Dodgers welcome deadline additions, hopeful

TAMPA, Fla. — The Dodgers didn’t buy groceries at the highest of the market forward of Thursday’s commerce deadline.

But what they got here away with — right-handed relievers Brock Stewart and Paul Gervase to bolster the bullpen, and versatile outfielder Alex Call to spherical out the lineup — are the type of strikes that “just raises the floor for our ballclub,” supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned Friday.

“I feel we did get better,” Roberts mentioned, before echoing the entrance workplace’s hope that the Dodgers’ greatest enhancements over the ultimate two months of the season come from the star-studded, but underperforming, core they already have in place.

“I think we’ve got a pretty dang good team. I think if you look at it from the offensive side, as far as our guys, they’ll be the first to tell you they’ve got to perform better and more consistently. That’s something that we’re all counting on … I love our club. I really do. Now it’s up to all of us to go out there and do our jobs.”

The job for the Dodgers’ two greatest acquisitions, Stewart and Call, shall be clear from the get-go.

Stewart, a former Dodgers swingman from 2016 to 2019, has reinvented himself in the second half of his profession. Unlike his first stint in Los Angeles, when he threw in the low 90s and was a fringe long reliever on the roster, Stewart is now a higher-leverage aid option, with a mid-to-upper 90s fastball and swing-and-miss sweeper he has used to dominate right-handed hitters this season.

“At the end [of his first Dodgers stint], he lost the velocity and was trying to figure out if he could hang on and who he was at that point,” Roberts recalled. “Obviously, he’s put in a ton of work to sort of find himself again. He’s had nothing but success. I’m excited to see this version of him. He certainly shouldn’t lack for confidence.”

Stewart received’t repair the Dodgers’ ninth-inning issues — with their nearer position up in the air ever since struggling offseason signing Tanner Scott went on the injured checklist with an elbow damage — but might get some save conditions “in the right situation,” Roberts mentioned — for occasion, if a run of right-handed hitters (who are batting just .104 with a .327. OPS against him this 12 months) are up at the top of the sport.

“I trust the guy, I trust the player, what he’s become,” Roberts mentioned. “So for me, if the situation calls for it tonight and he’s in the ninth inning, I’ve got all the confidence.”

Gervase, a 6-foot-10 right-hander the Dodgers acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for catcher Hunter Feduccia as half of a three-team commerce on Wednesday night time, was also on the lively roster Friday. He comes with just 5 earlier profession MLB appearances, but a misleading supply aided by his long-limbed extension on the mound.

“I don’t know a whole lot about him,” Roberts mentioned. “I know he’s got a big arm. He’s got some extension, some rise, but I haven’t seen him.”

The arrival of Stewart and Gervase did coincide with yet one other loss in the bullpen. Veteran right-hander Kirby Yates, one other offseason signing who has dissatisfied with a 4.31 ERA this season, was positioned on the injured checklist because of lingering discomfort in his pelvic and lower-back space. He went back to Los Angeles to get additional testing.

“In the last, call it, two weeks, he hasn’t felt great,” Roberts mentioned. “Hasn’t been injured, in his words, which is why he kept pitching and competing. But we flew him home this morning to look at the doctor and kind of get some tests to see if there’s something that’s kind of been aggravating him. Something’s just not right, exactly. So we’re trying to suss that out.”

In the lineup, Roberts mentioned Call — a 30-year-old right-handed-hitting journeyman who discovered a area of interest with the Washington Nationals the previous couple of seasons as an on-base risk succesful of grinding out powerful at-bats — would combine in at all three outfield spots.

“[He is] a tough, feisty hitter,” Roberts mentioned. “I certainly see him playing versus left. But I think he’s pretty much a neutral guy. Slugs a little more against left, but gets on base against right. I’m going to try to keep him in there a couple times a week.”

Call mentioned he wasn’t shocked to be taught he had been traded on Thursday, and was excited by the “chance to compete in the playoffs and win a World Series” with a first-place Dodgers group.

“For me, I am going to grind out at-bats, put the ball in play, take my walks, make it tough on the pitcher,” mentioned Call, who has hit .297 with the Nationals in 102 video games over the final two seasons. “Just really make the [pitchers] work so that hopefully they’re tired when the top of the order comes back around or whatever.”

Roki Sasaki going through hitters

Internally, the Dodgers are hoping rookie Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki can also serve as a de facto late-season addition after lacking the final a number of months with a shoulder damage.

And this week, the right-hander took a key step in his restoration course of.

Sasaki confronted hitters for the first time since getting damage in a simulated inning this previous week in Arizona, Roberts mentioned, and is scheduled to throw two more simulated innings on Saturday.

The group has been concentrating on a late-August return for Sasaki, who had a 4.72 ERA in eight begins this season before going on the IL.