After premature concerns over the financial state of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the need to become compliant with MLB debt guidelines, the club emphatically put to rest any unease by committing $192 million this winter to re-sign key free agents Rich Hill, Kenley Jansen and Justin Turner.
The lavish spending, however, was more the exception than the rule. Having acquired a second baseman on a team-friendly contract in Logan Forsythe, the Dodgers’ focus lies in filling out their bullpen.
Though, the club remains staunch in their preference to do so on one-year contracts. That may remove Los Angeles from potentially signing Jerry Blevins, as it’s believed the left-hander will sign a minimum of a two-year contract, per Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports:
Agents for the top two remaining free-agent left-handers, Jerry Blevins and Boone Logan, are signaling to teams that the pitchers will secure deals of at least two years and $12 million.
The Dodgers were first connected to Blevins earlier this week. The left-hander appeared in a career-high 73 games with the New York Mets last season.
Blevins went 4-2 with a 2.79 ERA, 3.05 FIP and 1.21 WHIP, while averaging career-bests 11.1 strikeouts per nine innings and a 29.2 strikeout rate. It was a successful bounce-back from Blevins’ 2015 season that came to an early end because of surgery after re-fracturing a bone in his throwing arm.
The veteran reliever suffered the initial fracture last April when was struck by a line drive on his forearm. Blevins had begun throwing in effort to return when he slipped while stepping off a curb, leading to the season-ending surgery.
While Blevins was effective for the Mets last season, the Dodgers don’t have a clear need for a left-handed reliever. Their bullpen could feature any mix of Luis Avilan, Grant Dayton, Adam Liberatore, Vidal Nuno or potentially Alex Wood. Of note, Dayton, Liberatore and Nuno all have options remaining.
