Why a Dodgers Trade for Kyle Barraclough Makes Sense
Early on in 2018, the Los Angeles Dodgers had an abundance of issues with their bullpen. They appeared to be severely missing Brandon Morrow, who they failed to resign and is now dominating as the closer for the NL rival Cubs. During the team’s mediocre 16-26 start, their bullpen was ranked 13th in the league. Now that the Dodgers are playing the way everyone expected them to, their bullpen ERA has climbed to the fifth best in the National League. The team as a whole doesn’t have any glaring needs (even with Corey Seager out for the year, the lineup is getting a ton of production at shortstop from Chris Taylor and Kike Hernandez). So it’s unlikely that the team will target someone like Manny Machado, and if so, they would most likely try to deal for the Orioles’ shortstop primarily to keep him away from rivals like the Diamondbacks or Cubs, as Bob Nightengale of USA Today noted recently. And even with the team’s absurd amount of starting pitching injuries, they’ve received quality, consistent production from their abundance of starters. So what should the Dodgers trade strategy be as we head into the July trade season?
Despite the improvement from their relief corps, the team still doesn’t have a shutdown arm who they can trust to bridge the gap to Kenley Jansen with a one-run lead. Erik Goeddel was putting up consistent zeroes for the team before serving up a three run homerun to Kevin Plawecki of the Mets, ultimately forcing the Dodgers to go into extra innings.
So as the trade deadline approaches, the Dodgers could look at adding a reliever to help bolster their unproven pen, though there is one name they should consider over the usual suspects such as Brad Hand and Zach Britton. And he has a great name: Kyle Barraclough.
Barraclough should be the Dodgers’ number one choice when it comes to potential trade pieces. His numbers are absolutely ridiculous, posting a 1.01 ERA in 34.1 innings, averaging about one strikeout per inning, along with a masterful 0.73 WHIP (walk and hits per innings pitched). He’s always been a great reliever (see his career 2.55 ERA and 11.6 k/9, and this article on OTBB from early 2017). But this year he has taken the leap to become a dominant bullpen piece, usurping a struggling Brad Ziegler to become the Marlins’ closer.
And he has only gotten better as the year has progressed, as he hasn’t allowed a single run in his past 15 games. Now, he owns a 2 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio, which admittedly isn’t as sexy as Brad Hand, whose ratio is almost twice as good. However, there are several key differences that make Barraclough a much better option than Hand, or even Britton.
Obviously, one difference is that Barraclough is right-handed, which some might point as a disadvantage given that the bigger names in the Dodgers’ already established bullpen are right handed (Kenley Jansen, Josh Fields, Pedro Baez). But aside from Jansen, both Baez and Fields have notably been inconsistent, and the jury is still out on other arms like Goeddel and Daniel Hudson.
They have tremendous depth from the left-handed side, though, with Adam Liberatore, Tony Cingrani (when healthy), and the clutch, groundball-inducing Scott Alexander. The team is also expecting Hyun-Jin Ryu and Julio Urias back later this year, both as potential relievers, and management has also considered shifting Rich Hill to the bullpen in the past to prevent blisters.
The other big key is the financial implications behind the top relievers on the market. The Dodgers’ have made known their desire to stay under the luxury tax threshold, and Barraclough offers the best opportunity to do so. Zach Britton is a rental and making $12 million, which, depending on your calculus could push the Dodgers over the tax threshold. The Orioles could take on some of his remaining financial obligations, but this deal is unlikely.
Brad Hand is controllable through 2021, but is much pricier than Barraclough, who still has three years of arbitration left. This works in the Dodgers’ favor, who appear to be one of the biggest players in this upcoming offseason frenzy.
There are a lot of elite relief options for the Dodgers, but Barraclough stands above the rest. He will probably cost more than what the Nationals gave up for the rental Kelvin Herrera, but given his contractual control and consistency, he would be well worth the prospect package.
