Tanner Scott's IL stint might've actually been a blessing in disguise for Dodgers

Before Tanner Scott went on the IL with elbow inflammation, he had an 8.10 ERA in July and blew two out of three saves. He'd been going back and forth between having excellent and terrible months since April, but July and then his IL stint made the $72 million contract the Dodgers gave him look like it could turn out to be a huge mistake.

Since coming back from the IL on Aug. 22, however, Scott has thrown two scoreless innings and has only given up a hit and no walks (he also hasn't struck anyone out, but we'll take improvements as they come). On Aug. 26 against the Reds, he notched his first save since July 12.

The key seems to be the IL stint. Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic reported that the Dodgers used Scott's pause on the season not only to get him healthy, but to identify and correct some mechanics.

"He had been opening up his hips too quickly before driving down the mound, making him force the power behind his pitch rather than let it happen naturally," Ardaya wrote. "That, in part, can explain why his fastball velocity has been 96.4 mph this season compared with 97.0 mph a year ago. It can also explain why a tight, firm slider from a year ago was producing worse results."

Tanner Scott seems to be back to his usual form after Dodgers IL stint

Scott hasn't gotten any swing-and-miss on that slider yet, but it's had an uptick in velocity to an average 90.2 MPH the 10 times he's thrown it as opposed to 88.2 MPH before the injury. Overall, the pitch still has a .281 batting average against and .391 slugging against, up from .231/.316 last season. His whiff rates are down across the board for the slider, fastball, and a much lesser-used changeup.

Hopefully, an adjustment in his hips really will be the key to unlocking the reliever that the Dodgers were hoping to get when they gave him one of the most lucrative reliever contracts in baseball history.

If Scott's back-and-forth months were anything to go by, he is due for a great August/September, but the Dodgers are going to need that to stick going into the postseason. They lost some of their most brutal games with their closer on the IL, but Scott has the stretch run and hopefully a long postseason run to make up for the lost time.