Mike Adams On A Minor League Deal

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

The Dodgers picked up an oft injured, somewhat high upside pitcher today. Yeah, if there’s a market inefficiency to be had these days, it appears to be that. Mike Adams, the former relief shutdown man who has a 2.41 career ERA has signed with the Dodgers. His career 44.9% ground ball rate along with 9.04 K/9 and 2.78 BB/9 make him an ideal candidate to add depth to a bullpen that looks anywhere from mildly unproven, to completely screwed without their closer, Kenley Jansen.

Enter Mike Adams who looks like a perfect guy to pitch in the back end of the bullpen and save the pen form implosion without their highest leverage reliever.

Maybe if this was a few years ago, this would have rung true but with seemingly every pitcher signed by the Andrew Friedman and company, it’s almost a requisite that they’re perennially injured, and boy, Adams is no exception.

His list of injuries are: torn rotator cuff

Shoulder issues have robbed him of most of his time with the Phillies, and he says he has “20 percent of his rotator cuff” left.

thoracic outlet syndrome (oh hi, Josh Beckett)

a labrum tear in 2009, a labrum tear in 2013

The veteran right-hander has three tears in his throwing throwing shoulder — two in his surgically repaired labrum and one in his rotator cuff

a sports hernia surgery

3 knee surgeries early in his career

This illustrates his troubles staying healthy perfectly: he has been in the big leagues for 10 seasons, he has only pitched 407.1 innings in his career Zack Greinke has 407.3 innings in the past 2 seasons (postseaon included). So basically his body is a medical mess, for him to be in baseball at age 36, going on 37 is a miracle.

The good news in all of this, is the low risk nature of the deal. No deal is risk free, but getting a pitcher as talented as Adams in March is a victory. He was injured for most of last season, but Adams had a 2.89 ERA/2.86 FIP split in the 18.2 innings he pitched last season.

His brooks baseball page is so weird, the dates on the bottom jump from 2008 all the way to last season, his velocity used to be great, but right now his 4 seam velocity is reduced to about 90 MPH.

In the end, Adams was a necessary gamble, one that can’t be counted upon, but he pitched well as recently as last season, and owns an ERA- 40% above league average, and a FIP- 23% above league average. He might not amount to anything, but at this point, a team just has to hope, and hoping on Mike Adams is better than hoping on any of the rest free agent relievers left on the market