NLDS: The lion roars — Alex Vesia has elevated himself to elite reliever
Back in June, there was a lot of chatter about how the Dodgers-Yankees weekend series at Yankee Stadium was a possible World Series preview.
All three games, featuring some of baseball’s most recognizable names, were nationally televised night games and pitted two division leaders — at the time — against each other.
In the bottom of the seventh inning of the middle game on June 8, a less heralded figure rose to the occasion.
Dodger reliever Alex Vesia entered the game with the Dodgers leading 4–2. Lined up against him were former Dodger Alex Verdugo, now American League MVP favorite Aaron Judge (who homered earlier in the game) and power-hitting Giancarlo Stanton.
Vesia, the veteran left-hander, didn’t wilt.
He went — Verdugo flyout, Judge strikeout and Stanton popout.
Then the lion roared. Pumped up and pounding his fist into his glove, Vesia let the emotion out after getting the job done at a pivotal point of the game.
The next inning, Teoscar Hernández hit a grand slam and the Yankees were kaput.
Vesia displayed in that game, and throughout 2024 elite stuff and dependability. Now he is one of the more heralded Dodger relief pitchers going into this postseason.
New York was just one reason — but a big one.
“That was super cool for me,” Vesia recalls of the game. “My dad’s been a Yankee fan since he was super young. To watch his son pitch on that stage it was a good moment for us. That was definitely fun. The energy was great. A lot of Dodger fans came out. Everyone was loud. It was playoff atmosphere.”
https://medium.com/media/aa44a167efc83c91dc3bb95c65cb5c6e/href
Vesia ended the season with a 1.76 ERA — not only the best in the Dodger bullpen among pitchers with at least 25 appearances, but one of the greatest marks all time among Dodger relievers with at least 50 appearances in a season. It ranks 13th all time among Dodger relievers with that qualification.
This year was a significant leap forward for the left-hander, whose rough start in 2023 saw him get demoted to Triple-A Oklahoma City for a month to figure things out. At the time of his May 3 demotion, he had allowed 23 hits and nine earned runs in 10 1/3 innings (7.84 ERA).
His 3.43 ERA from his return on May 30 till the end of the season set his season ERA at 4.35.
“There’s obviously a lot more confidence,” said manager Dave Roberts earlier this season. “And he’s an emotional guy. From my eyes, he’s learned how to manage his emotions. I feel regardless of the situation, he’s passed a lot of tests and crossed a lot of hurdles.”
Vesia had a 2.19 ERA in 104 appearances from 2021–2022. In 2022, he ranked sixth among all MLB relievers in highest average time between pitches, and then in 2023 the pitch clock entered the equation. Vesia says the notion that he struggled to adjust to it in 2023 is incorrect.
His success, past and present, he says is simple — it has to do with comfort and focus on the mound.
“It was just a combination of everything. I don’t ever pinpoint on one thing because in baseball, there’s a lot of moving parts,” Vesia said. “This year, it’s been a lot more (being) comfortable out on the mound that makes my job easier to just want to throw one pitch at a time.”
Vesia’s rising four-seamer has been his go-to pitch throughout his career and saw vastly improved results from 2023 to 2024. Opponents batted .149 against it this year compared to .273 last season.
But Vesia’s slider saw the bigger leap. It went from a -6 run value in 2023 (13th percentile in the Majors) to +8 (92nd percentile). Vesia allowed two extra-base hits on the pitch in 2024 — no home runs. Opponents batted .106 with a .136 slugging percentage against the pitch in 2024.
What has given the Dodgers even more trust in the left-hander is his ability to get opponents out, regardless of handedness. Lefties hit .144 against him this year. Right-handers hit .150.
The statistic “game leverage index (Baseball Reference)” is a measure of how a pitcher is deployed in pressure situations — a 1.0 being average. It says a lot about how much a relief pitcher is trusted. Vesia went from 1.00 in 2023 to 1.31 in 2024.
Vesia went into the game in New York on June 8 with a 1.97 leverage index. He came out of it with zeroes on the board.
He didn’t have butterflies going into the moment. Instead, he felt this way:
“I wanted to get in the game three innings before. I was ready to go,” he says.
The lion roars: Alex Vesia has elevated himself to elite reliever was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.