Scott Alexander

Alexander led the Dodgers in appearances in 2018 with 73 after taking the ball 58 times in 2017. He then made 28 appearances in a little over two months in 2019. Unfortunately, all that work caught up to him. The lefty specialist went down in June with forearm inflammation, and while he was cleared to pick up a baseball again just days after his placement on the IL, Alexander never ended up pitching again during the season. Eventually, it was revealed that Alexander was dealing with nerve and thumb issues on top of his original injury, and the nerve issue in his hand had to be surgically addressed in the offseason. When healthy, Alexander can ride his sinker to a groundball rate north of 70%, albeit with an ultra-low strikeout rate. If he looks himself in spring training, expect Alexander to break camp with a fairly prominent role, one conducive to earning holds and maybe a handful of wins if you're lucky.

Alexander induces a ton of groundballs and gets lefties out, making him a valuable specialist to the Dodgers and an attractive piece in leagues that count holds. He led the team by a wide margin last season with 21. However, he doesn't miss enough bats to be relevant in standard-scoring mixed leagues. His strikeout and walk rates have both been worse than average -- his K-BB rates have ranged from 10.7% to 11% over the past three seasons. The southpaw is one of the top groundball pitchers in the game thanks to his sinker (70.9% groundball rate last season), and a lot of those groundballs are weak dribblers. Alexander's 27.0% soft-contact rate was the third-lowest among qualified relievers. His groundball rate against same-handed hitters was an absurd 84.1%. When exposed to right-handers, Alexander's effectiveness wanes greatly (.286/.373/.439) and those splits put a cap on his upside.

Alexander spent most of the season with the Royals, typically pitching in the seventh inning and earlier while offering an extra arm from the left side for manager Ned Yost. He leaned almost exclusively on his sinker, throwing the pitch more than 80 percent of the time while mixing in occasional two-seamers, four-seamers, sliders and changeups. Although he had a 12.8 percent swinging-strike rate, Alexander had a modest 7.7 K/9 last season, getting the overwhelming majority of his outs on the ground (73.8 percent groundball rate). Fortunately, Alexander offsets his lack of overpowering stuff with his ability to handle hitters on both sides of the plate. He was traded to the Dodgers this winter, and it would not be surprising if he were able to unlock another gear out west, as has been the case with some of their other recent bullpen additions. He should be used in the later innings as part of the bridge to Kenley Jansen.

Alexander delivered a solid performance in 2016 as he split time between Triple-A and the major leagues. During his time in the majors, Alexander posted a respectable 3.32 ERA and 3.79 xFIP. The 27-year-old left-hander was able to have success in part because of his ability to keep the ball on the ground, which was evidenced by his 68.3 percent ground ball rate. Despite Alexander’s respectable ERA in 2016, lefties were able to hit for a .286 batting average against him while righties hit .343. Both of those numbers will need to improve for him in order for him to find a consistent role in the Royals’ bullpen in 2017. Additionally, because Alexander relies much more on getting groundballs than missing bats, he likely be confined to mostly low-leverage situations while fluctuating between to the majors and the minors.

In his first full season with Triple-A Omaha, Alexander was impressive. The left-hander posted a sparkling 2.56 ERA and 1.03 WHIP to go with 14 saves in 63.1 innings. This led to a September callup for Alexander, where he saw some difficulties. He had some control issues, as he walked three batters, hit one and uncorked a wild pitch in only six innings. The 26-year-old had two scoreless outings, but his other two appearances lifted his ERA to 4.50 and his WHIP to 1.33. With the Royals bullpen already housing two left-handers and overall depth, it will be tough for Alexander to crack the 25-man roster, although his success in the minor leagues and spot on the 40-man make him an obvious fill-in option should anyone get hurt.