3 midseason Dodgers pickups that make no sense at all

1. Heath Hembree

Perhaps the most puzzling of all … Heath Hembree has never been good. At least Baez and Robles have found a decent stretch of MLB success and/or have familiarity with the organization! Outside of Hembree’s 100-game stretch from 2016-2017, we can’t say there’s been much there.

Hembree is now with his sixth team since 2020 and was brought in by the Dodgers in late July. He started off at the Arizona Complex League before joining Baez and Robles at Triple-A but … again, bad results. You get what you pay for!

In five innings at Triple-A, Hembree has allowed five earned runs on six hits (two homers) and a walk. This comes after registering a 7.16 ERA, 8.20 FIP and 1.90 WHIP in 20 games with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Did we mention the Pirates designated him for assignment? Sorry about that.

Historically, he’s always walked far too many batters (3.7 per nine innings) and has only once had his FIP align with his ERA. Outside of that, he owns a career 4.33 ERA, 4.66 FIP and 1.38 WHIP in 351 games, which is really not adequate for a reliever. Though he has 387 strikeouts in 349 career innings, that’s not going to do much of anything. The worst Dodgers reliever at the moment has a 5.05 ERA, 4.53 FIP and 1.12 WHIP, and that’s Phil Bickford, who’s largely used when games are out of reach.

Sadly, Hembree, Robles and Baez don’t seem to be worthy of the “last man in the bullpen” label as of right now, making these signings as pointless as they come.

Clayton Kershaw’s injury complicates returns of Walker Buehler, Dustin May

The Los Angeles Dodgers are now without Clayton Kershaw, which creates an issue with the returns of Walker Buehler and Dustin May.