Dodgers say the quiet part out loud by dealing lefty reliever to Mariners

The Dodgers have picked up a lot of guys on minor league deals over the last few weeks — Alexis Díaz, Ryan Loutos, and most recently Kyle Funkhouser — in an attempt to paper over the cracks left by the cavalcade of injuries to the pitching staff. Former Red Sox reliever Joe Jacques was added back in November, before the recent wave of signings, but the Dodgers have been conspicuously hesitant to promote him to the majors.

On Monday, Joel Sherman reported that the Dodgers had traded Jacques to the Mariners for an as-yet unclear return (it's probably cash).

The Dodgers being willing to trade a potential depth option when they're already desperately short-staffed definitely speaks to their level of confidence in Jacques — which is to say it wasn't high. He was invited to spring training and pitched five solid innings (1.80 ERA) but started the season in Triple-A, where he has a 6.04 ERA in 22 1/3 innings this season.

Fellow former Red Sox and current member of the Dodgers bullpen Noah Davis has put up similarly bad numbers in Triple-A, so there must've been something the Dodgers found completely offensive about Jacques' performance or underlying metrics that made them willing to let him go.

Dodgers trade offseason minor league signing Joe Jacques to the Mariners

Luis García became the 15th pitcher to go on the Dodgers' IL last week, forcing the Dodgers to work with Davis, Lou Trivino, and Chris Stratton, who all started as minor-league signings. Trivino has actually managed to do some decent work in his 7 1/3 innings, but Davis and Stratton have ERAs near or approaching 6.00. Meanwhile, Tanner Scott, Alex Vesia, and Anthony Banda have all been struggling at the backend of the bullpen (but Ben Casparius and Jack Dreyer have both been solid).

The Dodgers have historically been able to pull off miracle work with pitchers, but they didn't even seem bothered to try with Jacques, which begs the question of why the Mariners would want to trade for him in the first place.

Ah, well. A little extra cash never hurt anyone, and Jacques clearly wasn't even of much help to the Comets over in Oklahoma City. The Dodgers have already gone back to work plucking players off the waiver wire/out of total obscurity, looking for their next reclamation project. It was probably never going to be Jacques, so onto the next they go.