In Monday's bullpen roundup, a lot of the main focus was on the Dodgers re-signing Ryan Brasier (though the two-year deal isn't official but) and buying and selling Caleb Ferguson to the Yankees. The Dodgers received one other left-hander again in that three-player commerce with New York in Matt Gage.
Ferguson had the second-highest common leverage ranking within the Dodgers' bullpen final season, behind solely nearer Evan Phillips. Ferguson with 5 years of service time can’t be despatched to the minors with out his consent, and maybe the Dodgers needed extra roster flexibility from that part of the bullpen depth chart.
With the Dodgers virtually sure to exceed the fourth and highest aggressive funds tax threshold, dropping Ferguson's $2.4 million wage meant chopping $5.04 million from payroll, accounting for 110% of the tax levied on any quantity over $297 million. The Dodgers' present payroll estimate for 2024 is about $304.4 million, and that's at first including Brasier (in all probability $4.5 million) and Clayton Kershaw (TBA).
However what they get in Gage is a well-traveled, 6'3, 265-pound left-hander who has pitched within the majors in every of the final two years.
The Dodgers are the seventh MLB group for Gage, and the fourth within the final 12 months. He reached the majors with the Blue Jays in 2022, then was claimed off waivers by the Astros final February 13. He was designated for task on January 22 when Houston signed Josh Hader, then the Yankees claimed Gage on waivers per week later.
Buying and selling to the Dodgers made it three straight Monday transactions for the left.
However it goes additional. Gage was drafted by the Giants within the tenth spherical in 2014 out of Siena Faculty, then spent elements of 5 seasons within the minors with San Francisco. After being launched by the Giants, Gage spent the final month of 2018 within the minors with the Mets, and in addition made one begin for Sugar Land, then an impartial crew within the Atlantic League.
He signed a minor league take care of the Rockies in 2019, however ended up pitching for Diablos Rojos within the Mexican League that season, then pitched for Mazatlan within the Mexican Winter League within the 2020–21 and 2021–22 seasons. Through the 2020 non-minor league COVID season, Gage pitched for the East within the impartial Constellation Power League, earlier than becoming a member of the Diamondbacks within the minors in 2021.
He's 16 completely different groups in 15 completely different cities within the final decade, and that's earlier than his week with the Yankees and commerce to the Dodgers this 12 months. Gage and his spouse, who welcomed their first little one on January 5, have been accustomed to a nomadic life-style.
“We reside day-to-day. Me and my spouse do. My spouse has been with me by this complete course of since I used to be drafted and after I was in faculty,” Gage advised Mark Singleais on the Albany Occasions Union in New York final week. “So we type of received used to, okay, let's plan at present and see what occurs and we will make some plans down the highway. We all know {that a} cellphone name right here or a cellphone name there might ship all the pieces we simply deliberate for a loop and we're going to take advantage of it.”
Gage pitched within the majors with Toronto in 2022 and for the Astros in 2023, totaling simply 19⅔ innings in his 16 aid appearances. The outcomes had been fairly good, with a 1.83 ERA with 20 strikeouts and 9 walks. He has a 3.97 FIP over each years, although his xERA was 3.03 in 2022 and three.43 in 2023.
For probably the most half, Gage threw his fastball a bit of greater than half the time, with the cutter his subsequent most prolific, plus an occasional slider. In opposition to left-handed batters, Gage in MLB has thrown precisely as many cutters as fastballs. That is how Gage described his four-seamer, to Michael Shapiro of the Houston Chronicle in February 2023:
It’s the form of Gage's fastball that’s the key to its effectiveness. Gage stated Thursday that his fastball has “type of an 'invisi-ball' really feel” in that it generates vital vertical run on the pitch. Gage stated his fastball often rises between 17 to twenty inches in video games, although in exercises with Houston, Gage has already clocked 23 inches in his vertical run.
Pitching in all places, together with in Mexico, made Gage extra open to new concepts about his pitching method.
From Arden Zwelling at SportsNet in Toronto in June 2022, shortly after Gage made his main league debut at age 29:
“In years previous, I used to be all the time advised to maneuver the ball. However I felt like I fell down quite a bit,” Gage says. “This 12 months, it's simply attacking and throwing the primary pitch up the center. As a result of almost definitely you're not throwing that middle-middle ball. And when you intention up the center and miss a bit of bit, you're nonetheless within the zone.”
Gage has discovered success in opposition to lefties over the previous two years, each within the majors and the minors. We're speaking simply 27 plate appearances for left-handed hitters in opposition to Gage within the majors in 2022-23, however he struck out a 3rd of them, holding lefties to 2 singles in 19 at-bats with 5 walks and one hit.
Within the minors over the previous two years, totaling 75 video games and 79⅔ innings between Buffalo and Sugar Land in Triple-A, Gage has confronted left-handed hitters in 134 plate appearances, holding them to a meager .143/.187/ .222. with a 39.6 p.c strikeout price with simply seven walks.
Proper-handers, nonetheless, hit Gage to the tune of .301/.393/.455 with a 17.6 p.c slugging share and 12 p.c unintentional stroll price. within the majors and minors within the final two seasons. Within the majors alone, right-handed batters hit .222/.280/.400 in opposition to Gage, although he lined solely 50 plate appearances.
Gage was optioned to Triple-A 3 separate instances in 2022 with Toronto, and was optioned three extra instances in the course of the 2023 season with Houston. He has an choice 12 months remaining, which suggests he might very properly proceed the up-and-down pattern in 2024 with the Dodgers.
