Late last night the Los Angeles Dodgers acquired right-handed reliever Brandon League from the Seattle Mariners. In exchange the Dodgers sent Leon Landry and Logan Bawcom to the Mariners. Landry and Bawcom are both low level prospects. Landry was expendable because of the commitments to Ethier and Kemp, not to mention the Dodgers are very deep in outfield prospects, including top prospect Yasiel Puig.
Bawcom is somewhere in the bottom half of the Dodgers top 25 prospects. He is definitely expendable with all the good young arms the Dodgers have down on the farm.
League, 29, has a 3.63 ERA and 27/19 K/BB ratio over 44 2/3 innings overall this season and will presumably pitch the seventh or eighth innings with his new club. The former closer had been removed from the role after struggling badly, but he bounced back after moving into the set-up role, until recently. League gets a fresh starts in Los Angeles and will look to get things back on track. It’s a great move for the Dodgers and he will be a huge addition to the Dodgers bullpen.
Of course most people are thinking, what is the purpose of this trade? Well the Dodgers needed some help bullpen help, for sure. However, this deal is more likely a precursor to a trade sending Javy Guerra or Josh Lindblom out of Los Angeles. So consider this move an alley-oop, let’s just hope Colletti can slam dunk it home.