Welcome to the Blue, Adam Kolarek!

We got a new reliever!

Unfortunately, he's not named Shane Greene (he went to Atlanta), Edwin Diaz, Will Smith or Felipe Vazquez. Instead, the Dodgers grabbed lefty bullpen arm Adam Kolarek from the Tampa Bay Rays. Per a Dodgers press release:

The Los Angeles Dodgers announced that they have acquired left-handed pitcher Adam Kolarek from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for minor league outfielder Niko Hulsizer.

Kolarek, 30, has appeared in 54 games for the Rays, recording a 5-4 record with a 3.95 ERA (19 ER/43.1 IP) and 36 strikeouts. In parts of three Major League seasons, he is a combined 6-3 with a 4.19 ERA (40 ER/86.0 IP) and 59 strikeouts, while limiting left-handed batters to a .209 (29-for-139) batting average. The southpaw was originally drafted by the New York Mets in 11th round of the 2010 First Year Player Draft out of the University of Maryland. 

Hulsizer, 22, has split the season between Single-A Great Lakes and High-A Rancho Cucamonga, batting a combined .265 (78-for-294) with 20 homers and 67 RBI. He is in his second season with the organization, compiling 29 homers and 99 RBI in 131 minor league games. The Morehead State product was drafted in the 18th round of the 2018 First Year Player Draft by Los Angeles.

BTW, Kolarek is a lefty sidearmer! The Dodgers blog at the Dodger Insider shares more info:

This year, lefties are slashing .187/.238/.293 with only four extra-base hits against Kolarek, whose 64.3 groundball percentage leads all Rays and Dodger pitchers. He joins Hyun-Jin Ryu and Pedro Báez as the lone Dodger pitchers holding opposing lefties to an on-base percentage below .250 and a slugging percentage below .300.

Furthermore, Michael Wittman at Dodgers Way adds more:

What will Adam Kolarek bring to the Dodger bullpen? He is capable of throwing five pitches which are a sinker, four-seam fastball, changeup, cutter, and slider. He throws his sinker 70.3% of the time and it averages 88.9 MPH.  Outside of his four-seamers which is used 11.2% of his pitches, all of Kolarek’s other pitches are used at a single-digit percentage rate.

In celebration of his addition to the Dodgers I made the above custom fantasy baseball card of him that you can see above.

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