Dodgers' latest move opens roster spot for Yoshinobu Yamamoto

The Dodgers announced that left-hander Bryan Hudson has been designated for assignment. The move opens up roster space for Yoshinobu Yamamoto, whose 12-year, $325M deal with Los Angeles was made official this afternoon.

Hudson made his Major League debut this season, appearing in six games for L.A. and posting a 7.27 ERA over 8 2/3 innings of relief work. It was a big milestone in Hudson’s eight-year pro career, which began when he was a third-round pick for the Cubs in the 2015 draft. The 6-foot-8 Hudson pitched in Chicago’s organization until last winter when he joined the Dodgers on a minor league contract.

The 26-year-old is a grounder specialist, regularly posting groundball rates north of 50% during his time in the minors. However, Hudson’s groundball rates have dropped to around 46.5% at the Triple-A level over the last two seasons, as he has added a lot more strikeout ability to his arsenal. After posting mostly uninspiring strikeout totals for much of his career, Hudson jumped to a 28.4% strikeout rate with Chicago’s Triple-A club in 2022, and then an even more impressive 35.7K% in 55 2/3 frame with Triple-A Oklahoma City last season.

While his 10.92% career walk rate indicates some wildness in Hudson’s game, his ability to rather drastically increase his ability to miss bats is a positive development, particularly since he is still able to generate grounders at an above-average rate. This skillset isn’t unlikely to go unnoticed on the waiver wire, so there’s a decent chance a bullpen-needy makes a claim on Hudson while he is in DFA limbo.