With several key contributors on the injured list, the Los Angeles Dodgers recently bolstered their pitching depth last month by acquiring Eric Lauer from the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for cash considerations.
The left-hander was in the midst of a down year, but has found some success since joining his new team.
Lauer attributed his turnaround to being in sync with the Dodgers’ pitching coaches, via Doug Padilla of the Southern California News Group:
“Whatever you can line up what you think and feel with what the coaches or anybody (in the organization) thinks and feels, it’s going to be as easy as it can be,” Lauer said. “Everybody’s kind of on the same page instead of fighting ideas with more ideas.”
Lauer spent the early part of the season trying to correct his mechanics, but now has a more simplified approach to pitching that the Dodgers helped him focus on:
Instead of continuing “a lot of tinkering” that Lauer was doing in an attempt to catch up from an early-season illness, the Dodgers refined the process for him.
“Getting over here was kind of, ‘We just want you to focus on the game and pitching, and then we’ll kind of tell you what we see, what we think,’” Lauer said.
When the Dodgers first acquired Lauer, general manager Brandon Gomes expressed confidence that they would be able to get him back on track. That was due in part to his recent track record and a belief they could help the 31-year-old make a few adjustments.
“The biggest thing is making sure we’re balancing winning as many games as possible, but not panicking and throwing our process out-of-whack here,” Gomes said at the time of the trade.
“Trying to balance the short- and long-term. This is a guy that’s had a lot of success in the big leagues and somebody that we feel like we can get back to what he was last year.”
Eric Lauer’s stats with Dodgers
In two starts for the Dodgers, Lauer is 1-0 with a 2.53 ERA and 1.03 WHIP over 10.2 innings of work.
He will next take the mound on Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Pirates, opposite of Paul Skenes, in the opener of a three-game series at PNC Park.
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