After making his major league debut in 2016, including taking a no-hitter into the eighth inning of his first big league start, right-hander Ross Stripling proved he could be a valuable and versatile member of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitching staff.
While the majority of his contributions came in the rotation last year, he was tasked with relief duties in 2017 and more than held his own.
He was shuttled between Triple-A Oklahoma City and the Majors a couple times and still managed to give the Dodgers quality outings, often working more than an inning at a time.
He came in as an emergency reliever when Clayton Kershaw went down with his back injury as well as filling in for Rich Hill on a moment’s notice.
He made five appearances in the postseason, in which he didn’t allow a run. He inherited four baserunners and prevented all of them from scoring.
Stripling appeared in 49 regular season games, making just a pair of starts, and posted a 3.75 ERA in 74.1 innings. He struck out nearly a batter an inning and walked just 6.3 percent of batters he faced. He posted a 0.7 fWAR and a 0.5 bWAR.
2017 Highlight:
While pitching in the World Series may be a highlight in any player’s career, Stripling’s biggest moment in 2017 came on the basepaths.
In the 10th inning of the May 9 contest against Pittsburgh, the score was tied 3-3 after nine innings, Yasmani Grandal led off the bottom of the 10th with a single. With a short bench, Dave Roberts brought in Stripling to pinch-run.
After back-to-back strikeouts, Austin Barnes came up to pinch hit for Kenley Jansen. Barnes jumped on a first-pitch fastball and lined it into the right-center field gap. Stripling motored around second, then third, and scored the winning run on Barnes’ walk-off.
Stripling also got married this offseason. Congrats, Ross!
2018 Outlook:
It’s hard to imagine Stripling not playing a role on the 2018 Dodgers. His versatility gives the club options to use him as a starter, spot starter, long reliever or short reliever. Whatever the case may be, Stripling will be up to the challenge.
