Dodgers leave winter meetings with all their outfielders and starting pitching

Phil Gurnee ♦ December 14, 2018 ♦ Leave a comment

Most of the focus during the Dodger Winter Meetings were which outfielder would get traded in rumored deals for Kluber and Realmuto but with the 2018 Winter Meeting in the rearview mirror, the only notable change in the roster was the acquisition of Joe Kelley who short-circuited the Dodger 2013 Postseason when he broke the rib of red-hot Hanley Ramirez.

Joe Kelly didn’t come cheap signing a three year deal for a reported twenty-five million. Kelly is coming off a fantastic World Series against the Dodgers, striking out ten with zero walks in six shutout innings while pitching in all five games. The zero walks were either indicative of the Dodger approach or the best version of Joe Kelly because during the regular season Kelly walked 4.4 hitters every nine innings.

I won’t pretend to know which Joe Kelly the Dodgers will be getting,  but hopefully, the Dodgers do. They supposedly blew Kelly away with their presentation on how they expect to use him and why they wanted him.

Last year the Dodgers signed Tom Koehler to much less expensive contract for only one year based on the fantastic small sample size he put up as a relief pitcher. They never got to test their Koehler theory as the plans went down the toilet when he suffered a pre-season injury and never pitched for the Dodgers.

Other Dodger action during the meetings. They lost two minor league prospects in the major league rule five draft. The Reds picked up Connor Joe with the 6th pick and the Phillies picked Drew Jackson with the 11th pick and then traded Drew to the Orioles. Connor Joe had an outstanding season in AAA for the Dodgers and was one of the players I had hoped they would put on the 40 man roster but there was simply no room him. Drew Jackson is going to have to make the jump from AA to the major leagues but his speed and utility could be useful off the bench.

For those who keep track of such things, Thursday was a banquet of first names for last names with Joe and Jackson leaving, and Kelly coming.