Dodgers beef up bullpen with off-season moves
Feb. 1, 2000
Pitchers and catchers will report to Vero Beach in a matter of weeks for Dodgers Spring Training. Some new faces among the pitching staff are surely to have Los Angeles fans excited about the season ahead.
The biggest was the pickup of closer
Trevor Hoffman from the free-agent market. LA paid a heavy price to get him (roughly $5 million a year), but he should be able to lock down games with authority. Hoffman has had 37 saves the past three seasons in San Diego and 41 the year before that.
The Dodgers also added
Alan Embree (4-1, 4.85 ERA) to the bullpen from free agency.
Kazuhiro Sasaki should move up the Big Club this season, and likely will be used in a set-up role for Hoffman.
The only real trade of note during the hot stove period sent pitchers
Butch Henry and
Masao Kida to Tampa Bay, along with aging 1B
Cecil Fielder, for promising reliever
Demaso Marte.
Going into Spring Training, the Dodgers' starting rotation looks to be
Darren Dreifort, Ramon Martinez, Chan Ho Park, Hideo Nomo and
Ismael Valdes.
Left-hander
Andrew Zarzour, now 19, will likely begin the season with Triple A Albuquerque, but the 7-foot-2 youngster will be one to watch. He came up briefly at the end of last season and gamely won his first professional start over the Cubs. He got roughed up a bit during a mop-up appearance in the playoffs but had scouts buzzing with his sizzling fastball and control. Coaches talk of bringing Zarzour along slowly but if he blazes the minor league trails like he did last summer, it may be tough to keep him off the Big Club by summer time...