Dodgers Pursued Several Big-Name Relievers Before Trading for Brock Stewart: Report

Five right-handed pitchers have made at least 10 relief appearances out of the Dodgers' bullpen this season. Among them, only two have an ERA under 4.00.

Will Klein (3.38 ERA) was optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City on Monday. Lou Trivino (3.76 ERA), who's out of minor-league options, was designated for assignment on July 21 and officially released on Sunday.

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Against this backdrop, it's no surprise the Dodgers came away with a right-handed reliever at Thursday's trade deadline.

Brock Stewart is a familiar name to Dodgers fans. Before becoming a high-leverage, hard-throwing relief pitcher for the Minnesota Twins from 2023-25, he was a fast-rising non-prospect in the Dodgers' organization. He raced up four levels of the minor-league ladder to make his big league debut with the Dodgers in 2016.

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In the years since, Stewart's career has taken several twists and turns. After being waived, released, and selected in the Rule 5 Draft, he has emerged as one of baseball's best relief pitchers — even if his reputation hasn't caught up with his actual performance.

By Statcast's expected ERA metric, Stewart was the second-best reliever with at least 100 batted-ball events this season to change teams this week. Only San Francisco Giants submariner Tyler Rogers (2.12) has a lower xERA than Stewart (2.25), and he likely wasn't going to be traded to a division rival.

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The others — San Diego's Adrian Morejon, Houston's Josh Hader, the Chicago Cubs' Caleb Thielbar, Boston's Aroldis Chapman and the Dodgers' Jack Dreyer — were never going to be traded at all.

Still, the Dodgers scoured the market for other options besides Stewart. According to Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic, they pursued Athletics closer Mason Miller, Twins closer Jhoan Duran, St. Louis Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley and Tampa Bay Rays closer Pete Fairbanks before reuniting with Stewart.

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Miller was traded to the San Diego Padres. Duran was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies. Helsley was traded to the New York Mets.

Seeing three closers with a combined 57 saves change teams could leave some fans feeling like the Dodgers came up short. And perhaps all three right-handers were higher on the Dodgers' wish list than Stewart.

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As consolation prizes go, however, Stewart — acquired for the relatively low cost of James Outman — was a pretty good one.

"We feel like what we did with Brock is adding an impact-type right-handed reliever," Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said on a conference call Thursday. "We're always in those conversations, and trying to figure out how to make this team better. We felt what we came away with is a strong core of talent we had. We were able to address some needs and make this team better."

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