Phillies closer Jonathan Papelbon has made it very clear that he’d waive his veto rights and welcome a trade to a contender, and Mark Saxon of ESPN Los Angeles talked to “a baseball source” who expects the Dodgers to make a run for the 33-year-old right-hander.
Stockpiling current and former closers is something the Dodgers have done a lot of lately with Brian Wilson, Brandon League, Chris Perez, and Carlos Marmol joining Kenley Jansen in the bullpen at various points since last season.
In this case Papelbon remains a very effective closer for the Phillies, saving 22 games with a 1.21 ERA and 33/9 K/BB ratio in 37 innings. His velocity and strikeout rate are both way down compared to his peak, but Papelbon pitching the eighth inning in front of Jansen would still be plenty scary for opponents.
Plus, if there’s one team that might not care about the $13 million he’s owed for next season it’s probably the Dodgers. After all, they already committed big money to Wilson to fill that same role and instead he’s been injured and ineffective. It’s also worth noting that if the Dodgers acquired Papelbon and shifted him to a setup role the odds of his $13 million option for 2016 vesting based on games finished totals would be very low.