The Los Angeles Dodgers signed free agent Lou Trivino to a Minor League contract on May 11 and added him onto their roster one week later amid a need for a fresfh relief pitcher.
Trivino began the year with the San Francisco Giants but was designated for assignment on May 5 and the veteran elected to become a free agent after clearing waivers.
The Dodgers’ decision to sign the 33-year-old was one of a handful of moves the team made to shore up their pitching depth in the wake of mounting injuries. If that sounds all too familiar, it’s because it isn’t the Dodgers’ first rodeo with pitcher injuries.
Trivino has been impressive in his limited time with the team so far, allowing just three baserunners over five innings with five strikeouts. The performances have been enough to earn him a chance in high-leverage spots for a depleted Dodgers bullpen that is without a lot of right-handed options.
“I saw him filling up the strike zone, not running away from the moment. He’s obviously a veteran pitcher. He’s pitched in a lot of high leverage,” manager Dave Roberts said after Trivino’s last appearance.
“And quite frankly, there’s opportunities right now for our ‘pen, for guys to earn high-leverage opportunities. And so if you can show you can go out there and pitch and get outs in leverage, then I’m going to pitch you.”
Pitching in high-pressure spots is nothing new to Trivino, who spent his early years in the Majors as a late-inning option on some quality Oakland Athletics teams, and enjoyed a lot of success doing so.
He was much more of a prototypical power-pitcher in those days, with a four-seamer and sinker that both averaged close to 98 mph. Trivino never threw an offspeed pitch more than 12.4% of the time in any given year prior to 2022. That’s when he developed a sweeper and threw it 23.8% of the time.
In 2025, Trivino completely abandoned his curveball in favor of changeups and sweepers as his offspeed offerings, and he’s throwing them at a combined rate of 34.4%.
Trivino’s cutter and sinker are still his main pitches, sitting at 50.4%. But he’s throwing the four-seam fastball at the lowest rate of his career, which makes sense with his fastball losing a few ticks.
It was more of an evolution on the part of Trivino rather than an encouragement on the Dodgers’ part. But it has allowed him to be a more versatile weapon out of the bullpen, so Roberts isn’t complaining.
“So this is kind of my first look at him a few days ago, was probably your guys’ first look recently. I’m trying to learn him. I think that there’s a little bit less four-seamer, but there’s still a four-seamer there, there’s a sinker, there’s a cutter, there’s a change up, a sweeper,” Roberts said.
“So I think that a veteran guy that’s sort of reinventing himself, which actually, I don’t mind. He has weapons now to get lefties out, and so just to be a neutral guy, a guy that’s pitched in leverage. I’m going to go to him, and he’s earning those looks.”
Lou Trivino’s history in high leverage
Trivino has converted 37 of 56 save opportunities in his career and recorded 54 holds. In 302 career innings, he has a 3.87 ERA with 315 strikeouts, a 1.32 WHIP and a .233 batting average against.
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