Dodgers to get huge impact with key reliever on track for NLDS return

Over the last two months of the regular season, no team had a more productive bullpen than the Dodgers.And come the start of their postseason trek on Saturday, the team might be adding another key arm back to the group.General manager Brandon Gomes announced on Tuesday that the club expects to have hard-throwing right-handed reliever Edgardo Henriquez available for its National League Division Series, an encouraging development after Henriquez missed the final couple weeks of the regular season with a strain in his back.Prior to getting hurt, Henriquez was emerging as one of the top arms in the Dodgers’ resurgent relief corps (which led all MLB bullpens in August and September with 4.3 combined wins above replacement, according to Fangraphs, and ranked fourth in that stretch in combined ERA at 3.20).A 24-year-old former prospect who has started to routinely eclipse 103 mph with his fastball, Henriquez ranked fourth among the team’s relievers (minimum 20 appearances) with a 2.85 ERA this season.He also struck out 70 batters in 60 total innings and converted each of the ninth-inning save opportunities he received.Henriquez had hit his stride in August and early September, allowing just one run in a 17-game stretch that featured 25 strikeouts and only two walks and seven hits allowed.However, after giving up two runs in a Sept.

13 appearance in Miami against the Marlins, he went on the IL with his back injury –– one that initially cast doubt on his postseason availability.Luckily for the Dodgers, Henriquez’s status has improved since then.He resumed a throwing during the team’s final regular-season homestand.

He recently completed a session of live batting practice without feeling any lingering discomfort.And while Gomes said “we still got a few steps to go” before Henriquez gets the green light to return, every indication is that he should be available for the club’s best-of-five NLDS.“If that all goes well, then yeah, the expectation is he’ll...