During his daily Zoom media scrum on Thursday, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was asked about a couple of his bullpen arms, with less than a week to go before the start of the COVID-19-shortened/60-game 2020 season; more specifically, about 31-year-old left-hander Adam Kolarek and highly touted right-handed pitching prospect Brusdar Graterol.

“With Adam, I think it’s just continuing… we know what he can do against a left-hander, we know he can go one plus, we know he’s a strike-thrower, there’s certainly a lot of value, we just want to see it more, just the ability to get a right-hander out,” Roberts explained. “And so, obviously he’s done it at times and I’m not saying he can’t do it, but just for him to continue to get that confidence, I think that’s what’s going to be good for him and for the Dodgers.”

Fair enough, although the Baltimore, MD native and 11th-round draft pick by the New York Mets in 2010 out of the University of Maryland has indeed ‘done it at times’ as far as getting righties out during his summer camp intrasquad appearances thus far.

As for Graterol, the 6′-1″/265-pound Calabozo, Venezuela native, affectionately known as “Buffalo” and his 100-MPH-plus fastball, will most likely not be on the Dodgers’ Opening Day roster, although it’s hard to believe that he will not be added to it at some point during the short season.

“Brusdar, he’s just got to continue to pitch,” Roberts said succinctly. “I think that with him, it’s 97 to a hundred with a four-seamer and his two-seamer, his change, slider, and he’s just got to continue to develop. So, he’s a guy that can go two innings, I think he’s been a starter before in his minor league career, so there’s a lot to like of Brusdar, but there’s still some fine-tuning.

“You saw that he can start… I would guess shape, where there’s some mistakes out there with a play in good leverage counts, so he’s just got to continue to fine-tune. But man, I expect him to really help us a lot this year,” the Dodger skipper added.

Whether or not that means Graterol will break camp on the Dodgers (initial) 30-man and eventual 26-man roster remains to be seen. But there is zero doubt, none whatsoever, that he will eventually become a permanent fixture in the Dodgers’ bullpen.

…or perhaps the starting rotation.

Play Ball!

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