Dodgers: Everything you need to know about the three-team trade
By Jason Reed
Scott Alexander is a great addition to the bullpen
I’ll be honest. I pride myself in being a huge baseball fan, knowing the ins and outs on who is good, who is coming up in the league and the next sleeper that everyone should look out for. I did not know that Scott Alexander was as good as he really is. Maybe it is because he played on the Kansas City Royals, who were irrelevant most of the season.
Regardless, Alexander is a very solid reliever and if I am an indication of anything, not many people knew that in Los Angeles prior to the trade.
Just on the surface, Alexander’s numbers look pretty good. Last season, the southpaw made 58 appearances for the Kansas City Royals. In those 58 appearances, Alexander threw 69.0 innings and struck out 59 batters – all to the tune of a 2.48 ERA.
When you take a deeper dive on Alexander is when you find the really good stats. Alexander had a 73.8% ground ball rating last season, the best among qualified relievers. In comparison, the dominant Zach Britton had an 80% ground ball percentage in his masterful 2016. Britton has been a repeated target for the Dodgers the last year.
Even better, Alexander allows 0.39 home runs for every nine innings pitched; the fifth best among relievers last season. This is almost half as many as Kenley Jansen allows (0.66 HR/9) and one third of what Clayton Kershaw allows (1.18 HR/9).
Alexander is a great pitcher and he will easily fill the void that Tony Watson left behind as the great southpaw in the Dodgers bullpen. With those kind of numbers, expect Alexander to exclusively become a left-handed setup man/double play machine in 2018.