Dodgers should've outbid Yankees for swing-and-miss reliever with absurd metrics

The Dodgers finally kicked off their trade deadline activity on Monday afternoon, polishing off a three-way deal between themselves, the White Sox, and the Cardinals to acquire reliever Michael Kopech from Chicago and utilityman Tommy Edman from St. Louis. That swap spelled an end to Miguel Vargas' time as a Dodger.

Kopech had been connected to LA by way of talks about a blockbuster including him, Garrett Crochet, and Luis Robert Jr., and although that clearly didn't happen, the Dodgers still get to add a reliever who pitched an immaculate inning earlier this month to their bullpen.

That doesn't mean that their search for bullpen help can or should be over, though, and the Dodgers may have gone back to missing out on good opportunities like they did with Randy Arozarena and Isaac Paredes this past weekend.

On Tuesday, the Yankees made a trade with the Cubs that will send reliever Mark Leiter Jr. to the Bronx, and Leiter is a guy who the Dodgers probably should've been in on from a Cubs team that's had a confusing approach to the deadline so far but have said they'd be sellers.

Dodgers should've beaten out Yankees for Mark Leiter Jr. trade with Cubs

Leiter has pitched 36 1/3 innings in relief for the Cubs this year for a 4.21 ERA, but his metrics speak to a pitcher whose full potential could be unleashed under the right circumstances. His sinker, his most oft-used pitch, has been getting hit well by opposing batters and he doesn't have a fastball, but his split-finger has a .053 batting average and slugging against, and it's accounted for 36 out of 54 strikeouts this season.

That pitch does most of the heavy lifting for his chase, whiff, and K rates, but all rank him above the 90th percentile of qualified pitchers (98th for the whiff and K%). He also has an expected ERA of 2.61 and expected batting average against of .197, hinting that there's absolutely more to be mined here than what the Cubs were able to pull out of him.

Daniel Hudson and Alex Vesia, the Dodgers' two best relievers at the moment, do put up comparable whiff and strikeout numbers, but don't come close to Leiter's chase rate. Given the success the Dodgers' pitching staff has had with relievers in even worse shape, there's more than enough reason to believe that they could've tapped into Leiter's potential if they'd actually made a play instead of seemingly going dormant again.