Dodgers: Price happy with debut, says he’s ready to fill any role that’s needed.
GLENDALE, ARIZ. » David Price’s Twitter post said it all, including one exclamation mark for each batter he faced.
“I really missed doing that!!!” Price posted after pitching in a game for the first time in just over a year on Monday afternoon.
Last spring, Price made two Cactus League starts for the Dodgers, his new team after his contract was attached to outfielder Mookie Betts in a trade with the Boston Red Sox. He struck out seven of the 10 Colorado Rockies batters he faced in his second outing, looking good after recovering from surgery to remove a cyst from his left wrist in fall 2019.
Before he could pitch again, however, MLB was shut down by the pandemic. When the game restarted, Price opted not to play during the 2020 season out of concern for the health of his family.
Having gone a year and a day between competitive pitches, Price was not surprised when he found himself “antsy” and excited about pitching against the Chicago White Sox on Monday.
“Absolutely not. I care a lot about what I do. I love the game of baseball,” Price said after retiring the side in order. “So any time I get to go out and compete on that mound I’m going to be excited about it.”
Price’s excitement might have spilled over onto the radar gun. He touched 94 mph during his 11-pitch inning.
“I was hoping for 92 (mph),” said Price, the 2012 American League Cy Young Award winner when he was with Tampa Bay. “I saw a changeup at 86 so I knew it couldn’t have been too bad. Ninety-four, that’s awesome. I know if I can get it up to 94, 95 and maybe even more that’s a good sign.”
Price followed starter Julio Urias in Monday’s game, a possible sign of Price’s role when the season starts.
With the potential to have eight capable starting pitchers ready for the season, one or more of that group could find themselves pitching out of the bullpen when the season opens in Colorado or later in the year — maybe in some type of hybrid “bulk innings” role as the Dodgers try to spread the workload of a 162-game regular season following last season’s abbreviated schedule.
Not only is Price fine with that possibility, but he made sure the Dodgers know it.
“Right before we signed Trevor (Bauer), I reached out to (Dodgers president of baseball operations) Andrew (Friedman) and said, ‘If it happens, I’m willing to do whatever you guys need me to do,’” Price said. “It’s not a problem for me. Just keep me in the loop and let me know and I’ll be ready for whatever.”
Price said he has mapped out his anticipated spring schedule and does “expect to be ready” to start the season in the rotation if that’s how things play out.
“But I told them, whatever they need me to do, whatever makes the 2021 Dodgers better, I’m all for it,” Price said.
So far this spring, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has closed off no avenues to any of the Dodgers’ group of starting pitchers. That applies both to Price and Jimmy Nelson, neither of whom has pitched in a regular-season game since Sept. 2019.
“I think right now I still think that we have plenty of time to build these guys up,” Roberts said. “The goal isn’t to get any particular starter to 100 pitches. There’s really no set number. Like I said from the very beginning, we have seven, eight starters potentially deep. We’re gonna build those guys up, whatever that looks like. They all might be a little bit different, but we still see it from that same lens.”
Roberts speaks out
Despite his heritage as the son of an AfricanAmerican father and a Japanese mother, Roberts has been reluctant to speak out on racial issues. That changed last summer when the Dodgers chose not to play a game in solidarity with the protests against racial injustice across the country.
It continued in February when Roberts confirmed that he sent an email to everyone in the Dodger organization, speaking out against the rise of hate being directed toward AsianAmericans during the pandemic.
“I just think there’s a lot of things going on in and outside of our country towards Asians — racist, bullying acts,” Roberts said of his motivation in sending the email. “That obviously hit close to home for me and I just felt that I wanted to address it internally and show my support for the Asian-Americans in our organization.
“It was just something that was on my heart that I felt needed to be shared.”
Update on Kelly
Veteran reliever Joe Kelly was shut down temporarily early in camp with unspecified “soreness” after he started his throwing program and missed another day feeling ill. Now, Roberts says Kelly is “a ways away” from pitching in games and he would not say whether he expects Kelly to be ready for the start of the season.
“I don’t want to say that he won’t be ready for the start of the season. I don’t want to say that he will,” Roberts said Monday. “Right now, it’s kind of day to day with his throwing program. We still have to see him in major league games before we can give the green light. I think that’s what Joe would expect as well.
“That’s why I just think that right now, where his throwing program is at, when he gets into a game — things have been pushed back. But I just don’t want to put any restrictions or expectations right now as far as breaking camp with us.”
Kelly ended the 2019 season with an unspecified injury and was limited to 132/3 innings last season (10 during the regular season) due to shoulder inflammation. Kelly is in the final year of his three-year, $27 million contract with the Dodgers.