Josh Reddick is an upgrade.
Athletics players to help L.A. deal with injuries
The Los Angeles Dodgers couldn’t sit around and just wait for their injured players to heal, not with the National League’s biggest payroll, not with a fan base clamoring for the franchise’s first championship since 1988.
So the Dodgers finally moved some of the prospects they have been stockpiling in their loaded farm system — a pretty good haul of right-handed pitchers in Frankie Montas, Grant Holmes and Jharel Cotton — to snag two players from the Oakland Athletics who should make an immediate impact, outfielder Josh Reddick and pitcher Rich Hill.
Both figure to step into prominent roles, with Reddick and his career-high .816 on-base-plus-slugging percentage (OPS) dislodging Yasiel Puig from right field, and Hill joining the injury-racked rotation as soon as the blister in his left middle finger has healed, probably this week.
Puig is expected to be assigned to the minors. The 25-year-old outfielder has seen his OPS and home run totals dwindle every year since his debut season of 2013, from .925 and 19 as a rookie to his current .706 and seven.
Puig’s name has come up frequently in trade rumors, with the most recent ones linking him to the Chicago White Sox, who have a history of success with Cuban players and employ Puig’s former teammate with Cienfuegos, first baseman Jose Abreu.
Despite Puig’s offensive decline and the injuries that have sidelined staff ace Clayton Kershaw as well as fellow lefties Hyun-Jin Ryu, Brett Anderson and Alex Wood, Los Angeles has more than held its own in the NL West race. By going 15-9 in July, the Dodgers trimmed four games from the San Francisco Giants’ lead, which stood at two games entering August.
But while San Francisco is starting to get some of its injured mainstays back, most notably Hunter Pence and Joe Panik, the Dodgers continue to hemorrhage players. The latest to get hurt is right-hander Bud Norris, who left Sunday’s start with an upper back injury, leaving the rotation with three healthy starters.
That’s why the addition of Hill was critical, especially in light of the uncertainty regarding Kershaw’s return from a herniated disk in his back. In between missing time with a groin strain and the blister, Hill was sensational with the A’s, going 9-3 with a 2.25 ERA and holding batters to a .201 average. In his last five starts, he had a 1.67 ERA.
The Dodgers did pay a steep price for two rentals, with both Hill and Reddick eligible for free agency after the season.
Montas, 23, has a big arm capa- ble of hitting triple digits on the radar gun and has been pitching well in the minors after missing much of the season following rib surgery. Holmes, 20, was the 22nd overall pick in the 2014 draft and has an 8-4 record with a 4.02 ERA at high Class A. Both he and Cotton, who’s 24 and in Class AAA, have averaged better than a strikeout per inning in their minor league careers.
The three prospects add quality and quantity to the A’s farm system as the major league club skids toward a second losing season in a row. But while the A’s can punt on a season and simply point toward the future, the Dodgers don’t have that luxury.
Their future is always now, and that’s when Hill and Reddick should help them.