Los Angeles Dodgers Land Former A's Trade Piece

Last season at the trade deadline, the Athletics made a deal with the Kansas City Royals, sending late-inning reliever Lucas Erceg to the Royals in exchange for starter Mason Barnett, outfielder Jared Dickey, and relief pitcher Will Klein.

Klein had just made his MLB debut and pitched fairly well with Kansas City, and his stuff was comparable to Erceg's at the time of the trade, so it looked like another guy the A's coaches could work into a pretty decent reliever. He didn't last long in green and gold, ultimately being optioned a couple of weeks after his arrival, posting a 27.00 ERA across three appearances (1.2 innings of work).

He'd spend the rnext couple of weeks in Triple-A Las Vegas, holding a 5.06 ERA in four games before landing on the IL to end his season. As the A's ran out of roster space this offseason, Klein was designated for assignment and traded to the Seattle Mariners for "other considerations."

Klein struggled in Triple-A Tacoma with the Mariners, was designated for assignment by Seattle just a couple of days ago, and has now been traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for 30-year-old left-hander Joe Jacques.

The former A's right-hander is now a member of the Dodgers bullpen.

There have been numerous players that tend to follow a certain path from the Dodgers, to the Tampa Bay Rays (or another pitching factory), and then to the A's, but Klein is on the road less traveled. He was targeted by the A's in the Erceg deal, then traded within the AL West to the Mariners, only to advance once again to the Dodgers.

It seems pretty obvious that the industry believes in his stuff and what he could potentially be for a big-league club, but thus far he hasn't quite put it together. The Dodgers have more resources than anyone, and they're pretty good at what they do, leaving a huge opportunity in front of Klein in the coming days and weeks.

This landing spot could be a career changer for him.

Last year in the big leagues, Klein was utilizing his four-seamer 57% of the time, a curveball 23% of the time, and his slider 20%. That slider also had a .750 batting average against in limited action, with a .419 expected batting average (xBA).

In his final outing in the Mariners system, Klein was more fastball heavy, tossing the 97 mile per hour heater 64%, while his curveball was used 29% and his slider got 7%.

This is one sample of his pitch mix from this season, but could be a clue into how the Dodgers will go about getting production out of him initially--by switching up his pitch mix. Both his slider and curveball have more "stuff," but locating the pair is what gets him in trouble.

With the coaching staff that the Dodgers have, along with all of the tools they can offer their players, this is about as good a landing spot as a young pitcher with limited experience that's trying to figure things out could hope for.