Mike Scioscia's tragic illness

Why Don’t the Dodgers Sign Rudy Seanez?

Update: Great, so right after I post this, MLBtraderumors posts that Seanez has indeed signed with the Angels. So ignore the parts where I say “the Dodgers should sign him” and concentrate on the parts about how Guillermo Mota is awful, and that the Dodgers should have signed Seanez.

Every time I take a weekend off, something interesting happens. Last June it was getting no-hit by the Angels, yet still winning. Last July, when I headed out on tour, it was the trades for Casey Blake and Manny Ramirez. And this time, it was Clayton Kershaw nearly throwing a no-hitter of his own, plus the continued incredible resurgence of Juan Pierre.

The lesson, as always: any time I’m out of story ideas and I need the Dodgers to do something noteworthy, I just need to head out of town for a bit. Done and done.

So without recapping all that I missed this weekend, there’s one thing I’d like to touch upon: the continued employment of Guillermo Mota. We’ve mentioned how horrible he is before around here, and I’ve hardly been alone in that – even before Sunday’s disaster raised his ERA to 9.00, with 11 ER in his last 8.2 IP.

But whether or not Guillermo Mota is a terrible pitcher right now isn’t really the issue, nor is the thought that he hasn’t really been effective in nearly five years – or one steroid suspension ago. No, the question is, why haven’t the Dodgers done anything about it?

Well, perhaps the time has come where they should. A few weeks ago, when (likely pre-emptively) awarding Jeff Weaver the 2009 “I’m Not Dead Yet!” award, I went through some of the previous winners, including…

2007 – Rudy Seanez. Like Park, Seanez returned to LA after years of bouncing around with limited success, yet at age 38 put up a fantastic year, setting career highs in games and innings pitched. Actually, he was pretty decent in Philadelphia last year too, and last I heard he’d still like to pitch. Give the man a tryout!

I said that jokingly at the time, but after really looking at his stats, he was more than just “pretty decent” in Philadelphia. Moving to a tougher pitcher’s park, he somehow improved his ERA, HR/9 rate, and H/9 rate (though his strikeout rate did drop). You really think he’s not better than Guillermo Mota, especially when he could be had for free?

Apparently the Angels think it’s a good idea:

The Angels, looking to bolster a bullpen that began Wednesday with a 2-9 record, a major league-worst 6.90 ERA and five blown saves, are close to signing veteran reliever Rudy Seanez to a minor league contract.

Seanez, a 40-year-old right-hander, last pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008, going 5-4 with a 3.53 ERA in 42 games.

If he signs with the Angels, he would probably be sent to the team’s extended spring training camp in Arizona before joining triple-A Salt Lake.

This is from a few days ago and I haven’t been able to find anything that says he’s actually signed with Anaheim just yet, so why not jump in and see if he’d prefer to be a Dodger again? The price is almost literally zero – I mean, he’s going to sign a minor league contract – so if he bombs out, cut him with no loss. Even if he’s not that good, just getting rid of Mota for him would be addition by subtraction.

Let’s bring him back. RU-DY! RU-DY!