Maryland baseball’s Adam Kolarek acquired by Los Angeles Dodgers at trade deadline

Right before the MLB trade deadline passed on Wednesday afternoon, the Tampa Bay Rays traded former Maryland pitcher Adam Kolarek to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Kolarek joins a Dodgers team that has the best record in all of baseball at 71-39, and they currently hold a 15-game lead in the National League West. There are still two months to go until the playoffs in which anything can happen, but Los Angeles is currently the favorite to win the pennant and head back to the World Series for the third year in a row.

Earlier in the season, it seemed as though relief pitching would be the Dodgers’ fatal flaw. But the bullpen has rebounded nicely, and entering Wednesday, it ranks ninth in MLB in both ERA and SIERA (Skill-Interactive ERA). Before Kolarek’s arrival, though, the Dodgers had just two left-handed relief pitchers with the big-league club.

With the former Terp’s arrival, manager Dave Roberts can now be more creative in his use of the bullpen. Kolarek is holding left-handed hitters to a .187/.238/.293 slash line, which makes him appealing as a lefty specialist. He also possesses a 64.3% ground ball rate that ranks fourth-best in baseball.

While it’s been an up-and-down year overall — his 3.95 ERA, 4.54 FIP, 3.97 xFIP and 3.78 SIERA are solid but unspectacular — that dominance against lefties can come in handy in the postseason.

In other news

Maryland men’s basketball released its full nonconference schedule, headlined by a matchup against Seton Hall from the Big East.

As part of our State of the Program series, I looked at Maryland baseball, which is hoping to build on a conference tournament bid and perhaps make a return to the NCAA Tournament.

It’s Defensive Backs Week here at Testudo Times, and Lila broke down a free safety position currently up for grabs between Deon Jones and Jordan Mosley.

Darnell Savage Jr. was recently activated from the non-football injury list, and he made his training camp debut for the Green Bay Packers on Wednesday.

Week 1 of the college football season is just under a month away, and Scott Van Pelt’s son, Charlie, is ready for the upcoming year.