The Dodgers announced they have claimed right handed reliever Casey Fien off of waivers from the Twins on Saturday afternoon. The last place Twins have been horrendous this season and their dumping of Fien is the first of many moves the club is making to shake up their roster.
The 32-year old reliever is having a terrible season, so I am sure he will fit in quite well with the rest of the bums in the Dodger bullpen (Kenley Jansen not withstanding). Before this season Fien has been a league average type reliever.
Fien is from Santa Rosa, California and originally drafted by the Tigers in the 20 round of the 2006 amateur draft. He made his MLB debut with the Tigers back in 2009. He had a rough beginning to his MLB career. He pitched in only 11 games in his first two seasons and posted atrocious numbers. After a couple of seasons of bouncing around between several clubs, the Twins signed him as a free agent in 2012.
Since then he’s been able to revive his career. He appeared in 35 games for the Twins in 2012, and posted a 2.08 ERA and 8.2 strikeouts per nine. The following years he appeared in 73 games in 2013, and 2014. In those seasons he posted ERAs of 3.92 and 3.98. He also posted FIPs of 3.16, 3.43, and 3.45 from 2013-2015. He struck out a career high of 73 in 2013, and posted very good walk rates of 2.3 or lower since 2013. As a matter of fact, he posted walk per nine rates of 1.7, 1.4, and 1.1 from 2013-2015.
In 2015, Fien was 4-6 with a 3.55 ERA in 63.1 innings pitched. He posted a 5.8 strikeout per nine rate which was actually the lowest of his career. This season Fien still has his great control. He’s walked just 3 in 13.2 innings pitched. Unfortunately he’s allowed 13.8 hits per nine and 5 home runs in 14 appearances. That gives him a 7.9-0 ERA and 6.74 FIP which equates to a 51 ERA+. According to the numbers Fien is a control artist who gets a lot of swings and misses, but at times gets hit hard. Overall Fien is 17-16 with a 4.05 ERA in 268 career appearances. He has a 7.8 strikeout per nine rate and averages 64 innings pitched per season. Normally he is very durable.
Fien is primarily a fastball, slider, and sinker guy. According to the scouting reports, his fastball can touch 93, and his slider is around the low 80’s. His sinker is thought of to be below average. Again he’s a strike thrower that misses bats, but can get hit hard at times when he isn’t hitting his spots. He had some shoulder issues last season, but those appear to be gone. He also was an Anchorage Glacier Pilot alumni.
#Dodgers say Casey Fien will report Monday. No announcement before then.
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) May 7, 2016
#Dodgers say Casey Fien will report to majors. Dave Roberts isn't sure if he'll meet team in Toronto or LA.
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) May 7, 2016
According to Bill Shaikin, Fien is expected to join the club on Monday. However it remains to be seen who will be getting the ace to clear room for him. Will the Chris Hatcher experiment finally end? Will Pedro Baez get optioned back to the minors? Or will the Dodgers take the easy route and send Adam Liberatore back to the minors? The Dodgers also moved Hyun-jin Ryu to the 60-day DL, so a 40-man roster spot would be available. Don’t worry, that’s mostly a procedural move. My money is on Liberatore getting sent down, but I would love to see Hatcher get a pink slip. Who do you think will get cut to clear room for Fien? Maybe a change of scenery will help Fien recapture his form. Either way, the Dodgers need bullpen help and quickly. There are limited options out there right now this early in the season. Hopefully Fien can come in and give the Dodgers some sorely needed innings.
Never heard of him.
Poor Libertore if he is the one, that is going down. He didn’t have a good game yesterday, but he has been real good, since he came up.
I wish I could say the same about some of the other arms in the pen.
I am fairly new here. Is this the Dope Fien that Mark is always talking about?
Good one.
Can you say “underwhelmed?” This kind of move is why no one comes to see the Rays.
Snider the Dodgers are turning into the Rays, and A’s.
Why are we signing these experiments.
Low 90s fastball, average slider, crappy sinker, control pitcher that needs to miss bats and/or get balls hit to people. We have plenty of those pitchers already in the minors.
If there were 30% off coupons for baseball players FAZ would be all over them. Or maybe that’s what those FA qualifying offers were ….
Fried Brain strikes again. Claiming another teams garbage to add to the already overflowing trash can that is the Dodger bullpen. This is just another example of putting a Band-Aid on a gun shot wound. I liked the idea I read about earlier on yahoo sports that there was talk of bringing Urias up and using him out of the pen. Since they took over last year, Zorro and his esteemed buddy Fried Brains have claimed more worthless trash off waivers that any other team. Their frequent forays into the land of the waiver wire have been less than fruitful. Time to change strategy boys and acquire someone who can actually pitch in the majors……..god I am tired of these morons!
You are not alone. This is NOT a championship caliber team by any means! And the big reason is what you are saying, getting team’s has beens and retreads. And having players on the roster simply because of their contracts and not performance. Same ole same ole.
Great victory today. I was starting to have my doubts as far as Stripling was concerned but he warrants another couple of starts.
So whose place will Fein take? I hope it’s not Liberatore as that would leave us with only one LHRP and we alll know who that is.
I wouldn’t mind seeing Urias come up but ONLY for BP or send Wood to BP and replace him with ???? Timmy?? IDK