Andrew Heaney signs with Texas

Dec 6, 2022 - 9:49 PM

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Dodgers left-hander Andrew Heaney parlayed a strong albeit abbreviated season into a new deal. The free agent pitchers is headed to the Rangers on a two-year contract, per multiple reports.

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While on the mound Heaney was highly effective in 2022, with a 3.10 ERA and 3.39 xERA that were both career highs, as was his 35.5-percent strikeout rate that led all Dodgers pitchers with at least 25 innings. He was in the top five percent in MLB in strikeout rate, whiff rate, and chase rate, primarily with a four-seam fastball that ranked in the 92nd percentile in spin rate.

But Heaney was limited to just 72⅔ innings thanks to two extended injured list stints with shoulder inflammation and soreness. Despite missing half the season, Heaney tied for the second-most home runs allowed on the staff with 14 in his 16 games, including 14 starts. Eleven of those home runs came in a five-start stretch in August and September.

Heaney wasn’t used to start in the postseason, but he did well in bulk relief in Game 3 of the National League Division Series, escaping a Tony Gonsolin jam in the second inning. In all, Heaney allowed a run on three hits in three innings, with four strikeouts and two walks.

The Dodgers signed Heaney to a one-year, $8.5-million contract in November 2021. It was technically the left-hander’s second stint with the Dodgers, as he was traded by the Marlins to Los Angeles at the winter meetings in 2014, only to be immediately flipped to the Angels for second baseman Howie Kendrick. That spawned one of the best tweets in the history of old friend pedantry.

Three of 23 readers — Chris Aitken, Tommy Blackjack, and SandyistheGreatest — correctly picked the Rangers in our True Blue LA free agent crowdsource. Ten different teams were pegged for Heaney in that group effort.

Heaney, who turns 32 next June, has a 4.56 ERA (a 93 ERA+) and 4.38 FIP in 137 career games, including 126 starts, with 760 strikeouts and 198 walks in 707 innings. The bulk of his career came with the Angels, for whom he pitched in seven of his nine seasons. Heaney has also pitched for the Marlins, Yankees, and Dodgers in his career.