Dodgers trade pitcher to Rangers for prospect after DFAing him for Bauer

The Los Angeles Dodgers have been among MLB’s most prominent movers and shakers as the offseason as ostensibly closed.

In addition to reuniting with Justin Turner on a two-year deal with options and escalators, a long-rumored maneuver, they swooped in at the buzzer to add Trevor Bauer, the top pitcher on the market, stealing him from the favored Mets.

All that roster shuffling can make an organization thirsty, and they temporarily solved their glut last week by taking righty Josh Sborz off the 40-man roster to add Bauer, leaving the former Virginia Cavalier floating just a few weeks before Spring Training.

Well, wonder no more!

Sborz is heading to the Texas Rangers and will remain in-state in Arizona for Spring Training. In exchange, the Dodgers will receive prospect Jhan Zambrano, a 19-year-old pitcher who hasn’t risen above the Dominican Summer League (though he performed well at that level in 2019).

Sborz, Los Angeles’ second-round pick back in 2015, reached the majors for the first time in 2019, but posted solid numbers in four outings in 2020, posting a 2.08 ERA and finishing three games.

His FIP, on the other hand, was a still-inflated 5.96, so the righty hasn’t dominated big-league batters with any consistency, even in short and solid spurts.

Now, hours later, we finally have an explanation for LA’s strange non-roster invitee discrepancy.

Initially, Sborz was included in the group of 31 players invited to MLB Spring Training before the list was rapidly trimmed to 30.

Exit Sborz, enter Zambrano, and close the books on the NRIs, it seems.

Zambrano won’t be occupying a big-league slot at this year’s spring camp, and he’ll be attempting to work his way up from the bottom. At the time of his departure from Texas’ system, he didn’t rank in MLB Pipeline’s edition of the team’s top 30.

Better to get something for a jettisoned player than nothing, though!

We wish Sborz well in Texas, where he’ll have a much better shot to crack a rebuilding big-league staff.

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