Joe Blanton Reunion with the Dodgers: Why It Must Happen
As Spring Training approaches and the offseason wears on, one extremely reliable reliever remains out on the open market in right-hander, Joe Blanton.
During his 12 year MLB career, Blanton has faced numerous ups and downs along with various injuries and situations where he was sent back down to Triple-A only to get called up to the major leagues again later on. However, Blanton really found himself during the second half of the 2015 season when he was traded from the Kansas City Royals to the Pittsburgh Pirates. With the Pirates, Blanton posted a 1.57 ERA in 34.1 IP and only surrendered 1 home run, 9 walks, and recorded 39 strikeouts in that span.
When the 2015 offseason began, Blanton elected free agency and later on signed with the Dodgers where his success from his tenure in Pittsburgh carried over. In 80.0 IP last season, Blanton posted a 2.48 ERA with 80 strikeouts, while giving up 7 home runs and 26 walks.
Not only did Blanton have the best ERA of any other reliever on an innings basis in the Dodgers bullpen, he also provided some much needed stability and clarity as the Dodgers faced a tremendous amount of injuries last year. Blanton was able to provide veteran leadership while younger pitchers were called up from the minor leagues and pitched in some really important innings that helped provide the team with a bridge to closer, Kenly Jansen.
In fact, the Dodgers bullpen tremendously improved last season compared to in 2015 in large part to the contributions of Joe Blanton. Last season, the Dodgers finished the year with the best bullpen in the league as they posted a cumulative ERA of 3.35 in 590.2 IP. Compare that to 2015 when the team did not have Blanton and you can see how much it led to their struggles. During 2015, Los Angeles bullpen ranked 19th in the league with a cumulative ERA of 3.91 in 467.1 IP and at one point was the worst bullpen in the league during the regular season. In addition, the Dodgers pen locked down 633 strikeouts last year compared to 517 in 2015 which was also partly due to the great success that Blanton experienced.
While Joe Blanton turned 36 last month and comes with some risk, it is absolutely vital that the Dodgers re-sign him if they want to have another successful season. Kenly Jansen cannot carry the workload himself and if the team experiences another year full of injuries like they did last year, then they need someone like Blanton to provide some clarity and stability when things look quite merky.
Besides, the time to win is right now for the Dodgers and if they were to re-sign Joe Blanton, he could easily help them on their quest to October baseball and bring a World Series victory to Dodger Stadium once again.
