Charles LeClaire–USA Today Sports
Now the Los Angeles Dodgers are looking desperate.
On Wednesday, they agreed to a minor-league contract with left-handed pitcher Jonathan Sanchez. Most of you may remember Sanchez from his days with the San Francisco Giants and the no-hitter the tossed in 2009. His most recent uniforms have been with the Kansas City Royals, Colorado Rockies and Pittsburgh Pirates, where he struggled mightily.
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In four starts (11.85 ERA) this season with the Pirates, he never pitched passed the fifth inning and pitched passed the third frame only once. He surrendered seven home runs in 13 innings pitched and will have to serve a six-game suspension for throwing at a batter if the Dodgers ever call him up to the Majors.
The thought process on this signing is probably this: the Dodgers will get him some work in Triple-A and see how he looks.
He will only get called up if current Dodgers starter Matt McGill continues to have trouble finding the strike zone. He is also basically a security blanket in case another Dodgers starter hits the disabled list, and is with the team only for depth, not to win the Cy Young award.
With Zack Greinke coming back tonight, the Dodgers will most likely send Josh Beckett to the DL, making the current rotation look like this: Clayton Kershaw, Greinke, Ryu Hyun-jin, Chris Capuano and McGill (or Sanchez).
Once Ted Lillyreturns for his DL stint, I expect McGill and Sanchez to be sharing locker rooms and bus trips in Albuquerque for the foreseeable future.
