On Sunday, it was reported by Joel Sherman of the New York Post that several teams were interested in left-hander Andrew Heaney after Heaney became a free agent just mere days before. Those teams were the Blue Jays, Cardinals, Nationals, and Dodgers.
Just a day later, Heaney agreed to a 1 year-$8M contract with Los Angeles.
Heaney has spent most of his career on the other side of L.A. with the Angels. He was traded to the Yankees at the July 30th Trade Deadline.
He began his career with the Marlins in 2014. Many may remember that before going to the Angels, the Marlins sent him over to the Dodgers, where he spent five hours before being flipped to Anaheim and hilariously sending out a tweet thanking the Dodgers for a great run.
Heaney had a rough 2021 season, going 8-9 with a 5.83 ERA with the Angels and Yankees. He was moved to the bullpen by New York and ended up posting a 7.32 ERA in his brief stint with the Bronx Bombers.
With all due respect to Heaney, it’s kind of hard to understand what the Dodgers see here. Heaney has struggled with injuries at various points in his career and has only finished with an ERA below four once, which was 2015, his first season with the Halos, and he has a career 4.72 ERA
According to Dodgers MLB.com beat reporter Juan Toribio, the Dodgers like Heaney because his fastball spin rate ranks in the 90th percentile, and they believe that he can potentially have a bounceback season. Sherman stated in his tweet that many teams look at him as potentially becoming the next Robbie Ray, who was a Cy Young contender with the Blue Jays.
The Dodgers are in need of rotation depth since Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer are both potentially departing. The chances of Trevor Bauer coming back are slim too, so in terms of depth, it’s a decent move. Los Angeles will likely look for more starters in addition to Heaney.
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