Dodgers Acquire Jesus Liranzo, Koehler to the DL

The Dodgers made a small trade on Monday, acquiring left-handed pitcher Jesus Liranzo from Baltimore for Luis Ysla.

Today, the Dodgers acquired RHP Jesus Liranzo from the Orioles in exchange for minor league LHP Luis Ysla. Liranzo will be optioned to Double-A Tulsa.

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In order to create room on the 40-man roster, Dodgers transferred RHP pitcher Tom Koehler to 60-day DL (retroactive to 3/26).

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) April 2, 2018

Liranzo has spent time as both a starter and a reliever in his brief professional career. The 23-year old spent the majority of 2016, and all of 2017 in Double-A. He’s had some success, but has been inconsistent at times and owns a 4.52 ERA in 83.2 innings at Double-A. He will begin the 2018 season for the Dodgers with Double-A Tulsa.

Liranzo is a 3-pitch pitcher, using primarily a 4-seam fastball, a slider, and a splitter. Liranzo’s fastball sits consistently between 93-95, but he does have some significant control issues with the pitch. His slider has potential to be a plus pitch, but will still need to develop a bit. His splitter is not viewed as a plus pitch, but could become serviceable enough to induce plenty of ground balls. In short, Liranzo is a project, but a project with a lot of upside.

Corresponding Moves

In order to create room on the roster for Liranzo, the Dodgers transferred Tom Koehler to the 60-day disabled list retroactive to March 26th. This means Koehler will not be able to be activated until May 28th. Koehler is on the DL with a strained throwing shoulder, the timeline for his return was “weeks or months” and it appears to be the latter. While it’s a bit of a downer to hear Koehler won’t be back until at least late May, it will give him plenty of time to get back to 100% and ready to contribute. After all, Koehler was expected to contribute in a big way for 2018. Management had hoped he would evolve into a Brandon Morrow type project, but now he will require time.