TORONTO — The Dodgers released their roster for the World Series on Friday, and a key piece in the bullpen was missing as expected.
Left-handed reliever Alex Vesia was not on the roster, as he and his wife handle what the club said on Thursday was “a deeply personal family matter.”
Vesia was also not placed on the Family Medical Emergency List — which would have allowed him to rejoin the roster after a minimum of three days.
Instead, Vesia will now only be eligible to rejoin the Dodgers roster in the event of an injury. And even then, manager Dave Roberts said, he will “most likely” not be available for the series.
Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, said the team did not place Vesia on the Family Medical Emergency List — which would have come with a maximum stay of seven days — because they did not want him to feel pressured to return.
“This is so much bigger than baseball,” Friedman said. “And for us, it was doing whatever small part we could to just 100% be supportive.”
Vesia’s absence is a significant blow for a bullpen that had counted him as one of its most trusted arms (especially from the left side) this October.
In the regular season, Vesia had a 3.02 ERA in 68 appearances (the second-most on the team). In the playoffs, he had a 3.86 ERA in a team-high seven outings.
“It’s certainly on our hearts and we miss him, and we’ll be thinking about him,” Roberts said. “He’s certainly a part of this. It’s just even more motivation [to win for him].”
Without Vesia, the Dodgers made a couple of additions to the relief corps, adding hard-throwing right-handers Edgardo Henriquez and Will Klein back to the roster.
Henriquez, who had a 2.37 ERA in 22 regular-season outings, was last active for the wild-card series at the start of the playoffs, when he failed to record an out while walking two batters and giving up a hit in his only appearance.
Klein, meanwhile, is being activated for the first time this postseason, after posting a 2.35 ERA in 14 appearances this year.
Both pitchers’ biggest strength is their triple-digit velocity fastballs. Friedman said they were added to the roster because the club liked how their arsenals matched up against the Blue Jays’ lineup.
The Dodgers’ only other change from the NLCS was removing another right-hander, Ben Casparius, from the 12-man pitching staff.
Left-handed reliever Tanner Scott, who was removed from the roster in the NLDS because of an abscess incision on his backside, was not added back to the roster. Roberts described that decision as more medical-related, saying Scott’s stuff “wasn’t quite there” in recent bullpen sessions as he was trying to ramp back up.
The team also kept the same 14-player position group it used last round, again going with defensive and speed specialists Justin Dean and Hyeseong Kim over veteran outfielder Michael Conforto and third catcher Dalton Rushing for its final roster spots.
