Dodgers’ Alex Wood Reportedly Pitched Injured In 2015

Alex Wood struggled when he came over to the Dodgers, and today he may have revealed the cause of those struggles.

The Dodgers were in desperate need of pitching at the trade deadline last season, and opted to take some less-expensive chances rather than go for one of the three aces on the market.

David Price was traded to Toronto, Cole Hamels to Texas and Johnny Cueto to the eventual world champion Kansas City Royals. The Dodgers probably had the means to trade for one or two of them, but instead opted to trade for Mat Latos and Alex Wood, among others. Toronto, Texas and Kansas City all traded valuable prospects in their respective moves, while the Dodgers basically traded an injured reliever and an injured 31-year-old prospect, and got a top-100 prospect in return. Neither Latos or Wood were or have ever been as good as Price/Hamels/Cueto, but the Dodgers were crafty and added talent while not giving up much.

Latos was an unmitigated disaster, starting only five games for the Dodgers before being demoted to the bullpen, then being DFA’d after one relief appearance. Wood was much less of a disaster, but he still took a step back in 2015. After posting a 3.13 ERA in his first season in the bigs in 2013, Wood became a more-regular starter in 2014 and posted a 2.78 ERA in 177 innings for the Braves. He started the second game of the season for the Braves (coincidentally against Latos and the Marlins), and posted a 3.55 ERA in 20 starts before being traded to the Dodgers.

Wood was very up-and-down with the Dodgers. He allowed four runs in his Dodger debut, three runs in each of his next three, and followed that up with a few solid starts. He bounced around in September/October, allowing six and eight runs in two starts, but allowing only four combined in his other four starts at the end of the season.

Wood has number two starter stuff and was a very good number two with the Braves, but comes into 2016 potentially looking in from the outside. Between Clayton Kershaw, Scott Kazmir, Hyun-jin Ryu, Brett Anderson and Kenta Maeda, Wood could be the sixth starter and either start the season in the minors or the bullpen.

Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register wrote about Wood today. Here’s an excerpt from that.

"If Wood starts the season in the rotation, he expects to be better than when arrived from the Braves in a mid-season trade. Wood suffered a bone bruise in his right ankle while covering first base during his last start for the Braves. The injury bothered him the rest of the season and he feels was part of the reason for his uneven performances while going 5-6 with a 4.35 ERA in 12 starts for the Dodgers.“I had already gotten into some bad mechanical habits,” Wood said. “But the most important part of anybody’s mechanics is landing on your front side. I was getting outside my front foot because I was basically trying to find a way to not crush my foot every time I landed on it. At the same time, trying not to give up too much mechanically. It’s not easy."

Plunkett goes on to say that the ankle discomfort persisted until December. Wood’s delivery is wonky as is, but adding an ankle injury in his landing foot could not have helped his cause.

A healthy Wood could be vital for the Dodgers, who have a number of injury concerns in the rotation as is. Ryu is still a question mark, Maeda’s physical reportedly showed irregularities, leading to his incentive-heavy contract and Anderson’s healthy 2015 seemed more like an outlier than the norm.

Wood should have every opportunity to win a starting spot in Spring Training, and if he’s right next season he’s arguably one of the more talented pitchers on the roster. He turned 25 last month and next offseason will be his first arbitration-eligible, so barring a trade he’ll be around for a while.