Add The California Post on Google Justin Wrobleski is trying to find his old self.
Two months ago, Wrobleski was emerging as the feel-good story of the two-time defending champions’ season.
He had earned a spot in the Dodgers’ rotation. He had blossomed into an All-Star-caliber pitcher. He had an historic appearance in the Midsummer Classic. He seemed, potentially, like an option to start games in the playoffs amid their three-peat pursuit.
But then came home run problems, with Wrobleski allowing 11 of them in a four-start stretch that saw him give up 19 total earned runs in just 19 ⅔ innings.
That was followed by a trip to the injured list, with a bout of forearm inflammation sidelining the 26-year-old left-hander for the second half of August.
On Tuesday, Wrobleski was activated from the IL as one of the Dodgers’ late-season reinforcements, with rosters expanding from 26 to 28 players.
However, the third-year big-leaguer was given a new task for the rest of the campaign, being moved to the bullpen in hopes it could help him rediscover his early-season success.
“I’m really anxious to see how it looks in short spurts,” manager Dave Roberts said of Wrobleski’s transition. “I do think the stuff will tick up.”
This was a plan that worked for the Dodgers last year. As a multi-inning relief option last October, he delivered five scoreless innings out of the bullpen during the World Series –– including back-to-back outings in Games 6 and 7 of their repeat triumph in Toronto.
The Dodgers envision a similarly important role for their former 11th-round draft pick now.
They want Wrobleski available for high-leverage moments, or bulk outings if needed. They see him as an integral part of their postseason pitching plan –– even if he has been squeezed out of the rotation by bigger stars in Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tarik Skubal and Tyler Glasnow.
But first, Wrobleski will have to rectify a home run problem that continues to fester, after he was taken deep again in his first post-IL relief appearance in a 13-8 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday.
“For this guy, it’s not [a problem with] confidence,” Roberts said. “But it is about execution.”
During the first half of the season, when Wrobleski went 11-2 with a 2.62 ERA in his first 17 outings, he executed his plan of attack to ruthless perfection.
He filled up the strike zone. He got ahead in counts. He worked efficiently with a pitch-to-contact strategy. He mixed his eight-pitch repertoire to keep opposing batters off-balance and on the defensive.
Since then, though, Wrobleski has started to falter, thanks to first and foremost to his troubles with the long ball.
During those spectacular first 17 outings, Wrobleski allowed just eight home runs.
The 12 he has yielded since, on the other hand, are more than any other pitcher in the majors during that stretch.
Asked about that trend Tuesday night, after Cardinals outfielder Joshua Báez tagged Wrobleski with a 404-foot blast on a 1-0, center-cut fastball during his two-inning, two-run, four-strikeout outing, Roberts tried to diagnose a simple root cause.
“With Justin, it’s strike one,” the manager said. “When you’re 1-0, then you give in, and then there’s hard contact. Whereas if you’re 0-1, a lot of times hitters are in between, and then you can get the soft contact, the pop-up, infield pop-up.”
However, the numbers paint a more complicated picture.
During his recent slump, Wrobleski has actually thrown more first-pitch strikes (up from 65% to 70%). Of the 12 homers he has allowed, nine have come after he got ahead in the count, with the more common problems being mistakes over the plate as he’s tried to put batters away.
Either way, the Dodgers are hopeful his move to the bullpen will help.
Last year, Wrobleski threw noticeably harder during his relief appearances, often averaging over 97 mph with his heater as he pitched to a sub-3.00 ERA when coming out of the bullpen (including both the regular season and playoffs).
This year, his four-seamer has averaged under 95 mph in his predominantly starting role.
While he got away with it early, opponents have seemingly adjusted and caught up.
Now that Wrobleski is back in a relief role, Roberts said the club expects to see his velocity improve again. The mentality shift such duties require –– throwing as hard as you can, with the limited amount of pitches you’ll get –– is something the team believes will work to his benefit.
“Last year out of the pen, it was 97-99, and getting ahead of guys,” Roberts said, after Wrobleski’s fastball averaged 95.8 mph on Tuesday, his second-highest mark this year. “So that’s who we expect him to be for the rest of September.”
There were other considerations behind Wrobleski’s bullpen move, of course, including the fact he is about to eclipse his career-high for innings pitched in a season.
But mainly, it is a move that best suits the Dodgers roster, and (for now) perhaps Wrobleski himself, as well.
“I think [he started to get] a mentality, potentially, about being too fine [with his pitches],” Roberts said. “At the end of the day, the equation, the formula is still get ahead.”
