Dodgers Add Joe Blanton to Bullpen

By Tim Morris
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Updated: January 20, 2016

Yesterday the Dodgers added an old friend to the bullpen

Today, the #Dodgers announced the signing of right-handed pitcher Joe Blanton to a one-year contract.

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) January 19, 2016

His signing wasn’t taken well by fans.

@Dodgers really joe Blanton smh

— Joseph (@joseph_beaver) January 19, 2016

And it’s easy to see why.

Joe Blanton mainly as starter with #Angels #Dodgers — 4-18, 5.72 ERA, 36 HRs allowed (1 every 23.8 batters faced)

— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) January 19, 2016

But he seemed to have found something last year that changed his career around.

Joe Blanton as reliever with #Royals #Pirates last year — 5-0, 2 saves, 2.04 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 4 HRs allowed (1 every 57.5 batters faced)

— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) January 19, 2016

Joe Blanton‘s base deal is for $4 million and it comes with some incentives.

Source: Blanton also gets $250K for 50 and 60 IP and $500 K for 70 IP. Structured for a reliever.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) January 19, 2016

So he could make a total of $5 million if he riches all his incentives, sounds like a win-win for both sounds.

Tim’s Take:

I remember Blanton as a Dodger in 2012 he had a tendency to pitch a few great innings and then give up a couple bombs after a walk or a single that would blow the game open, and he was even worse for the Angels in 2013 with a 6.04 ERA. However, it seems being out of baseball in 2014 helped him to change his career and he went from throwing that awful cutter a lot to throwing a lot of sliders. It’s kind of the same pitch but a slider moves more laterally and is hard for right handers to pick up on as evidenced by his .203 average against vs right handers and only giving up 3 home-runs. However left handed batters hit him hard, a .281 average against and 4 home-runs. The Dodgers are signing him as a long relief option and I’m ok with that. Don’t be surprise if he gets a start or two as well in case of injury.

In the end, I’m ok with this signing, it’s one year, his contract is as such that if he pitches badly, he can be DFA’d and possibly cut if he pitches poorly and the Dodgers have other options to replace him in Mike Bolsinger and Carlos Frias in that long reliever role, TL:DR version, depth is good.

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