Mat Latos Heading to the Bullpen
By Bill Pivetz
This season has been a bumpy ride for Mat Latos. After a poor first outing to start the season, he leveled out and gave owners a string of good outings over the next couple of months. Since joining the Los Angeles Dodgers, he hasn’t been the same. As a result, Latos will be moving to the bullpen for the next 10 days.
If you own Mat Latos, I would look into dropping him in favor of a pitcher in a rotation.
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Latos’ first outing of the season was not a good predictor for what he would do the rest of the season. He did not make it out of the first inning, allowing seven runs on six hits and two walks. His ERA was an outrageous 94.50. Since then, he was able to drop his ERA to a respectable 4.48 with four straight quality starts before the trade deadline.
In his three starts with the Dodgers, Latos pitched 14.2 innings, allowing 11 runs on 18 hits and striking out just eight batters. He has a 6.75 ERA and 1.43 WHIP with Los Angeles. In those three starts, Latos faced one good offense in the Pittsburgh Pirates and two bad ones in the Los Angeles Angles and Cincinnati Reds.
Since the move, there has been a drastic change in Latos’ pitching stats. In his 16 starts with the Miami Marlins, Latos had 8.05 K/9, 0.82 HR/9 and .297 BABIP. In his three LA starts, he has just 4.91 K/9, 1.23 HR/9 and .314 BABIP. The only improvement has been in his walk rate, 2.55 to 1.84 BB/9.
Because of his recent struggles, the Dodgers made the decision to move Latos to the bullpen. He will spend the next 10-11 days away from the rotation. The Dodgers will go with a four-man rotation, leaving Alex Wood to start Wednesday instead of Latos.
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I own Latos. Or should I say I owned Mat Latos. As soon as this news broke, I dropped him in favor of the player I wrote about yesterday. With a playoff spot on the line, I can’t afford to hold a pitcher that won’t make a start for the next two weeks, at least. There is no date for Latos to return to the rotation.
If you own Mat Latos, I would look to replace him. There are a lot of successful pitchers available on the waiver wire. Some pitchers to look into are Chris Bassitt (four quality starts in last five outings), Raisel Iglesias, or Scott Feldman.
Mat Latos has been dropped in 8.1 percent of ESPN.com leagues over the last seven days, most of it coming within the last 24 hours. Even if you keep Latos, there’s no telling how his successful he will be in his next outing, whenever that comes.