It’s less than a week now before pitchers and catchers are required to report to spring training. A few players have already been seen around Camelback Ranch—Justin Turner, Cody Bellinger and Hyun-Jin Ryu were seen in the Dodgers’ Instagram stories walking by the team trucks unloading supplies for the upcoming season.
One catcher who will not be reporting is J.T. Realmuto, who yesterday was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for three high-end prospects. In the end, the Dodgers decided that the return for the former Marlins catcher was just too high, and will roll with Austin Barnes and Russell Martin behind the plate for the first half of the season, anyway.
Yesterday, Dennis took a look at five things to watch for as spring training progresses. In the last two days or so, the Dodgers have signed some peripheral players to minor league deals that may have a chance showing up on the Dodgers roster at some point.
Cody Asche is a third baseman and left fielder who has been in the major leagues since 2013. He has appeared in 390 career major league games, mostly with the Phillies, and some with the Chicago White Sox. He spent all of last season in Triple-A, with both the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees. He has a career slash line of .234/.293/.376/.668 with 32 home runs and 71 doubles.
Asche is mainly a utility-type who bats left-handed. For a player who’s had a -2.3 WAR for his career, and has a ton of lefty hitters on the team in front of him, it seems like he may not see the majors as a Dodgers. Still, the front office must see something in him that they like, and he may become a better player once the Dodgers staff gets to working with him.
The other intriguing signing is that of knuckleballer J. D. Martin. The right-hander hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2010, when he went 1-5 with a 4.13 ERA in nine games and 48 innings pitched while with the Washington Nationals. Now aged 36, Martin was the first-round draft pick of the Cleveland Indians in 2001. He has been in the minors since 2010, spending time with the Nationals, Marlins and Tampa Bay minor league affiliates.
Martin will be taken under the tutelage of long time Dodgers knuckleballer Charlie Hough. Charlie pitched for 24 years in the majors, including his first 10 with the Dodgers. We could conceivably see a Martin-Martin pitching catching duo, should the former make it to the majors. Martin has experience catching fellow knuckleballer R.A. Dickey from his time in Toronto.
The Dodgers had previously signed catcher Josh Thole to a minor league contract in January. Thole was drafted in the 13th round by the New York Mets, and has seen time in the Major since 2009 with the Mets and the Toronto Blue Jays. He did not play in 2017, and was in the minors with the Detroit Tigers in 2018. If he is not in the Majors by July 1, he can opt of out his contract.
Thole has a career slash line of .242/.313/.306/.620, and a career WAR of -1.3. He also has experience catching knuckleballers from his time in Toronto. But once again, as with Asche, one never knows what a new team and pitching staff can do for a player.
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Late Friday morning, the Dodgers announced that the following players will be joining the club as non-roster invitees at 2019 Spring Training:
Pitchers:
- RHP Stetson Allie
- RHP Joe Broussard
- RHP Daniel Corcino
- RHP Tony Gonsolin
- RHP Dustin May
- RHP Kevin Quackenbush
- LHP Josh Smoker
- RHP Jesen Therrien
- RHP Mitchell White
Catchers:
- Will Smith
- Josh Thole
Infielders:
- Daniel Castro
- Omar Estevez
- Gavin Lux
- Jake Peter
Outfielders:
- Ezequiel Carrera
- Kyle Garlick
- Paulo Orlando
- Cameron Perkins
- DJ Peters
- Shane Peterson
No loading dock???? Thats just wrong…..Not one of those guys on this list has a snowballs chance in hell of making this team out of spring. And Will Smith is probably the only one who will sniff the majors in 19. Quackenbush will be gone when he can opt out. No Dh or major changes this year according to Manfred.
Don’t know much about the outfielders listed here. We know a few of the names that can make an impression but won’t make the club. There are some pitchers there I’m very interested in following. Those names are more familiar to me and also more intriguing. I’ve already picked Gonsolin as my potential player to inspire, but Broussard, Quackenbush, Therrien and Allie I believe are worth watching. For some reason I’m more interested in our pitching this year. Our position player roster is set and deep. We have a lot of pitching to look at and it won’t surprise me if we need a few of those invitees before it’s over.
One of the prospect gurus, I believe it was Jim Callis of MLB Pipeline, predicts that DJ Peters will lead AAA in homers this season. I hope Van Scoyoc gets some time with him in ST or he’s liable to lead AAA in strikeouts as well.
I’ll be in Glendale for my annual 3 game trek with my son and his buddies next month and I’m hoping to catch a look at May, Gonsolin, Allie and/or Therrien. Also hoping to get my first look at Lux and Beaty.
Are strikeouts ok with RVS?
https://dodgers.mlblogs.com/the-dodgers-new-hitting-department-2701ecae1ba3
This is an example of what I’ve read regarding the Van Scoyoc approach to hitting. The language here sounds analytics driven, with “better path to the ball” being an emphasis. Breaking down and filtering complex data, mobility, levers, stay on the plane… I get all that and it makes sense. What I don’t read is any changes in 2 strike approach to cut down on strikeouts.
It’s been about OPS for some time now and I understand that. Get on base and rack up your total base count. You have 8 guys who can OPS .800 you will put up slow pitch runs and pound everybody. But the Dodgers were 3rd in OPS but 8th in strikeouts last year. We struck out 56 times in 5 games of the World Series. Of the top 5 MLB teams in OPS we lead them all in strikeouts. Only the Yankees were close to our number of Ks. I think it’s a problem. But I’m old fashioned. I still believe in hitting line drives. Tommy Davis told me 7 out of 10 line drives are hits. Hits used to be more important than fly balls. Of course back then the parks were bigger and the players were smaller.
This is fun:
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/we-put-bryce-harper-and-manny-machado-on-a-bunch-of-different-teams/
If he wants to win and put up HOF numbers he signs with us.
Homer Bailey signed a minor league deal with the Royals. No movement from Harper or Machado and a major talent like Adam Jones has still not signed anywhere. This is looking more and more like last year. Moustakis still not inked to a deal either.
Machado has an offer from the Yankees. If the guy is serious about wanting a Championship, he signs that puppy tomorrow, What an offense they are going to have. Zaidi said that the Giants spent about 4 hours in a face to face in Vegas with Harper. I am like Scoop. I hate strikeouts. They are the most unproductive at bat of all. Double plays and triple plays would be considered counterproductive. Broussard has some nasty stuff. I also think they are going to be looking at mostly the pitchers this spring. Some of the invitees will get some playing time. But will they impress enough to make the team?>???? Unlikely. Harper is still a free agent…..why do they call them free???? They usually end up costing plenty.