Although the news is not official at the time of this writing, it appears that the Los Angeles Dodgers will promote outfield prospect Jonny DeLuca to the big-league club in place of Trayce Thompson, who apparently suffered an oblique strain when he attempted to check a swing in Saturday night’s middle game against the Yankees.
Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic was among the first to report the news hours after the Dodgers suffered the 6-3 defeat.
At the time of his promotion, the 24-year-old DeLuca is hitting an impressive .292/.378/.952 with 14 homers and 11 doubles after splitting his time with Double-A Tulsa and Triple-A Oklahoma City this season.
DeLuca is an interesting choice for a number of characteristics, specifically because his game gained some significant promise when he changed from being a switch-hitter to exclusively hitting from the right side of the plate a few years back. The other intriguing thing is that the 6-foot-0, 200-pounder has blazing speed. His range in the outfield is superb, as is his speed on the base paths, having stole 58 out of 63 bags over his short minor league career.
Despite having an average arm, DeLuca can comfortably and reliably handle all three outfield spots. Between Tulsa and OKC this season, the Thousand Oaks native has played 10 games in left, 16 games in center and 22 games in right field.
The Dodgers originally selected DeLuca in the 25th round of the 2019 MLB Draft out of the University of Oregon. In high school, he was a standout long jumper and sprinter at Agoura High in Agoura Hills, California. He received numerous track scholarships and was drafted in the 39th round by the Twins in the 2017 MLB Draft, but he decided to play baseball with the Ducks.
The Dodgers added DeLuca to the 40-man roster last winter to protect him from the impending Rule 5 draft. MLB Pipeline currently ranks the youngster as the 20th best prospect in the system.
According to MLB Pipeline, DeLuca “has gotten considerably stronger since turning pro and developed solid raw power that he maximizes by looking to pull and lift pitches. His pop also plays to the opposite field and he’s able to drive the ball without sacrificing contact.”
Although Thompson is an above-average defender, the Dodgers aren’t losing much on offense. In 87 plate appearances, he was hitting just .155/.310/.366, going 11-for-71 with five extra-base hits, all of which were homers.
It will be interesting to see where and how much the Dodgers use DeLuca, considering Mookie Betts, James Outman, Jason Heyward, Chris Taylor and David Peralta are all in the regular outfield mix. So far this season, DeLuca has a .409 average against southpaws and a .250 average against righty pitching, so my guess is we might see him gain some significant plate time against left-handed pitchers.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
I’m guessing we’ll see DeLuca start the first time we face a southpaw.
Other than that, it’s possible they would use him as a pinch runner should the situation arise.
As you point out, he couldn’t do much worse than Trayce has done, although ironically Trayce had been doing a little better since he broke his hitless streak.
If we eliminate speaking about Barnes, because nothing is going to remove him as the second catcher this year, we had three guys who were dragging things down: Thor, Bickford, Trayce. Two of those guys are now on the IL. Can Thor be far behind?
LikeLike
It’s always exciting when a prospect is promoted especially one with power and speed. Just looked his minor league stats up and only 201 Ks in over 1200 plate appearances which is excellent in this day and age.
LikeLike
Jonny D has everything necessary to become the new favorite Dodger.
Good hit, good field, good speed, doesn’t strike out, local SoCal kid.
Now all we need to find out is if what got him here translates from MiLB to MLB.
Go get ’em Jonny!
LikeLike
He is all the things outman isn’t. Now we can dfa outman. Lol
LikeLike
How do their ages compare? I think they’re probably both too old to keep on the roster.
We need to bring up 18 year old Josue DePaula. Not only did this kid just turn 18 eleven days ago but he was born in Brooklyn.
LikeLike
Well Jeff as we all know Outman is now officially a career minor league/ fringe major leaguer, but Jonny B has a few month left.
LikeLike
Don’t know if you heard Outman mic’d up on the game tonight but he might have a future in broadcasting. Kind of Kershaw-lite.
You’re going to be the one to tell him his broadcast career starts next week.
This makes it much easier on Andrew. He hates those conversations that start “I know you’ve given it your all, but…………………..”
With Outman he’ll be able to say, “Good news, James, you don’t have to go to OKC. ESPN wants you in Atlanta.”
LikeLike
Says your plan has expired and the site is going offline soon.
LikeLike
We are switching back to our original plan. That’s WordPress’s way of saying they’re pissed of at us for not paying all the money for their deluxe plan. If there was another format out there that is comparable, I’d probably switch everything.
LikeLike
Well that’s a relief!
LikeLike
A lot of people seem to be migrating to Substack although for all I know that’s even more expensive.
LikeLike
Money isn’t really the primary issue. I think it’s like more of “we’re going to let the whole world know if you don’t resubscribe to our premium plan.” You can’t downgrade until the current plan expires.
LikeLike
Regarding Mookie. Love him but doesn’t seem like he really runs that hard to first on ground balls. First time up tonight I thought he should have beat it out for a single. Anyone?
LikeLike
I’ve had the exact same thought since last year. Maybe there’s a reason for it, since nobody is going to accuse Mookie of not giving a full effort, but I definitely noticed that he doesn’t seem to run all out on grounders, even the ones that might result in a double play (so running a little harder might avoid it).
LikeLike