On Monday, the Los Angeles Dodgers made an in-division trade with the Colorado Rockies, bringing over right-handed reliever Seth Halvorsen in exchange for former No. 2 prospect right-hander Nick Frasso and Single-A outfielder Landyn Vidourek.
Halvorsen, now in his third season in the big leagues, hasn’t necessarily excelled in Colorado, putting up a total of 1.0 WAR over 75 total games.
Despite that, Pitch Profiler had some optimistic analysis for Dodgers fans.
What are Seth Halvorsen’s strengths?
As Pitch Profiler noted, Halvorsen will presumably benefit just by leaving the hitter-friendly Coors Field in Denver and relocating to Southern California.
“Seth Halvorsen and his high-octane fastball plus two filthy offspeed pitches are headed from Coors to Los Angeles!”
Those pitches — a four-seam fastball, slider and split finger — are all thrown at or above average speed for a righty.
For the fastball in particular, which Baseball Savant lists at 98.8 mph, a great pitch is poised to become even better. Halvorsen’s velocity is already in the top 2% of pitchers with enough appearances to qualify and top 8% of all pitchers.
“Expect his fastball proStuff+ to jump about 4 points with the move,” Pitch Profiler explained. “If the Dodgers sharpen his command and optimize his mix, he has elite reliever upside.”
What are the risks with bringing in Seth Halvorsen?
While Halvorsen certainly has potential to be great, his career in Colorado thus far has trended the opposite direction.
After posting a 1.46 ERA over 12 games in the 2024 season, that ERA shot up to 4.99 in 42 appearances last year and is still at 4.74 with 21 games this year.
His WHIP similarly rose, going from 0.811 to 1.563 and 1.947 this season, and his walk rate went from 1.5 walks per nine innings up to 4.8 and now 7.1 this year.
If his proStuff+ indeed jumps 4 points as Pitch Profiler expects, that will bring him from 102 to 106 this season.
The problem, though, is that his proStuff+ last season was 107, which was already down from 110 the year before.
These statistical changes somewhat align with a shift in his pitch mix.
In 2024, he relied on the fastball, throwing his split finger about 28% of the time and slider almost 16%.
After minor changes in 2025, 2026 has been a big shift. His four-seamer is up to nearly 63% of his pitches, the slider is 29% and the split finger is only 8%.
Fixing that pitch mix — and sharpening his command, as Pitch Profiler noted — will be the key to Halvorsen’s success in Dodger Blue.
If he can put it all together, he could be a key part of this season’s push for a three-peat.
