Dodgers ‘still trying to find our footing’ with bullpen

Dodgers relief pitcher Evan Phillips throws to an Arizona Diamondbacks batter.

Staff Writer

April 7, 2023 7:34 AM PT

PHOENIX — A few feet here, a checked swing there, and the Dodgers might have suffered a very different fate Thursday night at Chase Field.

So went the performance of their surprisingly unsteady bullpen, which flirted with disaster in the team’s 5-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks and continued to serve as an unexpected source of early season questions.

Coming into the campaign, the biggest unknown on the back end was how the Dodgers would handle ninth innings, with the team declining to pick a designated closer at the end of spring training.

Now, however, uncertainties are popping up in almost every reliever decision manager Dave Roberts has to make. The arms he trusted last year have opened the season looking shaky. And it’s all left an increasingly muddied night-to-night script for the Dodgers to manage in its wake.

“We’re still trying to find our footing,” Roberts acknowledged when asked to evaluate the bullpen’s opening week. “I know it’s not about a role thing or where guys are pitching. I think individually, you can look at them and each guy is sort of trying to figure some things out.”

On Thursday, the Dodgers were up by four runs when Alex Vesia was summoned as the first reliever.

With a string of left-handed hitters due up to the plate, it was the right situation for Vesia, who has emerged as the Dodgers top southpaw since they acquired him in a February 2021 trade.

This time, however, Vesia made a couple of mistakes. Jake McCarthy hammered a one-out triple on a fastball Vesia left in. Then, after a passed ball cut the Dodgers’ lead to three, Gabriel Moreno hammered a full-count double to center that chased Vesia from the game.

“I think Alex is searching right now,” Roberts said of the left-hander, who has given up three runs in three games, including a blown eighth-inning lead last week in the Dodgers’ first loss of the season. “He had a great year for us last year. I trust him in big spots. So he’s gonna figure it out. The first couple outings of the season haven’t been ideal for him, but he’s gonna figure it out.”

Vesia’s replacement, Yency Almonte, has fallen into the same boat during the season’s opening week.

An organizational success story last year after signing a minor-league deal in L.A., Almonte had a slow ramp-up this spring following an elbow injury late last season and hadn’t looked as electric in his first few appearances of this campaign.

Thursday was better, but only slightly. The right-hander retired his first batter, but then issued a two-out walk to Arizona’s No. 9 hitter, Geraldo Perdomo, that brought the potential tying run to the plate.

Then, Josh Rojas nearly made Almonte pay, crushing a deep fly ball that narrowly missed the right field foul pole, sailing wide of it by what appeared to only be a few feet.

Almonte bounced back on the next pitch, getting a fly out to end the inning. And Roberts maintained confidence in him postgame, calling the escaped jam a step in the right direction.

“The fastball velocity [and] command was better than it has been,” Roberts said. “Slider is not staying a strike long enough right now, but I think today still was encouraging.”

The real balancing act began an inning later.

Earlier in the night, Roberts got word in the dugout that Brusdar Graterol’s back had tightened up on him, leaving him unavailable for the rest of the game (Roberts believes Graterol should be OK by Friday).

Graterol has been no sure thing either this season. He took a loss against the Diamondbacks last Sunday, when poor command and a booted ground ball led to a tie-breaking run in the ninth inning at Dodger Stadium.

Still, the hard-throwing right-hander was a seemingly preferable alternative to Phil Bickford, the former first-round pick who has battled continued ups and downs during three seasons with the Dodgers.

On Tuesday night, Bickford almost blew a big ninth-inning lead against the Colorado Rockies, needing Evan Phillips to bail him out for a save.

Thursday’s outing started down a similar path, as well, after Bickford gave up a leadoff double and misfired on a wild pitch.

In a full count with no outs, though, the 27-year-old caught a break. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. tried to check his swing, but was ruled out on an appeal to the first-base umpire.

From there, Bickford flashed some genuine signs of promise, dialing up his fastball to a career-high 97 mph while getting the final two outs of the inning.

After he escaped, Phillips emerged to pick up his second save — but even he is dealing with his only minor funk, with his mid-90s-mph fastball velocity down a tick from his breakout 2022 performance.

Dodgers relief pitcher Evan Phillips, right, celebrates with catcher Will Smith.

“There’s some things mechanically I think he’s working through to be more consistent with the throw,” Roberts said of Phillips, who hasn’t given up a run in four outings this years. “But, he’s as dependable as they come.”

It all served as a reminder of the somewhat patchwork state of the Dodgers bullpen.

The group is still without Daniel Hudson, who is stalled in his recovery from a torn ACL. The bullpen hierarchy also lacks a clear shape, with roles and responsibilities changing by the night based on opposing lineups and specific game situations.

So far, the Dodgers have still managed to get by. Their 5-2 record is best in the NL West. And their 2.86 bullpen ERA — bolstered by strong starts from long relievers Andre Jackson and Shelby Miller, and impressive form from left-hander Caleb Ferguson — still ranks seventh in the majors.

But for a unit that was supposed to be one of the Dodgers’ biggest strengths, the opening week has instead highlighted some unforeseen deficiencies from almost every important late-game piece.

None of them has been as dominant as the team expected.

“But, to their credit,” Roberts noted, “they’re still being productive, and that’s most important right now.”