Brad Hand or Kirby Yates?

[Randi]

The Dodgers have reportedly shown interest in Brad Hand and Kirby Yates this offseason. With Liam Hendriks off the table after signing with the Chicago White Sox last week, the Dodgers’ choices start to narrow down. There are still some options left on the market, but these are the latest the Dodgers have reportedly been attached to. 

Let’s start with Brad Hand. Hand will be 31 in March and is a left-handed pitcher who hit free agency after the Indians declined his club option to pay him the $10 million owed for 2021. In 2020, Hand was one of the best relief pitchers in baseball. He led all of MLB in saves (16) and led the AL in games finished (21). In 23 games, Hand had a 2.05 ERA over 22 innings while striking out 29 and only walking 4. There was no All-Star Game in 2020, but if there had been, he probably would’ve made the team for the fourth year in a row. Hand has a career 3.65 ERA, but over the last five seasons, he has pitched in 306 games with an ERA of 2.70 and 1.066 WHIP. 

Now onto Kirby Yates, who is coming off a rough 2020, when he had to have season-ending surgery due to bone chips in his throwing elbow. Yates is a right-handed pitcher who will be pitching in his age 34 season in 2021 and looking to bounce back after missing most of 2020. Before his injury, he put up his two best seasons in 2018 and 2019 with the Padres. Over those two seasons, he had an ERA of 1.67 in 125 games while striking out 191 batters and only walking 30. He had an impressive 240 ERA+ and 0.906 WHIP. In 2019 he led all of baseball in saves (41), was an All-Star, and finished ninth in Cy Young voting. 

If you have concerns over Yates’ injury, that’s entirely fair, so here’s a short article from a few months back after he had his surgery. Yates mentions how positive the doctor was after the surgery and told him he liked how much his elbow looked as a whole. Recovery time for a surgery like this is up to eight weeks, and Yates had his surgery back in August, so there is little reason to believe he wouldn’t be fully healthy come Opening Day or even spring training. 

Both of these players would help bolster up a bullpen that has already added Blake Treinen, Corey Knebel, Jimmy Nelson, Brandon Morrow, and Tommy Kahnle. Morrow was brought back on a minor league deal, and Kahnle most likely won’t pitch due to having Tomy John surgery last August. Brad Hand would add some lefty depth that is currently only relying on Victor González and Adam Kolarek with Julio Urías most likely sticking in the starting rotation and Caleb Ferguson who isn’t expected to pitch in 2021 due to Tommy John surgery. 

So which pitcher do you want the Dodgers to sign? Is there any chance they sign both? Or someone entirely different?

 

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