The Dodgers are recognized to be available in the market for bullpen assist after accidents to Evan Phillips, Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen have thinned their aid corps. They’re centered on a number of of the market’s most high-profile names, per USA At this time’s Bob Nightengale, who experiences that L.A. has inquired on Guardians nearer Emmanuel Clase, Pirates nearer David Bednar, Cardinals nearer Ryan Helsley and Orioles nearer Felix Bautista (along with beforehand reported curiosity in Minnesota’s Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax).
Los Angeles was energetic on the aid market over the winter, signing Tanner Scott to a four-year deal, Treinen to a two-year contract and Kirby Yates to a one-year pact. Neither Scott (4.00 ERA) nor Yates (4.08) have carried out as much as expectations, nevertheless, and Yates has additionally missed a while resulting from a hamstring pressure (although he’s been wholesome for the previous month and a half). Dodgers relievers rank twenty fourth within the majors with a 4.38 earned run common, they usually’re at an unpleasant 5.28 mark over the previous month.
Of the names listed, Bednar is the likeliest to vary arms. The Pirates, in final place within the NL Central, had been swept by the White Sox this weekend and are surefire sellers. Bednar is incomes $5.9MM this 12 months and is owed one remaining increase in arbitration this winter earlier than changing into a free agent within the 2026-27 offseason. The 30-year-old struggled by a down season in 2024 and pitched poorly sufficient early in 2025 to be optioned to Triple-A; he’s been in classic kind since coming back from a short two-week demotion.
Over his previous 31 innings, Bednar boasts a 1.74 ERA with an enormous 36.4% strikeout fee towards a 5.8% stroll fee. He’s at the moment in a 17 1/3-inning streak with out permitting an earned run — his final earned run was on Might 24 — and has posted a 23-to-4 Okay/BB ratio in that point. Pirates possession has reportedly nixed some commerce talks on Bednar, a Pittsburgh native, previously. That’s not anticipated to be the case this time round.
Helsley has a great likelihood of transferring as properly. The Cardinals dropped their first two video games popping out of the All-Star break and are three again within the NL Wild Card chase. They’ve outperformed all expectations this season after an offseason of inactivity, however they entered the season anticipating this to be a transition 12 months as their baseball operations employees turns over. If the Playing cards win a number of video games in a row and nudge additional up the standings, they may wind up hanging onto Helsley, whom Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Put up-Dispatch just lately highlighted as a potential qualifying supply candidate. Nightengale writes that the Playing cards don’t plan on making a QO to Helsley, although that would merely point out there are differing opinions throughout the entrance workplace on whether or not that’d be prudent.
Helsley, 31, actually is smart as a possible QO candidate. He’s been among the many finest relievers within the Nationwide League over the previous 4 seasons, working to a mixed 2.06 ERA with 101 saves. This 12 months’s numbers have dipped a bit. He’s sitting on a 3.27 ERA with a 24.8% strikeout fee and 9.7% stroll fee. It’s nonetheless a powerful efficiency total, however less than the lofty requirements he’d set from 2022-24. He’ll nonetheless command sizable curiosity — Nightengale writes that 5 contenders have been in contact with the Cardinals about him — and will have the ability to web the Cardinals higher worth (and positively extra MLB-ready expertise) than they’d web with a compensatory draft decide if Helsley rejected his QO and signed elsewhere.
The opposite relievers highlighted are much less more likely to be traded. Cleveland is reportedly listening on Clase and teammate Cade Smith, however each gamers may have exorbitant asking costs. Clase is signed cheaply by 2026 and has a pair of reasonably priced membership choices. Bautista is arbitration-eligible in 2026 and 2027, and the Orioles are far likelier to commerce short-term leases than gamers managed a number of years past the present season. Each Duran and Jax are managed by 2027 as properly, and the Twins are nonetheless on the fringes of the AL Wild Card race as properly.
