The Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday afternoon selected the contract of left-handed pitcher Caleb Ferguson from Triple-A Oklahoma City, with the youngster slated to make his big league debut with a start against the Pirates.
Ferguson will wear uniform No. 64.
The 21-year-old Ferguson will be making his debut in his fourth professional season after being selected in the 38th round of the 2014 First-Year Player Draft out of West Jefferson High School in Ohio. Ferguson, who is rated by MLB.com as the Dodgers’ No. 15 prospect, has made 10 combined starts with Double-A Tulsa and Triple-A Oklahoma City this season, going 3-0 with a 1.53 ERA (8 ER/47.0 IP). The southpaw has also held hitters to a .213 combined average, while striking out 52 batters against 17 walks in 47.0 innings and posting a 1.15 WHIP.
The Columbus native started the year dominating the Texas League, going 3-0 with a 1.38 ERA (6 ER/39.0 IP) and limiting hitters to a .217 average, while striking out 40 against 10 walks in eight starts, before his promotion to Oklahoma City on May 26. Ferguson made two starts with the OKC Dodgers, posting a 2.25 ERA (2 ER/8.0 IP) with 12 strikeouts against seven walks, while holding the opposition to a .194 average.
Over four professional seasons (2015-18), Ferguson has gone 15-11 with a 2.80 ERA and has struck out 271 batters against 98 walks in 250.1 innings, while limiting batters to a .238 average in 63 career minor league games (50 starts). Ferguson missed the entire 2014 season after recovering from Tommy John surgery, which he underwent following his senior season of high school.
To create room on the active roster, the Dodgers optioned right-handed reliever Pedro Báez to Oklahoma City. Báez last pitched in last night’s contest against the Pirates, tossing a scoreless inning of relief with a walk. In 28 appearances this season with Los Angeles, he has gone 2-3 with a 3.25 ERA (10 ER/27.2 IP) and has struck out 35 batters against 16 walks in 27.2 innings.
(Lauren Douglas furnished the information provided in this report)
Wait a damn minute, Dodgers actually sent Baez down to AAA (which was the logical choice to make, btw)??? HALLELUJAH, BABY!!!! There is hope for this ballclub yet. Okay Hudson, you’ve been spared for the time being so please make the most of it…
Hopefully this move puts some fire in Baez’s tail.
And maybe he’ll finally rediscover his long-forgotten curveball while he’s at it. Otherwise, he can stay down there until he finds it again. Improving his fastball command certainly wouldn’t hurt, either.
This is where Baez should stay. His new assisted living home–the minors
Hudson did not make the most of it. How do you spell DFA? Cingrani will probably wind up on the DL tomorrow but I’m guessing they’ll want a lefty, otherwise Pedro might not even board his flight to OKC. More likely Paredes will come back. Shoulder pain for Cingrani —doesn’t sound good, and he was one of our few reliable guys. I’m guessing Ferguson goes back to OKC since they have a couple of off days coming up where they could move guys around and skip a fifth starter. So we’ll probably see two guys coming up.
Yup, my worst fears have finally been realized regarding Cingrani’s recent arm troubles. Sounds like surgery’s gonna be needed this time, which means adios to him for the next year and a half. Usually takes that long if it does happen to be what Ryu had prior regarding his own shoulder problems. Oh well, that’s the nature of the game for ya.
As for Ferguson, I’m definitely sending him back down after this outing if I’m the coaching staff because he’s pretty much where Kershaw was in his development at around the same age: two plus pitches with so-so command of ’em leading to wildly inefficient pitch counts. Have him spend the rest of the season down at AAA so he can throw those pitches around the zone more consistently as well as refine his changeup even further. Guess this means Banuelos is not far from finally getting back to the bigs at this point. He just had himself another strong outing for OKC last night going 5 2/3 innings allowing two runs, 3 walks (2 intentional) and a whopping 10 Ks! Won his 6th game for them as a result. Personally speaking, I think he’s done tuning up and should be the next guy up to start in Ferguson’s place when his spot in the rotation comes around again next week.Not sure who steps in for Cingrani if he ends up on the DL. Probably Liberatore although I’d very much like to see Sborz for once. We shall see what happens soon enough…