After a dominant begin to the season as a reliever, right-hander Ben Casparius is about to get a possibility to show himself as a starter with the Dodgers. Initially tabbed as an opener for a bullpen sport in opposition to the Padres right this moment, supervisor Dave Roberts revealed to reporters (together with Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic) earlier than right this moment’s sport that Casparius might be stretched out additional to function as a beginning pitcher whereas the membership is short-staffed as a result of current lack of Tony Gonsolin. After right this moment’s outing, the place he threw 4 innings of one-run ball, Roberts introduced that Casparius’s subsequent outing can be as a starter, as relayed by MLB.com’s Sonja Chen.
It’s arduous to argue Casparius hasn’t earned a glance in a bigger function, as he’s completed nothing however produce within the majors for the Los Angeles. The membership’s fifth-rounder again in 2021, Casparius made his huge league debut final August and instantly delivered with a 2.16 ERA and 1.73 FIP throughout 8 1/3 innings of labor down the stretch. After debuting simply in time to be eligible for the postseason, Casparius was part of the Dodgers’ playoff roster combine throughout final October’s World Sequence run and continued to ship on the most important stage with a 1.42 ERA in 6 1/3 postseason innings in opposition to the Mets and Yankees.
This 12 months, it’s been extra of the identical over a a lot bigger pattern dimension. His 44 innings of labor this season have seen him produce a 2.86 ERA with a 1.89 FIP whereas hanging out 26.0% of his opponents and strolling simply 5.1%. These numbers are nothing wanting sensible, and whereas Casparius hasn’t hasn’t ever been challenged with going through the opposing lineup a 3rd time in his profession he maxed out at 70 pitches earlier this 12 months and threw 54 in right this moment’s outing, suggesting he’s not too removed from being totally stretched out to begin. Even when the Dodgers don’t need to use him a lot deeper in video games than the fifth inning, it’s straightforward to see the logic in giving Casparius this chance given the opposite choices the membership has at its disposal in the meanwhile.
With key arms like Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Roki Sasaki, and Gonsolin among the many eight beginning pitchers presently on the injured listing and Shohei Ohtani nonetheless not less than a couple of weeks out from pitching in huge league video games, the Dodgers want to show to their depth choices to fill out the rotation behind Dustin Might, Clayton Kershaw, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Justin Wrobleski had beforehand gotten the chance to be the fourth starter behind that trio, however the lefty has a 7.20 ERA in 15 innings of labor on the huge league degree this 12 months. Bobby Miller (12.60 ERA) and Landon Knack (5.12 ERA) have additionally struggled in their very own restricted alternatives on the MLB degree, and the one different starter on the 40-man roster at current is right-hander Nick Frasso. Frasso not solely hasn’t but made his MLB debut, however he’s struggling badly with a 5.31 ERA in 42 1/3 innings of labor at Triple-A this 12 months.
With so few high quality beginning choices presently on the membership’s disposal, giving Casparius an opportunity to construct on right this moment’s sturdy (albeit transient) begin in opposition to San Diego is virtually a no brainer. Even so, it’s troublesome to think about Casparius pitching himself into a very everlasting function in Los Angeles’s rotation; with so many gifted arms within the group forward of him on the depth chart, he’ll doubtless want further accidents to crop up if he hopes to stay in a rotation function even after ace-level pitchers like Snell and Glasnow return from the injured listing.
