Price willing to fill any role
GLENDALE, ARIZ. » David Price really has nothing left to prove as a pitcher.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 draft has 155 wins, a Cy Young Award (and two runner-up finishes) and five All-Star selections in a 13year big-league career.
But that was not the pitcher the Dodgers acquired from the Boston Red Sox two years ago as a contract attached to Mookie Betts (half of which the Red Sox are still paying).
At 36 now, it has been three years since Price was an effective, consistent member of a starting rotation.
He didn’t pitch at all in 2020, opting out of the pandemic-shortened season. That served as extended recovery time from the wrist surgery that cut short his 2019 season. He returned in 2021 in a hybrid role, throwing a career-low 73 2/3 innings in 11 starts and 28 relief appearances (with a hamstring injury interrupting his season for three weeks).
He was more effective as a starter — a 3.92 ERA, 1.16 WHIP and .234 batting average against. But four of the starts were as an “opener” and lasted three innings or less.
“I’m here to prove myself,” Price said when asked how he views his status this spring. “I haven’t thrown my best baseball for the Dodgers. That is something that I look forward to doing. For me, I want to earn. I don’t want to be given anything. I want to go out there and earn it.
“This is a game I’ve put a lot of years into, a lot of hard work. To not go out there and get the results I expect is always disheartening. I want to be able to do that this year and have fun with it.”
When asked about the 2022 starting rotation, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts lists Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, Julio Urias and Andrew
Dodgers pitcher David Price throws during a spring training workout, hoping he can regain his form this season.
Heaney then mentions Tony Gonsolin and Price as being “in the mix.”
Does that mean Gonsolin and Price are competing to be the fifth starter?
“I just think that we have really good options,” Roberts said Wednesday morning. “So it’s not about a competition thing. It’s kind of ‘Let’s get all these guys built up and take it day to day and see where we’re at.’ I’m very, very hesitant — it’s not a competition. It’s about what’s best for the player, what’s best for us. That’s kind of how we see it.”
The view is different this spring with pitchers having only three weeks of spring training to build up for the season. Roberts talks about breaking camp with 10 pitchers capable of throwing multiple innings in games, spreading the workload out as starters continue to build up in the early part of the season.
“It’s going to bleed into the regular season,” Roberts said of the build-up starting pitchers usually go through in spring training. “I just think industry-wide, there might be a couple outliers where a guy might be built up to five innings. But I think across the board, it’s going to be a job-by-committee type thing. So to kind of think the three to four innings is probably going to be more common, I think, certainly for us and across baseball.
“I just don’t expect six-inning, 90-pitch build-up for five guys or six guys to be there. So now you’re looking at guys that are built up to kind of piggyback or take down innings that normal starters when they open the season usually take down.”
Deferring to the Dodgers’ decision-makers on what his role might be, Price said being
healthy and more distanced from the rust caused by a year-and-a-half off before last season makes him confident that he will be able to make a greater impact this season.
“Yeah. I expect to be able to go out there and throw the baseball the way that I throw the baseball,” he said. “It’s what I always expect of myself whenever I’m out there and I want to help this team any way I can.”
Revised schedule
MLB released its revised version of the 2022 schedule, rescheduling the week of games that were postponed by the lockout.
As expected, the Dodgers will open the season on the road at Colorado on April 8 and the home opener is set for April 14 against Cincinnati.
The seven-game seasonopening homestand against the Colorado and Arizona that was postponed will be made up throughout the season including doubleheaders at home against the Diamondbacks on May 17 and Sept. 20 — and a six-game series against the Rockies to end the season (Sept. 30Oct. 5).
Also
Infielder Sheldon Neuse was claimed on waivers by Oakland. Neuse was designated for assignment right before the lockout began. The Dodgers acquired him in a trade with the A’s last spring . ... The Dodgers signed right-handed reliever Shane Greene to a minor-league contract with a non-roster invitation to bigleague camp. Greene split last season between Atlanta and Dodgers, posting a 4.05 ERA in 6-2/3 innings with the Dodgers.