2025 Dodgers season review: Andrew Heaney

Earlier in the season it looked like the Dodgers would smash their own franchise record of 40 pitchers used, set one year prior in 2024. The 2025 team was already at their 27th pitcher by May 18, with 115 games remaining on the schedule.

But they only used five new pitchers after the All-Star break, and were stuck on 39 pitchers since late August. Until Andrew Heaney came to the rescue in the final weekend of the season.

Heaney already pitched for the Dodgers in 2022, and was technically a Dodger for at least a few minutes during the 2014 winter meetings, when he was part of the haul from the Marlins in the Dee Strange-Gordon trade, but was in turn flipped to the Angels for Howie Kendrick.

Heaney was solid during his injury-shortened 2022 with the Dodgers, with a 3.10 ERA and 35.4-percent strikeout rate in 72 2/3 innings, and parlayed that into a two-year free agent contract with the Rangers. For 2025 Heaney signed with the Pirates, but struggled and was released off that sinking ship in the last week of August.

The Dodgers signed the old friend to a minor league deal, and Heaney showed he still had something in the tank with a 37.1-percent strikeout rate in 10 innings with one run allowed for Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Having clinched the division on September 25 in Arizona, the Dodgers were playing with house money during their final weekend in Seattle, facing a fellow division champ in the Mariners. Factor in that both Emmet Sheehan and Tyler Glasnow had short starts to keep them available in the relief during the wild card round, and the Dodgers did actually need some help in filling innings over the final weekend.

Heaney got the call on September 27 for the middle game of the series, the 40th pitcher used by the Dodgers to match their franchise record.

The outing itself didn’t go well, as Heaney worked around a double and walk in his first inning of relief, but allowed two singles and a Jorge Polanco home run for a three-run fifth. Heaney was optioned on the final day of the season, making room for another fresh arm. We’ll get to Landon Knack in a few days.

Age: 34

Stats: 1 game, 2 innings, 3 runs, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts with Dodgers

Salary: $5.25 million with Pirates

Heaney was born and raised in Oklahoma City, and went to college at Oklahoma State. His first game back in his old haunting ground went gangbusters, as he struck out eight of 10 batters faced in his Comets debut on September 10, pitching three scoreless innings.

Heaney is a free agent.