Dodgers: Recounting Blake Treinen’s winding path to LA

Treinen’s Road to Success

Treinen’s story follows that tragic plot arc of many relief pitchers in today’s game, but before he even was drafted, his story is certainly different than most. Despite not playing NCAA collegiate baseball in his freshman year, Treinen trained to walk-on to the Div. I powerhouse program at the University of Arkansas. After failing to make the team, Treinen sent tape to South Dakota State, where he ended up staying until he was drafted by the A’s.

For the first few years of his professional career with the Oakland Athletics and Washington Nationals, Treinen was a starting pitcher. In 2012, Treinen made 15 starts in High-A for the A’s farm team and in 2013, he made 20 starts for the Nationals Double-A squad. Across both of those seasons as a minor league starter, Treinen struck out less than a batter per inning while allowing an opposing batting average of right around .270.

These unremarkable numbers continued in 2015 with the Nats major league club, who he started seven games for. Across 50 total innings that season, Treinen struck out 5.33 hitters per nine innings, but he allowed a minuscule 3.1% HR/FB rate and a solid 2.49 ERA. The promise was certainly there, as was evidenced by his sinker that averaged 95.8 mph. But maybe his value was not as a big-league starting pitcher.

That’s what the Nationals decided at least. His former team opted to push Treinen to the bullpen to leverage his wicked sinker. It worked. His average sinker velocity increased to 97.1 mph, and his numbers improved as well. His K/9 crept up to 8.65, demonstrating the added velocity helped him punch out hitters.

But not every aspect of his game improved. Compared to 2014, his ERA swelled up to 3.86, which was largely thanks to a 14.8% HR/FB rate. The main takeaway outside of home runs came in terms of his control. Treinen went from walking 2.31 batters per nine innings to 4.26 BB/9. That increase amounted to having more runners on base, and this more pressurized environment yielded more home runs and more damaging home runs.

But the difference in FIP was only .40 though, which implied that in general, he really had improved, or at least that he had not fallen off like the rest of his numbers implied. His 2016 season confirmed this, as his numbers largely stayed the same in terms of home runs, strikeouts, and walks, even as his ERA fell back down to 2.28.

The next season, the Nationals traded Treinen, along with a pair of big-time prospects, to the A’s in exchange for established veteran relievers Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson. Treinen’s 2017 numbers looked a lot like his 2015 numbers though, which seemed to help the Nationals decision to ship him off. At the time of the trade, Treinen had a 5.73 ERA and 1.62 WHIP in less than 40 innings according to CBS Sports.

Treinen certainly didn’t seem like a viable setup man, let alone a closer for a potentially solid A’s club, but that’s when things started to change…