Twelve months ago, Blake Treinen was a folk hero, as the lanky and taciturn, salt-of-the-earth reliever who bent but never broke getting critical outs as the Dodgers vanquished the New York Yankees with aplomb, earning himself both a bobblehead night on August 17, 2025, and a new two-year contract.
With new addition-Tanner Scott to man the ninth, the plan for Treinen, new addition-Kirby Yates, and Alex Vesia to tackle the leverage innings, the 2025 Dodgers were supposed to have a lethal bullpen.
It
did not work.
While it was likely extremely unrealistic to expect Treinen to pick up where he left off in 2025, no one could have reasonably predicted what happened in 2025. Treinen had a career-best of 12.15 K/9 innings; however, he also had a career worst of 6.41 BB/9 innings.
Or put another way:
The Dodgers had a bad bullpen in 2025, which is a bit of an overbroad claim. What the Dodgers really had in 2025 was a bad bullpen in terms of leverage.
Where new arrivals Kirby Yates and Tanner Scott kept serving up fresh meatballs with almost frightening regularity, Treinen had the opposite problem. Treinen has generally been a four-pitch reliever, using a sweeper, sinker, four-seam fastball, and cutter. In 2024, where Treinen had a dominant sweeper, sinker, and four-seamer, in 2025, his sinker was teed off on. Also, Treinen was BABIP’d to death on several outings (.382 during the regular year), including the postseason (.476).
In 2024, batters had a slash line of .194/.250/.335 (about on par with 2024-Christopher Morel). In 2025, batters had a slash line of .280/.395/.439 (about on par with 2025-Alejandro Kirk). There were times during the year when one could credibly question whether Treinen’s command would allow him to hit water from a boat sitting in the middle of Lake Superior in the gales of November.
To examine the wreckage, which was worthy of song, we must return to the beginning, because Treinen’s season started innocuously enough. He was not as sharp as he was during the 2024 Postseason run to start the campaign, but it would have been unreasonable to expect that level of success from him.
In his first eight games, ranging from Tokyo to the first road trip, he pitched eight innings and earned a 0-2 record with two saves in three tries. He struck out 10 and walked three. He had a 3.38 ERA and 3.76 FIP — above his career averages for sure, but nothing to be alarmed about at the time.
Unfortunately, disaster struck on April 19, when Treinen was placed on the injured list with right forearm tightness. With rehab and recovery, Treinen was out until the end of July, replacing Will Klein on the roster and Tanner Scott as the de facto closer, who had just gone down to injury himself.
“I think given where we’re at, I don’t know that he’ll be dedicated to the closer role because there might be some time where I feel we need the highest-leverage guy for a particular spot and I’ll use him there,” manager Dave Roberts told reporters at Fenway Park on Saturday of Treinen, per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register.
At the time, there was cause for optimism as in seven rehab appearances between Oklahoma City and the Arizona Complex League, Treinen had allowed only two runs (one earned) in seven innings, with 10 strikeouts and one walk. In his last four appearances at Triple-A Oklahoma City, Treinen retired all 12 batters faced, with six strikeouts.
In twelve appearances in July and August, Treinen went 1-0 with a 2.89 ERA and 4.21 FIP, with a blown save over 9 1/3 innings of work. He struck out 17, while only walking six. When the calendar turned to September, things got so much worse.
Correlation not causation
Blake Treinen had a nightmarish September that, even when seen live, still beggars belief. Treinen’s command abandoned him, which was catastrophic as his game relies on missing bats.
When most remember Treinen’s truly awful month, they will either remember the numerous, staggering meltdowns that ruined games of Dodger baseball, or they will remember the time he took a page out of Clayton Kershaw’s playbook to mark up his cap on September 12th in San Francisco after the death of conservative firebrand Charlie Kirk.
There will be some who attempt to say that one act of arts and crafts caused the downturn in September. But correlation does not equal causation. Treinen was truly awful in September, which was well underway before any controversy.
On September 6, it took Treinen 22 pitches to erase what was originally thought to be a historic night by Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Baltimore.
To his credit, Treinen did own up to being terrible that night. And had that humid night in Baltimore been a singular occurrence, it likely would have been forgotten by now, except by those unlucky enough to be in attendance. Instead, the meltdowns kept happening on a literal weekly basis in September.
The theme carried for the rest of the month: pitches either begging to hit very hard and very far or pitches that even free-swinging Teoscar Hernandez would not swing at during the World Series.
At one point, Treinen took the loss in five straight Dodger defeats, eclipsing the most recent streak of four consecutive defeats for a team, last done by old friend Tim Belcher in 1994 for the Detroit Tigers. Considering the torrid streak the team was generally on at the time, Treinen’s dubious mark stands out.
In September, Treinen appeared in 12 games, pitching 9 1/3 innings. He had a 1-5 record and a blown save, with a 9.64 ERA and a 5.17 FIP. He gave up 12 runs (10 earned), while walking 10 and striking out four.
Bent but not broken
If there was one thing that never wavered about Treinen during the year and the postseason run, it was his own confidence in the bullpen (and himself) to rally come the postseason tournament.
Despite the terrible September, Treinen made the postseason roster for each round. Moreover, Dave Roberts never lost complete confidence in Treinen, which quickly became a meme as the postseason wore on.
In the Wild Card round, it looked like Treinen had turned a corner and was proving Roberts’ instincts correct with two scoreless outings against the Reds. That goodwill evaporated in a hurry in the ninth inning of Game 2 of the Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies in Philadelphia.
On the cusp of taking a commanding two games to none lead, when tasked to protect a three-run lead, Treinen quickly reverted to his September ways. He failed to record an out and required both a baserunner blunder by the Phillies and the defensive brilliance of Mookie Betts and Max Muncy, and the combined heroics of Alex Vesia and Roki Sasaki to keep the Dodgers from snatching defeat from the confused jaws of victory.
To quote Michael Baumann of FanGraphs about Roberts’ usage of Treinen in October:
I think using Treinen [in NLDS Game 2] was exactly the right move. A four-run [sic] lead is close enough to feel pressure-packed, but big enough to be protected by an untrustworthy pitcher. If Treinen retired the side, it would build confidence after a brutal end to the regular season, even if he allowed a runner or two. If he couldn’t do that, Roberts needed to know as soon as possible.
Treinen made seven more appearances after that incident, but only twice more did he enter a game in high leverage (gmLI greater than 1.50): Game 1 of the NLCS, when he needed to rescue Sasaki from a mid-inning meltdown, and Game 3 of the NLCS.
[emphasis added.]
After Game 2 of the NLDS, Treinen was still used, just generally not in high-leverage situations. However, Roberts continued to summon Treinen when Sasaki faltered, such as in NLCS Game 1 against the Milwaukee Brewers, and in other low-leverage spots of the NLCS.
Treinen did not repeat the heroics in the World Series that served him so well in 2024. It is worth remembering that Treinen allowed the final run that the Toronto Blue Jays scored in World Series Game 3 in a tie that would require another nine innings to resolve.
Treinen would make two additional appearances in Games 4 and 5 after the outcome was largely settled. When it mattered most during the conclusion of the World Series, Roberts largely embraced an “Oops, All Starters” approach.
Despite his struggles, to this day, Treinen has still somehow never blown a postseason lead for the Dodgers.
2025 particulars
Age: 37
Stats: 2-7, 2 Sv (out of 5 chances), 26 2/3 IP, 36 K, 19 BB, 5.40 ERA, 4.41 FIP, 3.65 xERA, 1.838 WHIP, -.6 rWAR, -.1 fWAR
Salary: $11 million
Game of the year
Even though Treinen nearly blew the save in NLCS Game 1 against the Brewers by almost hitting Brice Turang with the bases loaded, he still technically succeeded in the save by getting Turang to swing at a pitch at his eyes to close out Game 1. Considering the stakes and the narrative that would have arisen had the Dodgers bungled Game 1, Treinen’s only postseason glory on October 13 is his game of the year.
Roster status
Treinen is in the final year of his contract and will make $11 million in 2026.
