The Dodgers acquire Garrett Cleavinger in 3 team trade

[konu]

This morning the Dodgers were involved in a 3 team trade with the Phillies and Rays where the Dodgers acquired Garrett Cleavinger from the Phillies, the Phillies get hard-throwing Jose Alvarado and the Rays get Dillion Paulson and a player to be named later. 

 

Garrett Cleavinger is a former 3rd round pick out of the University of Oregon, he’s 26 and made his MLB debut last year. He only lasted ⅔ of an inning giving up a home run to Robinson Cano. In his minor league career, he threw 220 innings with an ERA over 4. He walked 5 batters per 9 innings which is extremely high, so there are some command issues, but he also struck out over 12 per 9, so he’s great at getting strikeouts. He has a funky delivery to mess with the hitter’s perception and timing and he seems to repeat it well but scouts think it’s lead to his command issues. It’s possible the Dodgers could clean up his delivery to where his command is better. 

 

Scouts say his pure stuff is pretty average, but because of the deception, there could potentially be a spot in the bullpen for him. He throws a 4 seam fastball and it gets up to about 95 MPH and then a curve and slider. Scouts say his curve has average bite and depth but he’s able to locate the pitch well to lefties. At times he slows his arm speed which allows the hitter to track it better. His slider is a work in progress but because of the deception in delivery, he can get swings and misses with it. 

 

Sounds like the Dodgers see something they can clean up or tweak and get him to be a solid bullpen piece who can get lefties out immediately and has the upside to be able to get right-handers out eventually. Will we see him out of the pen this year? Remains to be seen. What are your guys’ thoughts on this move?