Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Wilson exercises his option as Elbert walks

A could news of note on the bullpen from Monday.

As expected, Brian Wilson exercised his massive $10 million option for 2015.  There was no way in the world any team would pay anything even close to that, or even half of that.  So ya, there was zero suspense in this decision.

Last season was just an absolute disaster for Wilson, who wasn't anywhere close to the pitcher who signed with the Dodgers at the trade deadline in 2013.  In 61 games, he went 2-4 with a 4.66 ERA and 1.61 WHIP.  It was stunning to see just how ineffective he was.  I thought he would be even stronger following Tommy John surgery a couple years ago.  Boy was I wrong.

Like it or not, he'll be back.  That doesn't mean he won't be released at some point, but that's a big chunk of change to eat.  Let's just hope he mercifully doesn't pitch in the setup role again.  That would be embarrassing.

Someone who will not be back is Scott Elbert, who rejected a minor league assignment and chose free agency.  He was nowhere to be found for two years with one elbow injury after another.  Then he resurfaced at the end of this season and made the playoff roster, but gave up a huge two-run homer to Kolten Wong in Game 3 of the NLDS, putting the Dodgers in a hole they would not recover from.

In a perfect world both of these guys would be gone, but one out of two ain't bad.

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