Former Rays' reliever Anthony Banda putting together an impressive 2024 with LA

After going from organization to organization, Anthony Banda has settled in with the Los Angeles Dodgers in a role that's as valuable as it gets in October; a high-leverage reliever.

Banda, the former Ray, threw two-thirds of the 7th inning for the Dodgers in a World Series Game 2 victory over the New York Yankees Saturday night. He entered the game in relief of electric starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto after the former NPB star threw a dazzling six and a third innings of one-run baseball.

This came after Banda pitched another two thirds of an inning in Game 1, allowing a pair of hits and a walk before striking out Yankees' outfielder, Alex Verdugo to get out of the bases loaded jam.

The 31-year-old made his MLB debut with the Diamondbacks after being dealt to Arizona from the Brewers but made his way to the Rays via the Steven Souza, Jr. trade in February of 2018.

After a few uneven outings with the Rays, mostly out of the bullpen, Banda worked his way through eight different organizations, making Major League appearances with six of them. He eventually settled in with the Dodgers after being traded from Cleveland for cash considerations.

Surprise, surprise! The Dodgers have made a few tweaks to the lefty's approach and pitch mix and it has led to borderline elite results.

When Banda was pitching with the Diamondbacks and Rays, he relied much more on his 4-seam fastball and changeup than any other pitches, making him a replacement-level pitcher and not exactly what teams are looking for when making roster decisions.

However, the Corpus Christi native has expanded his repertoire to become a far more well-balanced pitcher with the Dodgers. He still primarily throws the 4-seamer and changeup, but incorporates a sinker-slider combination also to keep opposing hitters off balance.

Like many other modern day pitchers, it's the slider that works the best for Banda, with a 109 stuff+ rating on the pitch for the season according to FanGraphs. He mixes a good use of location in too, rating as slightly above average for both his career and in his time with the Dodgers.

That combination of four usable pitches makes Banda an interesting lefty reliever, in that he still dominates against lefties with a 27.6 k-rate since he's joined LA. The difference is that he is proving to be valuable against righties as well with a 4.75 xFIP.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that Anthony Banda has been able to translate that regular season success into a quality postseason performance. He's scheduled for a couple more years of arbitration, meaning his time in LA won't be over anytime soon.