Orioles just saved Dodgers from a mistake that was waiting to happen

You can take a potential Los Angeles Dodgers bullpen target off the board. The club is searching high and low for arms to revamp their late-inning attack. The front office has shown no signs of shying away from guys who were formerly great but have succumbed to the volatility bug that is far too common among relievers.

Take the interest in Devin Williams, for example. Last year, the former Milwaukee Brewers closer would have made a ton of sense, but now, despite his blow-up in New York, the Dodgers seem to be in hot pursuit, even though there are many more red flags this go-around.

Ryan Helsley was another once-prestigious arm with past connections to Los Angeles, but thankfully, the Baltimore Orioles have ensured that the Dodgers can't fall into that trap, inking the former Hoffman Award winner to a two-year, $28 million deal.

The Orioles may have saved the Dodgers from themselves by stealing away Ryan Helsley

For a three-year stretch from 2022-2024, Helsley was one of the most dominant relievers in baseball, posting a 1.83 ERA that trailed only Devin Williams and Emmanuel Clase during that time period.

With a highlight of a league-leading 49 saves in 2024, Helsley's high-octane fastball, which comes in at an average velocity of 99 miles per hour, and his wipeout slider have been dominant for years. Until they weren't.

Dealt by the St. Louis Cardinals to the New York Mets at the trade deadline, Helsley had a rough time in New York. The 31-year-old right-hander posted a 7.20 ERA over 22 appearances and 20 innings down the stretch in Queens.

At the end of August, Helsley claimed to have found a glaring tick that was leading to him tipping his pitches. He pitched slightly better in September, but the improvement was only relative, as his ghastly 9.31 August ERA fell to a still-very-subpar 5.23 mark in the season's final month.

Going back to his first half with the Cardinals, Helsley wasn't struggling per se, but he also wasn't his normal, dominant self. In St. Louis, he posted a 3.00 ERA over 36 innings. That's a fine mark, sure, but it's a couple of notches away from the dominance he displayed the three years prior.

There's a chance that the pitch tipping thing is real and Helsley didn't fully rectify it in September. It's understandable that it might take him the full offseason to get his head right. But it's also just as easy to see this as the beginning of his decline.

Signing Helsley would have been a gamble, and now it's a gamble the Dodgers won't be allowed to make, so we can all breathe a sigh of relief.