue Jays reportedly struck a deal with the Oakland Athletics for veteran right-hander