The Los Angeles Dodgers swapped relievers in their bullpen before Wednesday’s series finale against the Colorado Rockies, recalling Edward Paredes and optioning J.T. Chargois to Triple-A Oklahoma City.
After being claimed off waivers from the Minnesota Twins in February, Chargois had an encouraging Spring Training and began the season on the Dodgers’ Opening Day roster. The roster move marked his first time this year being sent to the Minors.
Los Angeles has made a habit of finding reclamation projects and turning them to gold. Over recent seasons they’ve done so with Joe Blanton, Tony Cingrani, Brandon Morrow and Tony Watson.
Chargois and Tom Koehler were prime candidates to be next in line. But Koehler suffered a shoulder injury and has yet to pitch this season, and Chargois battled bouts of inconsistency.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts explained what influenced the club to send Chargois to Oklahoma City, via SportsNet LA:
“For Chargois, it was more of just trying to clean some things up with the delivery. The slider has been inconsistent. He’s definitely part of the solution but to kind of get him out of the everyday fire, or whatever it is of trying to perform up, give him a chance to catch his breath a little bit.”
The situation is similar to one Scott Alexander went through, and Roberts is hopeful for a repeat scenario:
“Similar results, hopefully. I think Scott didn’t have command of his sinker so we had to get him out of there, work on throwing some ‘pens, get right, get back and after catching his breath, be successful. So that’s what happened with Scott, and that’s our hope with J.T.”
Roberts went on to clarify that Chargois is not fatigued but rather needs to work on the command of his fastball and slider. The right-hander has 23 strikeouts in 17 innings pitched, but has also issued 12 walks. He’s appeared in 20 games, going 2-1 with a 4.76 ERA and 1.71 WHIP.
For comparison, Alexander sported a 6.35 ERA and had more walks (nine) than strikeouts (seven) across 11.1 innings pitched before he was sent down to OKC. He’s collected six strikeouts against two walks while allowing just one hit over five shutout innings since returning.
As part of our efforts to help you understand how we handle the personal information you share with us, and in preparation for the new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we’ve updated our Privacy & Cookies Policy. The updated Privacy & Cookies Policy will take effect on May 22, 2018. By using our services on or after that date, you’ll be agreeing to our updated Privacy & Cookies Policy. We recommend that you read our updated Privacy & Cookies Policy in full.
