Griffin Jax of the Minnesota Twins became the latest pitcher to fall victim to Freddie Freeman’s greatness on Wednesday.
The Twins led the Dodgers 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth, and after Mookie Betts’ two-out infield single, Minnesota opted to intentionally walk Shohei Ohtani. That immediately backfired when Jax walked light-hitting outfielder Esteury Ruiz on five pitches.
Then, Freeman stepped to the plate, and as he has done time and again, he delivered. A walk-off single to left field, which tipped off the glove of the Twins’ Harrison Bader, gave the Dodgers an enrapturing 4-3 victory.
Jax, meanwhile, dropped to 0-5 in save opportunities, and his ERA for the season sits at 4.09. But if he gets traded at the deadline, many believe he’ll be an impact arm in the postseason.
On Thursday, Sports Illustrated’s Will Laws and Nick Selbe predicted that the Dodgers would be the team to land Jax to shore up the back end of their bullpen.
“Jax doesn’t have a save this season and his ERA is near 4.00, but don’t let that fool you—he has the stuff to be one of the most dominant late-inning relief pitchers in the league,” Laws and Selbe wrote.
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“His K-BB% (32.2%) is the second-highest in the league behind Aroldis Chapman, and no pitcher induces swings at pitches outside the strike zone at a higher rate than Jax does. He’s also under club control through 2027.”
The club control is nice, but it’s the strikeout stuff that the Dodgers would really be after. Just about every metric shows that Jax has been unlucky this year (although the walk to Ruiz was certainly self-inflicted damage).
So did Jax show the Dodgers enough despite the walk-off loss to become a top trade target? LA is an exceedingly smart team, so one has to think he’s at least on their radar.
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