Dodgers get their pitcher

Phil Gurnee ♦ July 28, 2017 ♦ Leave a comment

Well, not quite, but they did acquire a starting pitcher today. His name just wasn’t Yu Darvish, or Sonny Gray, or Justin Verlander. It was Luke Farrell and the cost was considerably less than Alex Verdugo. Actually, the cost was simply cost. The Dodgers paid cash for Farrell.

Farrell is 6’6, and was born June 7th, 1991 and was not among the Royals top 30 prospects in either 2016 or 2017 according to Baseball America.  Fangraphs did have this to say about Luke before the start of the year: 

Luke Farrell, RHP, 2.8 KATOH+ – Big (6-foot-6), smart (Northwestern), tough (has dealt with multiple tumors that required complicated biopsies) with good baseball bloodlines (his father is John Farrell), Luke’s fastball sits 90-92 with downhill plane, he has an average cutter and fringe curveball. He projects as an up-and-down arm without quite enough stuff to crack a full-time rotation spot, though you could argue his pitches have more projection than most 25-year-olds because of the developmental time he missed dealing with his health issues.

The Dodgers had scaled back their strange run of waiver pickups from 2015 but this one probably ranks with those.  At the very least he’ll provide depth to the AAA rotation until he is also waived.