3 former Dodgers players off to troubling starts in spring training

Andrew Heaney

Heaney did good work for the Dodgers during his one-year stint with them in 2022, but the team still let him go in free agency. He promptly signed with the Texas Rangers and then won a World Series with them -- alongside fellow former Dodgers Corey Seager and Max Scherzer, both of whom left LA with hurt feelings on one or both sides.

It's not that we'd wish bad things on all of the players who leave, but there is something especially hard to swallow about watching them depart, then almost immediately win a World Series, and it might be okay to take a little ounce of satisfaction wherever possible. In five innings at Rangers spring training, Heaney has pitched for a 7.20 ERA with a .316 batting average against.

This is far from ideal for the Rangers, who will depend on Heaney as a middle-rotation starter while they wait for Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer to recover. They'll need their rotation to take some heat off of their bullpen, which was often a cause for worry last year and is looking like it may be again, given José Leclerc, Josh Sborz, and Dane Dunning's collective 7.57 ERA in spring.