August 21st, 2016 at 10:02 am 
by Ron Cervenka Dodger fans who have been clamoring to have top right-handed pitching prospect Jose De Leon called up to the Dodgers – and believe me, there are many – will, in all likelihood, not have to wait much longer. That’s the good news. The bad news, relatively speaking that is, is that it probably will not happen until rosters expand on September 1.
No one can nor will dispute that De Leon’s services aren’t – and haven’t been – needed for quite some time, especially with the loss of Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw (and practically the entire Dodgers rotation at one point or another during the season), but the very simple reason why the 24-year-old Isabel, Puerto Rico hasn’t been called up to this point is because the Dodgers front office does not want to start his major league service time clock until they absolutely have to, although you will probably never get anyone in the front office to openly admit to this.
As he has done throughout his entire minor league career – albeit only a brief four years – De Leon has been extremely successful at the franchise’s highest minor league level this past season. In fact, in his 14 starts with the Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers this season, De Leon is 5-1 with an outstanding 3.14 earned run average. He has also struck out 88 batters while walking only 20 in his 71.2 innings pitched for a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 4.40 and a strikeouts-per-nine-innings-pitched of 11.1. These aren’t just good numbers, these are Kershaw-like numbers.
De Leon threw an extremely rare “immaculate inning” in his last outing with the OKC Dodgers, striking out the first three batters he faced on nine consecutive pitches.
(Click on image to view video).
For a minor leaguer to be called up to a franchise’s major league team prior to September 1, they must be on the team’s 40-man roster. Once they are and they receive “the magic phone call,” their MLB service time begins for every day that they are on the team’s 25-man roster. Once a player reaches the major leagues, his contract is under team control for six years of service time (a year of service time is 172 days), which equates to (approximately) three years of the major league minimum salary (currently $507,500) and three or four years of arbitration depending on the age at which they were drafted.
Per the MLB / MLB Players Association Collective Bargaining Agreement, a year of service time is considered 172 days (a MLB season generally lasts 183 days – 162 games plus 21 off-days). As such, a team can call a player up to the big leagues and then send them back to the minors for two weeks, and call him back up and not reach a full year of service time in that year, thus they would not actually reach six full years of service time in six seasons. Those two weeks spent back in the minors would, in essence, buy the team an additional full year of team control six years down the road which, of course, is the difference between having to pay them the MLB minimum instead of what would most likely be a free agent salary up to 20 times that amount. Don’t let anyone ever try to convince you that it’s not all about the money.
So what recourse do players have to prevent teams from burying them in the minors to avoid having to pay them the big bucks, you ask? That would be the Rule 5 Draft, of course. A player becomes Rule 5 Draft-eligible if they are not on a team’s 40-man roster and:
- were 18 or younger on the June 5 preceding their signing and this is the fifth Rule 5 draft upcoming; or
- were 19 or older on the June 5 preceding their signing and this is fourth Rule 5 draft upcoming.
Because De Leon was drafted out of Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as a 21-year-old, the latter applies to him, which means that if he is not added to the Dodgers 40-man roster this December, the Dodgers would risk losing him to the Rule 5 Draft; and make no mistake about it, they would lose him.
But putting all of this service time and Rule 5 stuff aside – at least for the time being – why hasn’t De Leon been added to the Dodgers 40-man roster and called up already? The long answer is all of the above but the short, more or less simple answer is that there is nowhere to put him, either in the rotation or in the bullpen.
…or is there?
After his second consecutive disastrous outing since being reinstated from the disabled list following his March 3, 2016 lower back surgery for a bulging disk, Dodgers left-hander Brett Anderson was pulled in the third inning of Saturday’s nightmare game after developing a blister on his left index finger. And while this unquestionably had a lot to do with the six runs, nine hits and two walks he allowed in his three innings of work, it came on the heels of his equally disastrous 2016 debut on August 14 in which he allowed five runs on five hits and never made it out of the first inning. Through his two appearances thus far, Anderson is 0-2 with an atrocious 24.75 ERA.
“We’ll see how [Anderson] feels tomorrow, how he responds to treatment,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters after Saturday’s ugly 11-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. “We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves as far as what course of action we take with Brett, but four runs in the first, a run in the second, the game got away from us pretty quickly. And having to go to the ‘pen again, it really wasn’t much of a game tonight.”
Although there has been no official word from the Dodgers yet as to Anderson’s status, it’s hard to believe that he will not return to the DL for this blister issue, especially when you consider how long recently-acquired left-hander Rich Hill (who has yet to make a pitch since being acquired from the Oakland A’s at the August 1 non-waiver trade deadline) has spent on the DL for a blister issue. Should this happen, the obvious first option for the Dodgers would be to re-call right-hander Ross Stripling from OKC.
But should another Dodger starter fall victim to injury before September 1, the Dodgers may have no choice but to add De Leon to their 40-man roster and call him up to the bigs before then which, when you think about it, might not be a bad thing at all … especially with only 40 games remaining and the Dodgers trailing the Giants in the NL West standings by a half game.
See you soon, Jose.
* * * UPDATE: August 22, 2016 at 2:15 pm PT * * *
Following Monday’s 18-9 rout of the Reds at Great America Ball Park, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters that left-hander Scott Kazmir has been dealing with neck issues and left-hander Brett Anderson has a blister on his left index finger. This suggests that a roster move(s) may be imminent.
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lets wait til Brett Anderson and McCarthy give up 10 more runs a piece again
Hmmm, wait 10 days and save a year of DeLeon’s ML service time or call him up for one or two starts before Sept. 1st? With all the temptation the FO has had to call him up earlier, I’d have to agree, it would be foolish to not hang on for 9-10 more days. Hopefully the club can tread water and remain close to SF for that week and a half time frame.
With just a semblance of a mediocre starting staff, they could have put some distance between them and the Giants already, but the hope that McCarthy, Ryu and Anderson could contribute significantly was just that…hope. Its amazing that they’re in this thing when you consider the injuries. Remember the concern so many had about signing Maeda with his partially torn elbow issue? Here we are in late August and he has been the most reliable starter in the rotation.
One concern has to be all the wear and tear that the bullpen has on it. Now that September has almost arrived, I hope they have enough gas in the tank to continue to perform. Those guys have thrown a lot of innings. But I’ll hand it to Roberts and the front office and they have distributed the innings around, and kept the work-load even throughout the 8-9 guys that have been used and shuttled back and forth between LA and OKC.
We all know that the plan was to shut down Urias at around 120 IP. Well he’s at 96 IP already, and there hasn’t been a healthy pattern to his appearances either. I’d be shocked if Urias starts three more times after today.
…and I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t.
It makes no difference if Jose is brought up now or September 1 for his ML Service calculation, but it might matter if the Dodgers want him on the Post Season roster. September 1 is generally the deciding date as to who is eligible for the post season. I understand that rules are made to be manipulated, and the Dodgers FO does that as well as anyone, so in the long run, that September 1 date will probably not be a big factor for post season consideration.
I have been as supportive of Friedman and Zaidi as anyone. I did not think that B. Anderson should have pitched again this year after the back surgery, but the medical and player personnel experts felt he was ready, and since I have no access to that information, who am I to argue with their decisions? However, it is time to say thank you to Brett Anderson and either DFA him or place him on 60 day DL with that blister. I also believe that McCarthy (with the Yips or Hips) should be shut down for the year. That will open up spots for both Kershaw and Wood when they come back off of the 60 day DL, leaving one more move that needs to be done to get De Leon on the 40 man so he can be brought up. I assume that has to be SVS or Josh Ravin going on the 60 Day DL, or Louis Coleman going on the 60 Day DL or DFA. Other than that, the FO could DFA Culberson, or Taylor, or Avilan. IMO the team does not need Culberson, Taylor, and Hernandez, and does need pitching, making Culberson or Taylor the most likely. One other thing to consider is if Ethier is cleared to come back this year, one other move will need to be made. I would think that Thompson should remain shut down for the year, and will remain on the 60 day DL until next spring.
Bottom line, there are moves that can be made to get De Leon on the 40 man, and would give the Dodgers a better chance at winning now and in the post season than any of the other player options that Friedman and Zaidi might be considering. Both the FO and players have beat the odds and got to the team to this point and in contention. It’s time to see what the kid can do at the ML level. Maybe he is the difference maker in getting LA to a 4th consecutive NL West Championship.
You did some thinking on this one. Well done.