The Dodgers retained a key member of their bullpen Sunday night, agreeing to terms with veteran closer Blake Treinen on a two-year, $22-million contract, according to a person familiar with the deal not authorized to speak publicly about it.
Treinen, who missed most of the 2022 season because of a shoulder injury and all of 2023 after undergoing surgery to repair rotator-cuff and labrum tears, regained his All-Star form in 2024, going 7-3 with a 1.93 ERA in 50 games, with 56 strikeouts and 11 walks in 46 ⅔ innings, primarily as a setup man.
The 36-year-old right-hander was dominant in the postseason, going 2-0 with a 2.19 ERA and three saves in nine games, throwing 39 pitches over 1 ⅔ scoreless innings to finish a playoff-opening 7-5 win over San Diego and 42 pitches over 2 ⅓ scoreless innings in the Dodgers’ title-clinching win over the New York Yankees.
Treinen entered Game 5 of the World Series in Yankee Stadium with one out in the bottom of the sixth inning, runners on first and second and the Dodgers trailing 6-5. Treinen got Anthony Volpe to ground out to second for the final out of the sixth and retired the side in order with two strikeouts in the seventh.
The Dodgers scored twice in the top of the eighth to take a 7-6 lead. Treinen ran into trouble in the bottom of the eighth when Aaron Judge doubled to left field with one out and Jazz Chisholm Jr. walked to put two on.
Dave Roberts came to the mound but did not make a pitching change. Treinen rewarded his manager’s faith in him by retiring the dangerous Giancarlo Stanton on a first-pitch fly out to right field and striking out Anthony Rizzo with a nasty 86-mph sweeper to end the inning.
Walker Buehler then threw a one-two-three ninth inning to close the game and secure the Dodgers’ eighth World Series championship and their first full-season title since 1988.
Treinen first signed with the Dodgers in 2020 and went 3-3 with a 3.86 ERA in 27 regular-season games before helping the Dodgers win the World Series in the pandemic-shortened season.
Treinen’s best season with the Dodgers came in 2021, when he went 6-5 with a 1.99 ERA in 72 games, striking out 85 and walking 25 in 72 ⅓ innings and holding hitters to a .179 average and a .512 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.
Shoulder problems derailed Treinen in 2022 and 2023, and Treinen suffered another setback last March when a Cactus League comebacker drilled him in the right rib cage. Initial medical scans showed an internal bruise, with bleeding in his lung. Doctors subsequently diagnosed a pair of rib fractures that sidelined him until early May.
Treinen opened his season with 14 scoreless appearances before walking three batters and giving up a grand slam to Kansas City’s MJ Melendez in a 7-2 loss to the Royals on June 15.
He hit another rough patch in late July, giving up a walk-off home run to Alex Bregman in a 7-6 loss at Houston on July 27 and solo homers to Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill in the ninth inning of a 6-5 loss at San Diego on July 30.
But after giving up one run and three hits in one inning of an 8-4 win over the Seattle Mariners on Aug. 21, Treinen closed the regular season with 15 scoreless outings in which he allowed six hits, struck out 18 and walked two over 15 ⅓ innings.
What makes Treinen so difficult to hit is the movement he gets on his two primary pitches, an 84-mph sweeper that, according to Baseball Savant, dropped an average of 40.7 inches with a 15.2-inch glove-side break last season, and a 94.6-mph sinker that dropped an average of 27.2 inches with a 16.5-inch arm-side break.
Treinen held opponents to a .120 average (nine for 75) with 37 strikeouts in at-bats ending with the sweeper during the regular season.