3 under-the-radar bullpen options for Dodgers to consider at trade deadline

2. Mychal Givens

The Chicago Cubs struck gold with tradeable relief assets, with David Robertson leading the way and Scott Effross not far behind. Even Chris Martin and Rowan Wick are solid options! But perhaps the Dodgers should be eying Mychal Givens, who’s sporting a 2.72 ERA, 3.95 FIP and 1.26 WHIP with 49 strikeouts in 39.2 innings.

The crafty right-hander sports a four-seam fastball (94 MPH), a slider (85 MPH) and a changeup (82 MPH), with enough of a velocity disparity to consistently throw hitters off. He has three issues: he walks far too many batters (13th percentile) and he barely gets anybody to chase (12th percentile).

He doesn’t give up a lot of hard contact, though, and his other important advanced metrics are in the red. Good sign.

Additionally, Givens has been exposed to plenty of high-leverage situations throughout his career dating back to his days in Baltimore, where he recorded 20 saves and finished 89 games in 336 innings. Righties cannot hit him, and he’s fairly effective against lefties.

Right now, Givens is signed to a one-year, $5 million contract and has a $3.5 million mutual option for 2023. Could be a move that pans out for the next year and a half for the Dodgers at a relatively low cost.