3 players from the 2021 Dodgers who are failing miserably elsewhere

1. Corey Knebel

While Corey Knebel’s surface numbers look perfectly acceptable (3.24 ERA in 25 innings), he’s been walking a tightrope all year long, which is beginning to give way beneath him if it hasn’t collapsed already.

Conversely, Knebel’s last 14.2 innings’ worth of meltdowns have been enough to get him removed from the Phillies closer role — and, uh, you know how bad you have to be for the Phillies to be like, “Yeah … we’re gonna try to get a Committee to cover this.” The Phillies do not have an available committee! And yet…

Joe Giglio of Sports Radio WIP unearthed a stunning stat explaining further just how lucky Knebel’s been to limit the damage:

"161 relief pitchers have thrown at least 20 innings this season. Corey Knebel’s strikeout-to-walk ratio (1.43) ranks 153rd. Two of those behind him have ERAs over 7.00. One is back in the minors. Knebel has been awful."

Though the ex-Dodger was able to wiggle out of April’s jams, those flowers have turned to May run-scoring showers, while June’s swoon has resulted in his removal from high-leverage outings. Perhaps that’ll improve his overall statline, considering he’s been borderline begging for such a removal for weeks now.

Though the Dodgers could use some back end relief help themselves, there were certainly better ways to spend $10 million this offseason than on Knebel, who they nursed back to health in 2021. Tyler Anderson already looked like a solid purchase when you woke up this morning, but it looks even better now, huh?

3 trade deadline arms Dodgers can target to replace Blake Treinen

The Los Angeles Dodgers can target these three hot commodity bullpen arms at the 2022 MLB Trade Deadline if Blake Treinen doesn't get back.