Cactus League play is is full session, and all the attention is on the performance of the big league Dodgers. But while there are indeed quite a bit of farmhands suiting up on the major league side of camp, the official reporting date for the minor league affiliates isn’t until March 7.
As for the Triple-A group in 2018, the fellas at Oklahoma City will undoubtedly possess some of the best player talent in the Pacific Coast League, if the big league crew stays relatively healthy for most of the campaign.
With that in mind, we thought it would be fun to step away from the big league grind just a moment to have a look at some of the talent on the OKC roster. This much depth will undeniably pose a challenge for skipper Bill Haselman and his crew when conjuring a daily lineup rotation. There’s a handful of consequences that will dictate at which level of the organization some of the players begin their respective campaigns, but here’s one lineup that could garner a fair amount of credibility:
- Alex Verdugo—CF
- Tim Locastro—SS
- Rob Segedin—3B
- Edwin Rios—1B
- Henry Ramos—RF
- Matt Beaty—LF
- Kyle Farmer—C
- Jake Peter—2B
- Brock Stewart—P
There are unquestionably a fair amount of notes surrounding this particular lineup. First, Walker Buehler could very well be the Opening Day pitcher at OKC, but many believe he’ll be on an innings limit, and the thought of that led us to giving the nod to Stewart. Consequently, there’s a good chance Will Smith begins the year at Oklahoma City, and he’ll probably garner plenty of time behind the dish. Yet with all the infield talent available, it’s going to be hard to squeeze Kyle Farmer into any action at the hot corner.
Speaking of infield versatility, we have Max Muncy pegged as the super-utility guy, as fringe players like Tim Locastro and Jake Peter will need as many looks as they can possibly get from the scouting directors. Our early 25-man roster projections had both of these players in the running for big league roster spots, but the venerable Chase Utley spoiled the chances of that happening, at least at the beginning of the year.
The outfield is overloaded with talent. Again, because of all the infield depth, we bumped Matt Beaty into left field, in turn likely stealing playing time away from Jacob Scavuzzo or Travis Taijeron. And there’s no telling where Andrew Toles ends up to begin the campaign—many pundits see the chances of him making the Opening Day big league roster right around 50/50, so long as Matt Kemp is still in the picture. Plus, with Trayce Thompson out of options, he’ll need to clear waivers in order to return to OKC—if he isn’t retained by the major league Dodgers.
Just taking a step back and looking at both the big league and Triple-A potential lineups creates a huge level of excitement for fans of the Dodgers everywhere. The amount of promise that the organization has at both levels is absolutely immense.
And that’s not even mentioning anything about the pitching staff or all the talent at Double-A Tulsa.
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I can’t see any possibility of Verdugo, Joc and Toles on the big league roster at the same time. Assuming no DL, one or maybe two of them are going to start the season in OKC or with another team. Assuming an 8 man bullpen, that leaves Grandal or Barnes, Utley and Kike as more or less sure things with only room for one of the other guys. If Kemp goes and they don’t keep Trayce or Segedin as a right handed outfielder, that would leave room for two of them. I think my math is correct, but feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. 13 pitchers (5+8), 12 postion players (8 starters plus 4 reserves). Of course Andrew and Farhan are Masters of the DL so who knows how they might arrange things.
Yeah, that’s pretty much the way I see it. Zero percent chance for Verdugo, Segedin or Trayce. If they’re unable to deal Kemp, the final roster spot could come down to Kemp vs. Toles. And if Font continues to throw well, he may very well secure that eighth spot in the bullpen, at least in the early stages of the year.
Although Trayce made two bad plays in the outfield yesterday, he’s hit well in the first two games. I don’t think two bad plays will tarnish his rep as a better-than-avg fielder and if he shows he can hit, they won’t have any trouble getting something for him in trade. He’s a really good kid. Would love to see him make it here, but that ain’t gonna happen. Don’t know if you saw the LA-KC box score from the other game today but Broussard got cuffed around a bit.