As the Los Angeles Dodgers continued to face a need for pitching depth this past season, Conner Greene was among those to spend time with the organization.
Greene was claimed off waivers from the Baltimore Orioles in August, along with Anthony Bemboom being taken from the L.A. Angels. Danny Duffy and Clayton Kershaw were both transferred to the 60-day injured list in order to make room for Bemboom and Greene on the 40-man roster.
Greene allowed six runs in 3.2 innings over three appearances for the Orioles prior to getting designated for assignment. The Santa Monica, California native was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the seventh round of the 2013 MLB Draft.
The three games Greene pitched for the Orioles this year was his first time in the Majors. He went 1-3 with a 7.39 ERA in nine games (three starts) with their Triple-A affiliate.
“He is a Santa Monica kid, we have a lot of six degrees to Kevin Bacon relationships, with me being from UCLA,” manager Dave Roberts said at the time of the roster move.
“I know he’s excited to be a Dodger, his childhood team. He’s got really big stuff with the fastball, a couple different breaking balls and changeup. My message to him and from the pitching coaches was, ‘Just go be yourself and let us support you to get outs.’
“I know he’s thrilled, I’m sure his family is thrilled, and we’re excited to have him.”
The Dodgers quickly added Greene to their active roster, but he only appeared in two games before getting optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City. The right-hander collected one strikeout and worked a scoreless inning in both of his appearances.
Then three days after being optioned, Greene was designated for assignment as one of the two corresponding roster moves to L.A. signing Shane Greene.
Baltimore pounced on the opportunity at a reunion by claiming Conner Greene and optioning him to Triple-A. He wound up appearing in 19 games (one start) for the Orioles to finish out the season, going 1-3 with a 6.41 ERA.
Greene’s 2021 highlight
Getting to pitch for his childhood team was something Greene embraced, and although his time with the Dodgers was brief, it produced back-to-back scoreless appearances.
2022 outlook
Greene remains under team control with the Orioles and will likely seen time at both Triple-A and the Major League level next year.
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