Los Angeles Dodgers Top 51 Prospects

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as my own observations. This is the third year we’re delineating between two anticipated relief roles, the abbreviations for which you’ll see in the “position” column below: MIRP for multi-inning relief pitchers, and SIRP for single-inning relief pitchers. The ETAs listed generally correspond to the year a player has to be added to the 40-man roster to avoid being made eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Manual adjustments are made where they seem appropriate, but I use that as a rule of thumb.

A quick overview of what FV (Future Value) means can be found here. A much deeper overview can be found here.

All of the ranked prospects below also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. It has more details (and updated TrackMan data from various sources) than this article and integrates every team’s list so readers can compare prospects across farm systems. It can be found here.

Dodgers Top Prospects
Rk Name Age Highest Level Position ETA FV
1 Diego Cartaya 21.3 A+ C 2024 55
2 Bobby Miller 23.8 AAA SP 2023 55
3 Michael Busch 25.2 AAA DH 2023 50
4 Miguel Vargas 23.1 MLB LF 2023 50
5 Andy Pages 22.1 AA RF 2024 50
6 Gavin Stone 24.2 AAA SP 2024 50
7 Josue De Paula 17.6 R LF 2026 45+
8 Nick Nastrini 22.9 AA SIRP 2025 45+
9 Ryan Pepiot 25.4 MLB SP 2023 45
10 River Ryan 24.4 A+ SP 2025 45
11 Maddux Bruns 20.5 A SP 2026 45
12 Rayne Doncon 19.3 A LF 2026 45
13 Dalton Rushing 21.9 A C 2027 45
14 Jorbit Vivas 21.8 A+ 2B 2023 45
15 Jacob Amaya 24.3 AAA SS 2023 45
16 Nick Frasso 24.2 AA SP 2024 40+
17 Emmet Sheehan 23.1 AA MIRP 2025 40+
18 Yeiner Fernandez 20.3 A C 2025 40+
19 Jose Ramos 22.0 A+ RF 2025 40+
20 Edgardo Henriquez 20.5 A SP 2025 40+
21 Carlos Duran 21.4 A+ SIRP 2025 40+
22 Michael Grove 26.0 MLB SP 2023 40
23 Landon Knack 26.0 AA SP 2023 40
24 Justin Wrobleski 22.5 A SP 2025 40
25 Jonny DeLuca 24.5 AA CF 2023 40
26 James Outman 25.6 MLB RF 2023 40
27 Thayron Liranzo 19.5 R C 2027 40
28 Mairoshendrick Martinus 17.9 R 3B 2028 40
29 Luis Valdez 19.5 A SP 2025 40
30 Samuel Munoz 18.3 R 1B 2028 40
31 Maximo Martinez 18.5 R SP 2026 40
32 Ronan Kopp 20.4 A+ SIRP 2026 40
33 Joel Ibarra 20.5 A MIRP 2025 40
34 Oswaldo Osorio 17.7 R SS 2028 40
35 Jesus Galiz 19.1 R C 2025 40
36 Peter Heubeck 20.5 A SP 2026 35+
37 Alex Freeland 21.4 A 3B 2027 35+
38 Kyle Hurt 24.6 AA MIRP 2024 35+
39 Ben Casparius 23.9 A+ MIRP 2025 35+
40 Carlos De Los Santos 22.1 A+ SIRP 2023 35+
41 Chris Campos 22.4 A SIRP 2027 35+
42 Payton Martin 18.6 R SP 2027 35+
43 Alvaro Benua 20.0 R SIRP 2026 35+
44 Reynaldo Yean 19.0 R SIRP 2026 35+
45 Madison Jeffrey 22.8 A SIRP 2026 35+
46 Nick Robertson 24.5 AAA SIRP 2023 35+
47 Nelson Quiroz 21.2 A C 2025 35+
48 Wilman Diaz 19.1 R SS 2025 35+
49 Ryan Ward 24.9 AA LF 2024 35+
50 Damon Keith 22.6 A+ RF 2026 35+
51 Robinson Ortiz 23.0 A+ MIRP 2025 35+
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55 FV Prospects

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2018 from Venezuela (LAD)
Age 21.3 Height 6′ 3″ Weight 219 Bat / Thr R / R FV 55
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
30/45 55/60 35/60 40/30 45/55 70

Now on the 40-man roster, Cartaya is poised to be a power-hitting All-Star catcher who gets eased into the big league waters in 2024 and ’25, toward the back end of Will Smith‘s arbitration years. His rare raw thump has already begun to manifest in games, as Cartaya clubbed 22 homers in 2022, a season after he dealt with multiple injuries that severely limited his playing time. Power and arm strength have been Cartaya’s headline tools since his amateur days, and despite missing lots of time in the 2020-21 window due to the pandemic and injuries, he has still developed on defense and managed his strikeout tendencies, and played enough in ’22 to reinforce industry confidence in his plate discipline across a larger sample of plate appearances.

Cartaya’s size was sometimes a problem on defense early in pro ball. He struggled to frame low pitches and one-hoppers would find a way through his wickets. He’s begun to solve the former problem by occasionally catching on one knee with one leg splayed out, à la Carlos Ruiz, which allows him to be lower to the ground and present low pitches moving back toward the zone. Whether or not Cartaya does this depends on the pitch he’s called, and sometimes he’ll start from a crouch and drop to a knee as the pitch is in mid-flight. His ball-blocking is still pretty rough, though. It can take him a while to get to the ground and even when he does, he tends to give up long rebounds that allow runners to advance anyway. Of course, he has game-changing arm strength. Cartaya’s exchange is absurdly fast for a player his size, and he actively hunts baserunners when they reach, a threat to throw to the bases at any time. His gigantic frame and plus arm are a big part of where the Salvador Perez comps are coming from. Power on par with Salvy seems in play here, too. Cartaya had a whopping 41% hard-hit rate in 2022, which is already better than that of the average big league starting catcher (he’s 21!), and this is true of Cartaya in most underlying statistical categories and proprietary stats that attempt to measure power output objectively. The bumps and bruises that come with catching 100 games often make it tough for catchers to sustain peak offensive performance, and Cartaya hasn’t been exposed to that yet. His physicality perhaps gives him a better chance of withstanding that grind than most other prospects. Cartaya presents the Dodgers with a good problem, as they already have one of baseball’s best catchers in place ahead of him and the two are set to overlap on the active roster during the next three to four seasons.

Drafted: 1st Round, 2020 from Louisville (LAD)
Age 23.8 Height 6′ 5″ Weight 220 Bat / Thr L / R FV 55
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Curveball Changeup Command Sits/Tops
65/65 60/60 45/60 45/50 40/45 97-100 / 102

The quality of Miller’s outings improved throughout 2022 and after some early-season hiccups, he dominated Double-A in July and August and was promoted to Triple-A Oklahoma City for the final month of the season. In totality, Miller made 24 starts (if you count his Futures Game outing), worked 113 innings and posted a top-25 K-BB% among minor leaguers who threw at least 100 frames. That’s a 31% K% and 8% BB% across twice as many innings as the year before, when Miller was being built back up from the shortened 2020 season. And Miller held upper-90s velocity throughout, sitting 98-99 mph throughout most of his starts and rarely ever dipping below the 96-97 mph band with his fastball, which he also threw for a strike at a 70% clip in 2022. Despite some of the length and violence in Miller’s delivery, he’s demonstrated that he can sustain elite velocity deep into each start, throw strikes, and (so far) keep his arm healthy, as his only career IL stint was for an oblique strain. He’s set up to throw about 135 innings in 2023 (assuming a typical 20-inning increase) and, if his annual pattern of promotion is any indication, he’ll be given his first big league opportunity late this year (and push for a playoff roster spot), then compete for an Opening Day rotation job in 2024. Given the 2022 performance of some of their young 40-man occupants (strike-throwing issues for Ryan Pepiot, Andre Jackson), Miller might be Los Angeles’ most reliable in-season option to make a start if one or more of their projected starters goes down with injury.

In addition to the humming fastball, Miller wields three above-average (at least) secondary pitches that he mixes pretty evenly, especially against lefty batters. Firm, upper-80s changeups and sliders dart in different directions, and are thrown with 100 mph-looking effort. It’s tough for hitters who are looking for a fastball to do anything with them, even though Miller’s feel for locating his secondaries (especially his sinking changeup and low-80s curveball) is not sharp. Sheer unpredictability and velocity allow Miller to bully the strike zone without precision and still stay off barrels, while his well-executed pitches miss bats. It’s possible the ceiling on Miller’s curveball is big. A newer offering for Miller (at least based on the previous notes and data FanGraphs has), it spins at 2,900 rpm, 300 rpm more than his trademark slider. Miller’s arm slot varies a little bit when he throws it, which might tip off big league hitters, but his feel for the pitch stands to improve the most of all his offerings because of its newness, which makes its raw spin rate exciting. Velocity, repertoire depth, and fastball control have Miller poised to be an impact, mid-rotation starter in the near future, while long-term secondary projection could eventually pull him into a different stratosphere.

50 FV Prospects

Drafted: 1st Round, 2019 from North Carolina (LAD)
Age 25.2 Height 6′ 0″ Weight 207 Bat / Thr L / R FV 50
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
50/55 60/60 50/60 45/45 20/20 30

Busch has continued his long track record of excellent offensive performance so far in pro ball. He slashed .282/.429/.492 at North Carolina and is a .267/.374/.493 career hitter so far in the minors, spending most of 2022 at Triple-A and joining the 40-man roster after the season. No doubt aided by the hitting environment of the Pacific Coast League, Busch swatted 32 home runs and 70 extra-base hits last season. His power on contact is exceptional, and even though his hit tool has looked more average than above as he’s traversed the minors, the combination of power and patience here belongs in the heart of a big league order. Busch’s swing is simple but still athletic and explosive. His hands work with natural lift, but Busch keeps their path short and on time, and he can move the barrel all over the zone. He can get extended on pitches out away from him and drive them into the opposite field gap, and has the power to do damage that way, and he can move the bat head all over the strike zone. Even though he has no defensive position (Busch’s issues at second base go beyond just range, and he isn’t a fit there no matter what the rules around shifting are), he is one of the more well-rounded near-ready bats in the minors and could play an integral role for the Dodgers in 2022, though the addition of J.D. Martinez made that less likely. Instead, Busch’s path may lead through the outfield, where things are less settled for the Los Angeles. He has some outfield experience but very little in pro ball, and he doesn’t exactly look like a fish in water out there. Plus, a Dodgers source indicated to FanGraphs that they’ll continue to play Busch at second base despite his issues in the hopes he can develop there. Here he’s projected as a bat-only player. It’s tough to be a 2-WAR DH every year (Bryce Harper‘s 2022 100-game line was good for 2 WAR), but Busch has the hit/power combination to do it.

4. Miguel Vargas, LF

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2017 from Cuba (LAD)
Age 23.1 Height 6′ 3″ Weight 200 Bat / Thr R / R FV 50
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
50/60 45/45 40/45 40/40 40/50 45

A very skilled hitter with a career .313/.390/.488 line in the minors, Vargas made his big league debut in 2022 and is poised to play a more prominent role for the Dodgers this season after their many free agent departures, though probably not at third base. His feel for contact has been lauded since he first entered pro ball, while his defensive ability at third and his middling power have kept him in more of a “high probability role player” bucket here at FanGraphs than in a star-level FV tier despite his on-paper performance.

This is not to denigrate Vargas’ skill as a hitter, as he has incredible hand-eye coordination, terrific breaking ball recognition, and a great idea of the strike zone, the complement of skills that drive his profile. He’s also worked to make himself more lithe and athletic since first arriving on the Dodgers backfields shortly after he signed, when Dodgers coaches were asking a fresh-faced Vargas to make mid-game swing-changes that incorporated more movement into his conservative cut. Vargas doesn’t have the sort of projectable, statuesque frame typical of a hitter in his early 20s, and despite the relevant changes to his swing, he still isn’t an especially electric athlete and the cement appears quite dry on his physique, so there’s not much reason to project on his raw power going forward. The league-wide statistical standard at third base is very high right now due to the depth of excellent players at the top of that position group, and when you compare Vargas’ tools and underlying data to what constitutes an average regular at the hot corner, he tends to hover around average in terms of both contact quality and frequency, and a little below when it comes to high-end power, which is consistent with his visual evaluation. Fold below-average third base defense into that picture and while Vargas is going to be a doubles machine and productive big league player, he is probably not a star.

Even with Justin Turner‘s departure, the Dodgers are better equipped at third base than they are in the outfield, so Vargas is poised to see time at second base and in left field in 2023. He has very little experience at second and looked okay making routine plays there during the few reps he got in 2022, but it’s tough to project him there full-time based on how his range, hands, and actions look at third. The offensive bar in left is at roughly the same level as third base and if we project Vargas to be able to play a neutral left field (he’s below average right now but looks better than he ever has at third), it actually buoys his overall profile because his third base defense was pulling it down. In that case, we’re talking about a rock solid everyday player in the Mark Canha mold, and in fact Vargas’ career has tracked in a similar fashion, especially as we stand on the precipice of a likely position change.

5. Andy Pages, RF

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2017 from Dominican Republic (LAD)
Age 22.1 Height 6′ 1″ Weight 235 Bat / Thr R / R FV 50
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
30/40 60/60 50/60 45/45 50/50 60

We can safely put to bed any notion that Pages (pronounced pá-hāz) might stay in center field, and as such, his projection has narrowed as he shifts to being an average everyday corner outfield prospect by virtue of his ability to get to power, which he does via his combination of raw strength and the extreme lift in his swing. He’s hit 57 home runs combined the last two years while running sub-30% groundball rates and average launch angles in the 22-25 degree range, both of which are extreme by big league standards. As you would probably expect from a hitter with such a steep swing (this is about as steep as one can get without it becoming a problem), Pages swings and misses a fair bit, but not enough that it makes his prospecthood feel flimsy. He covers the inner two-thirds of the zone quite well (his in-zone contact rates are actually about as good as Miguel Vargas’), but his desire to pull and lift everything leaves him vulnerable on the outer edge and often impacts the quality of his contact. This approach will probably cause Pages to produce batting averages that are actually beneath his true talent feel to hit, but it’s also a big part of why he’s such a dangerous hitter, one likely to have peak seasons with 30-plus home runs.

6. Gavin Stone, SP

Drafted: 5th Round, 2020 from Central Arkansas (LAD)
Age 24.2 Height 6′ 1″ Weight 175 Bat / Thr R / R FV 50
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Changeup Command Sits/Tops
45/55 40/45 60/70 45/60 92-96 / 97

Stone was an athletic small-school prospect with a powerful drop-and-drive delivery and short, vertically-oriented arm action who the Dodgers selected late in the shortened 2020 draft. He was working with low-90s velocity and a shapely, low-80s breaking ball at that time. Since joining the Dodgers system, Stone’s changeup has come out of nowhere to become his best pitch, while his breaking ball was split into two distinct pitches — a mid-80s slider/cutter and a slower curveball — the latter of which was scrapped in 2022. He’s also added a few ticks of velocity and now sits 93-96 mph, velocity he’s maintained across two consecutive years of innings increases. Stone raced to the upper levels of the minors and generated one of the highest swinging strike rates among Double-A pitchers who threw at least 70 innings in 2022. He’s on pace to spend most of 2023 at Triple-A and be added to the Dodgers’ 40-man after the season, though it’s plausible that the big league club will have enough injuries ahead of him on the depth chart to accelerate his timeline. Even though Stone’s delivery looks like the sort that can create a power pitcher’s angle and shape on his fastball, it isn’t a dominant in-zone pitch, and his slider/cutter plays more due to command rather than pure stuff. He definitely has a starter’s mix, but just one of his three pitches is truly plus, giving Stone the look of a no. 4/5 starter on a contender. Stone’s plus (at least) on-mound athleticism and gorgeous arm action allow for continued projection on his fastball utility and command even though he’s in his mid-20s, which gives him bigger long-term ceiling than that.

45+ FV Prospects

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2022 from Dominican Republic (LAD)
Age 17.6 Height 6′ 3″ Weight 200 Bat / Thr L / L FV 45+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
25/55 55/65 25/60 40/30 20/40 40

Cling first to skepticism when a player hits like De Paula did in the DSL. The quality of play at the lowest level of affiliated pro baseball is so coarse and uneven that it renders statistics generated there almost meaningless. The inherently small sample plays a role, as does the huge variation in physical maturity athlete to athlete at a level of play full of teenagers, where a few months of physical maturity means a lot. De Paula’s buzzy 2022 line — .349/.448/.522 with more walks than strikeouts — on its own isn’t an indication of anything, and one need only peruse other elite single-season DSL performances to know that’s true. Surely De Paula’s presence on the Dodgers’ instructs roster, where he’d be facing a select and more mature group of prospects in front of more scouts, would provide an opportunity to sober up the statline-drive hype and lay actual eyes on the player to provide a more realistic assessment.

Well, it turns out De Paula is actually very talented. He has some of the markers of a hitter whose DSL line is a caricature of his physical maturity, since he’s built like a blue chip tight end prospect at age 17. But his swing is lovely and graceful while still being powerful, and his feel to hit is very exciting, weaponizing his mature strength into extra-base power. The comps that scouts (not just Dodgers personnel, scouts from outside the org) are throwing around here are borderline irresponsible, star DH/LF types who are currently among the most dangerous hitters in baseball. De Paula’s size is likely to push him way, way down the defensive spectrum, maybe even off of it entirely, but the ceiling on his bat is so huge that it may not matter.

8. Nick Nastrini, SIRP

Drafted: 4th Round, 2021 from UCLA (LAD)
Age 22.9 Height 6′ 3″ Weight 215 Bat / Thr R / R FV 45+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Curveball Changeup Command Sits/Tops
60/60 50/60 55/60 40/50 30/40 94-96 / 98

Nastrini dealt with several amateur injuries (including TOS surgery as a freshman at UCLA) and couldn’t get out of the first inning in either of his final two UCLA starts, but he pitched very well in the California Collegiate League just before the 2021 draft and had late helium because his stuff was so good there. By 2021 instructs the secret was out: Nastrini was sitting 95-98 mph with two plus breaking balls and sometimes throwing strikes. The industry eagerly anticipated his 2022 to see if he could hold the huge stuff as a starter and continue to throw a passable number of strikes, and for the most part he did while reaching Double-A Tulsa. Parked in the 93-97 mph range, Nastrini threw his fastball for strikes as a 69% clip, generated a ton of whiffs with both his slider and curveball, and started to incorporate a mid-80s changeup into his mix. He punched out 35% of opposing hitters while walking about 11%, the latter in an area of concern but not so bad that a lack of control will prevent Nastrini from being a big leaguer altogether. He’s already 23 and in the upper levels of the minors, but because Nastrini was only drafted in 2021, the Dodgers have the next two or three years to try to get the strike throwing in a better place before they truly have to consider moving him to the bullpen. If they do, he has late-inning stuff.

45 FV Prospects

Drafted: 3rd Round, 2019 from Butler (LAD)
Age 25.4 Height 6′ 3″ Weight 215 Bat / Thr R / R FV 45
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Changeup Command Sits/Tops
55/55 45/45 60/60 40/45 92-95 / 97

The stuff that kept Pepiot just outside the global Top 100 last year was evident again in 2022, as he struggled with walks at the big league level and his mid-80s slider/cutter doesn’t appear to have the vertical depth to be a traditional bat-missing breaking ball. He’s still a damn good pitcher who projects either as an inefficient five-inning starter or an excellent reliever capable of giving you four-to-six outs at a time. The angle and shape of Pepiot’s fastball gives it bat-missing ability at the top of the zone even though it has average velocity, and his high-spin changeup is a plus offering that plays down because Pepiot’s feel for locating it comes and goes. There are times when he can be effectively wild with the cambio, accidentally running it back over the glove-side corner of the plate in unhittable fashion, and then there are times when the pitch isn’t enticing at all. Surprisingly, Pepiot’s cutter generated the highest swinging strike rate of his three offerings in his 36 big league innings and, after he arrived in pro ball with a lousy curveball, he’s developed a good enough breaking ball to have a starter’s mix, it’s just that the command component remains behind.

10. River Ryan, SP

Drafted: 11th Round, 2021 from UNC Pembroke (SDP)
Age 24.4 Height 6′ 2″ Weight 195 Bat / Thr R / R FV 45
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Curveball Changeup Cutter Command Sits/Tops
55/60 45/55 40/50 50/55 30/55 93-95 / 97

Ryan was a two-way player at UNC Pembroke and one of the more exciting pitchers on the Padres backfields during their 2021 instructs period, when he hadn’t yet pitched in an affiliated game. A plus on-mound athlete with a great arm action and a carrying fastball that was in the 93-95 mph range, he was an exciting, tip-of-the-iceberg dev project for a Padres system that had recent success with two-way and conversion arms, most prominently Luis Patiño. Then the Dodgers plucked him away in a trade for corner role player Matt Beaty in late March of 2022, and we started to see parts of the iceberg that lay beneath the surface during Ryan’s first full season as a pro pitcher. He was more in the 95-97 mph range throughout 2022 and kept throwing quality strikes amid the velo uptick; his primary breaking ball, previously his 82-84 curveball, became a nasty slider/cutter in the 89-91 mph range. Ryan also has feel for killing spin on his changeup, and the rate stats on all of his pitches are very impressive for someone who has only been focusing on the craft for a couple of years. He’ll turn 25 during the 2023 season, but from a scouting and development standpoint, Ryan is still quite young and projectable. His on-mound athleticism and the pace at which he’s made adjustments manifest on the field are both very impressive and portend an ability to do so going forward. He has another two seasons to develop before the Dodgers have to 40-man him, a stretch that will be about building his innings load in an effort to make him a big league starter. Of the many relief-risk prospects in this system, Ryan is the one with the most typical-looking delivery and on-mound athleticism.

Drafted: 1st Round, 2021 from UMS-Wright Prep HS (LAD)
Age 20.5 Height 6′ 2″ Weight 210 Bat / Thr L / L FV 45
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Curveball Command Sits/Tops
55/60 55/60 60/70 20/45 93-97 / 98

Bruns, the Dodgers’ first rounder from 2021, entered pro ball with plenty of perceived relief risk due to strike-throwing issues and an effortful delivery exhibited in high school. He also had premium stuff, a carrying fastball up to 97 mph, and a power breaking ball that was already plus. Bruns’ physique and delivery changed quickly and by the spring of 2022, he was more svelte than he was during his pre-draft summer and also landing more open, resulting in a high three-quarters arm slot instead of his extreme over-the-top style from high school. This hasn’t affected the action on Bruns’ pitches or detracted from the depth on his now two plus breaking balls, but it also hasn’t solved his strike-throwing issues, which were quite severe in 2022. Bruns walked a batter per inning across 21 very short starts, typically two or three innings apiece. He’s raw as a strike thrower, but has developed in other areas. For instance, his mid-80s slider is fairly new, and Bruns’ curveball already has much more power than it did in high school. It’s fair to question whether he’d continue to sit 94-97, as he did in 2022, if asked to throw a starter’s load of innings, something Bruns will have to answer over the course of the next few seasons while his innings total builds. He could be a Blake Snell sequel — certainly his stuff is in that realm — and he might be more durable than Snell if he can become more efficient.

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2021 from Dominican Republic (LAD)
Age 19.3 Height 6′ 2″ Weight 176 Bat / Thr R / R FV 45
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
25/55 40/60 25/60 45/40 30/45 40

Doncon became scout famous on the Arizona backfields when, having just turned 18, he was sizzling hard contact all over the field against a rather select group of opposing pitchers at his first stateside instructs. The twitchy infielder has 70-grade bat speed and feel for hitting pitches on the outer third to the opposite field. He can flatten his bat path to impact pitches at the letters, he’s shown an ability to make in-flight adjustments to breaking balls and barrel them even when he’s out on his front foot against them, and he can get the bat head out and crush weak stuff that gets left on the inner half. Doncon also likes to swing a lot, and even though it was evident through visual evaluation that he was an aggressive hitter, we now have a season of stateside data to help us understand exactly how swing-happy he is and those metrics are fairly concerning. His 35% chase% and 55% swing rate are both well above the big league average, especially the swing rate, which would be in the top 20 among major league players who saw at least 350 PA in 2022. Doncon performed anyway, and only punched out 17% of the time on the complex, then just five times in 43 PA after a promotion to Rancho Cucamonga. So far he’s simply been talented enough to get away with a poor approach, and there are plenty of impact big leaguers for whom this is true (the Bo Bichettes, Luis Roberts, and Javier Báezs of the world).

That group of players is aided by their defensive ability, which isn’t a positive part of Doncon’s profile. Currently a SS/2B, Doncon is not a good defensive infielder and is likely to move off the dirt entirely at some point in the minors. If it turns out he can’t play center field, then we’re talking about a corner outfielder with a low-OBP skill set, which is terrifying, and this possibility makes Doncon an extremely volatile prospect. But circle back to his wood-whipping talent, and consider that the lithe and wiry Doncon is extremely likely to grow into more strength and power as he matures, and there is ample reason to be excited about his future in spite of the risk. Rickie Weeks Jr. and Alfonso Soriano have been both thrown around as comps for Doncon, with the latter’s skill set (couldn’t play second base, hit for huge power despite barely ever walking) tailored most closely to the youngster’s.

Drafted: 2nd Round, 2022 from Louisville (LAD)
Age 21.9 Height 6′ 1″ Weight 220 Bat / Thr L / R FV 45
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
35/55 50/50 30/45 45/45 30/45 30

Hidden under the Henry Davis bushel, Rushing finally got to play regularly in 2022 and played himself into the draft’s first day. While he isn’t a polished receiver or ball-blocker, Rushing is okay at both and considering how little he’s played, he feels like a good bet to catch if he can improve his throwing to second base. His footwork while leaving his crouch is often messy and impacts his accuracy as well as his pop times. Every once in a while he’ll make a clean throw to the bag in the 1.9-2.0 second range. The raw athleticism and effort to catch are here, it’s just going to take Rushing a little longer to nail down the finer points than most college catchers. If he can get there, he could be a team’s primary catcher, because the physical Rushing (who body comps to Daulton Varsho, another tightly-wound, short-levered catcher) has a contact/power combination that would play easily back there. Most of his damage comes at the bottom of the zone, where Rushing’s swing has natural lift, but he covers the entire zone and can drive high fastballs to the opposite field with power. Because Rushing is best at barrelling low pitches, he tends to swing over tempting changeups below the zone, but he otherwise has pretty stable bat-to-ball skills, and he posted a nearly two-to-one BIP-to-whiff ratio in his first season of real college reps and kept looking good in Arizona late in the year even though he had endured a whole slate and the AZ heat. He’s a tip-of-the-iceberg college bat with exciting ceiling.

14. Jorbit Vivas, 2B

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2017 from Venezuela (LAD)
Age 21.8 Height 5′ 10″ Weight 171 Bat / Thr L / R FV 45
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
50/60 35/35 30/35 45/45 40/50 40

Vivas is still short but he’s no longer small, as over the last couple of years his back, shoulders, arms, and thighs have swollen to an impressive size. This has resulted in a modest uptick in power, and after Vivas hit just two total homers in his first couple of pro seasons, he’s reached double digits in each of the last two. But Vivas’ skill set is still rooted in his bat-to-ball skills, which are enhanced by his compact swing and short-levered stature. He’s a dynamic in-the-box athlete who swings really hard but still makes a ton of contact, running an 89% in-zone contact rate in 2022. While he has experience at both second and third base, Vivas’ arm strength is not typical of a big league left side infielder, and he’s arguably landlocked at second base only. Without positional versatility helping to carry him to a big league role, he looks more like a second-division second baseman who’d perform at a 1.5-ish WAR clip across a whole season of at-bats, but of course that would require a team without a superior alternative at the keystone to roster him.

15. Jacob Amaya, SS

Drafted: 11th Round, 2017 from South Hills HS (CA) (LAD)
Age 24.3 Height 6′ 0″ Weight 180 Bat / Thr R / R FV 45
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
45/50 40/40 30/30 55/55 50/55 50

Amaya is a skills-over-tools infielder whose at-bat quality and viability at shortstop should enable him to play a utility infield role in the near future. A lack of physicality and power will limit his impact, but Amaya has a great eye for the strike zone, as well as an idea of which pitches he can drive for doubles. He’s got a short, punchy swing you can’t just beat with velo. His hands were uncharacteristically inconsistent at the end of 2022, but Amaya has historically been a plus hands and actions shortstop with average range and arm strength, and he’s currently the best defensive infielder on Los Angeles’ 40-man.

40+ FV Prospects

16. Nick Frasso, SP

Drafted: 4th Round, 2020 from Loyola Marymount (TOR)
Age 24.2 Height 6′ 5″ Weight 200 Bat / Thr R / R FV 40+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Changeup Command Sits/Tops
50/55 45/50 50/60 40/50 94-96 / 98

Frasso was an atypical college draftee, with his prospectdom more about projection than present stuff. He started throwing harder pretty quickly, sitting 95 mph early in 2021 when he had merely topped out there at Loyola Marymount, but in June of that year, Frasso blew out and required Tommy John. Not even 11 months clear of the surgery Frasso looked fantastic on the Blue Jays backfields, sitting 94-96 and touching 97-98 in early outings, and he was traded to Los Angeles for Mitch White not long after that. Perhaps more important than the arm strength coming back are the improvements Frasso’s secondaries have shown. His breaking ball has added power and velocity. Once a loopy, low-80s slurve, Frasso’s slider is now a solid big league offering in the 83-85 mph range, and he also has a high-spin changeup with lots of horizontal movement. It’s his third-most used offering at the moment but it has massive potential as Frasso continues to build experience with it, and it’s projected as his best eventual pitch here. All of this is seasoned with a deceptive cross-body delivery and huge extension. Los Angeles hustled him to Tulsa for the last month of the season and he’s on track for a 2024 debut, especially if Frasso can sustain the relatively new velo across more innings.

17. Emmet Sheehan, MIRP

Drafted: 6th Round, 2021 from Boston College (LAD)
Age 23.1 Height 6′ 5″ Weight 220 Bat / Thr R / R FV 40+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Curveball Changeup Command Sits/Tops
60/60 40/50 45/45 60/70 30/40 93-96 / 97

There are a lot of moving parts to Sheehan’s profile and he projects to be an impact multi-inning reliever when the dust settles. He’s had a velo spike, added a second breaking ball, been moved back and forth between the bullpen and the rotation, and has dealt with a couple of injuries dating back to college, which limited him to just 28 innings prior to his draft year. At times, Sheehan’s delivery seems deliberate and out of sync, which is largely where his relief projection comes from, though the balance and power he shows in his lower half and the way he gets down the mound are indicative of a special level of athleticism. After some early 2022 time on the IL, Sheehan was dominant late in the summer with Great Lakes, stringing together several good five- and six-inning starts in August before a promotion to Tulsa and a Fall League stint.

His heater features big carry through the strike zone, making it a potential plus-plus pitch if he can sustain the mid-90s velo that comes and goes depending on how well synced his delivery is in a given start. Sheehan has leaned more on his changeup since turning pro. He threw more curveballs (a pitch that’s been de-emphasized but that Sheehan still uses occasionally) than changeups in college, but the latter is what garnered more swings and misses. An invisible parachute pops out of the back of his changeup as it approaches the plate, and hitters flail over the top of it. Sheehan doesn’t have great feel for his newer slider, but that pitch is still in the nascent stages of development; at times it’s harder and looks cuttery, while at others it looks like a typical slider. From one point of view, Sheehan’s history of injury and his atypical mechanical look funnel him toward the bullpen; from another, his ability to make adjustments on the fly despite relative inexperience might continue until he’s a complete starting pitching prospect. In either case, Sheehan’s stuff is going to play in the big leagues, and he’s projected here as a multi-inning bridge.

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2019 from Venezuela (LAD)
Age 20.3 Height 5′ 9″ Weight 170 Bat / Thr R / R FV 40+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
30/55 30/40 30/35 50/50 30/45 40

Fernandez is one of the more fun to watch prospects in all of pro baseball, as the pocket-sized catcher also sees time at second base. Fernandez is a loose, above-average rotational athlete with an athletic swing and lightning-fast hands. He’s hard to beat with fastballs because of his short levers and he tones down his leg kick with two strikes, prioritizing balls in play. His twitch and speed give him enough infield range and make him quick enough out of his crouch to give you hope that he can viably play both spots despite lacking great arm strength, and Fernandez is a great ball-blocker. His skill set reads an awful lot like Austin Barnes‘ does, maybe with a bit more offensive production and more frequent reps at second.

19. Jose Ramos, RF

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2018 from Panama (LAD)
Age 22.0 Height 5′ 11″ Weight 200 Bat / Thr R / R FV 40+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
30/40 60/60 45/55 45/40 40/50 70

Coming off a season in which he hit 25 homers, Ramos might have played his way out of a 40-man spot during the 2022 Arizona Fall League, where he was haggard-looking and extremely whiff-prone. The whiffs weren’t isolated to Arizona, however. Ramos swings and misses in the zone at a rate roughly twice of what is typical for a big league corner outfielder, up near 30%. His swing is so uphill that he struggles to get on top of fastballs and even swings underneath some hanging breaking balls, a pitch he doesn’t tend to recognize very well. There is still huge raw power and long-term power projection here, and Ramos’ ability to pepper dead center and the right/center gap with contact that threatens the wall is amazing for a hitter his age, especially one with room on his frame for yet more mass. It’s prudent to be forgiving of a gassed Fall League look, especially if the player in question had a full season of reps leading into it, as was the case with Ramos, who played 123 regular season games. But he looked rough enough in the fall that even as a .277/.360/.483 career hitter in the minors, and after hitting 19 homers in just 95 Midwest League games in 2022, the Dodgers left him exposed to the Rule 5 Draft and he went unselected. It’s tough to project these issues improving as the quality of pitching Ramos faces is only going to get better. Instead it makes sense to look to power-over-hit corner outfielders as a guide for how to value Ramos, who you hope can eventually perform like an Adam Duvall or Hunter Renfroe.

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2018 from Venezuela (LAD)
Age 20.5 Height 6′ 4″ Weight 215 Bat / Thr R / R FV 40+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Curveball Changeup Command Sits/Tops
60/60 55/60 50/50 30/45 30/50 94-98 / 100

Henriquez is a hard-throwing youngster with a nasty slider, built like a prototypical NFL quarterback at a broad-shouldered 6-foot-4. He was routinely sitting 95-98 mph throughout 2021 and ’22, albeit in truncated outings that were often between two and four innings long. His combination of size, arm strength, and peak slider quality made him one of the most impressive teenage pitching prospects in baseball entering 2022, but there was no way of knowing whether he could sustain that kind of stuff across a starter’s slate of innings. After 2022, we still don’t know, as Henriquez exceeded four innings in only one of his 13 starts and was eventually shut down with an elbow injury that required post-season Tommy John. That means Henriquez probably won’t pitch in 2023, his 40-man evaluation year. It’s tough to value a prospect in Henriquez’s circumstance: he has only thrown about 50 innings each of the last three seasons (when you combine regular season and backfield work), won’t pitch again for over a year, and his 40-man timeline puts a ton of pressure on his 2024 performance. But Henriquez’s talent is on par with a top 30-40 draft pick and he’s about the age of a college prospect.

21. Carlos Duran, SIRP

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2017 from Dominican Republic (LAD)
Age 21.4 Height 6′ 7″ Weight 240 Bat / Thr R / R FV 40+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Curveball Changeup Command Sits/Tops
60/60 60/70 45/50 40/45 30/40 95-97 / 99

Duran has had a litany of arm issues, culminating with Tommy John after the 2022 season, which will likely cost him ’23. Shut down for a while with a shoulder injury in the spring, Duran’s velocity was intact when he returned and he pitched very well for the first month he was back before his performance dipped in late July and August. He’ll show you feel for four pitches: an upper-90s sinker, an upper-70s curveball he lands for strikes, a mid-80s changeup with action that complements his sinker well, and a mid-to-upper-80s slider with an elite spin rate (both his slider and fastballs saw 300 rpm bumps compared to data sourced in 2021). Duran’s bulky size and violent delivery have been a somewhat scary aspect of his prospectdom since he first showed up on The Ranch, and despite his repertoire depth there was relief risk rooted in his profile even before the injuries. The timing of Duran’s rehab will make it tough for him to return at all in 2023, even for instructs, which also costs him the opportunity to start rebuilding innings; that will have to wait for 2024. This makes it very likely he ends up in the bullpen, especially if his stuff is good when he finally does return, since he’ll necessitate a 40-man roster spot.

40 FV Prospects

22. Michael Grove, SP

Drafted: 2nd Round, 2018 from West Virginia (LAD)
Age 26.0 Height 6′ 3″ Weight 200 Bat / Thr R / R FV 40
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Curveball Command Sits/Tops
45/45 60/60 50/50 45/50 90-93 / 98

Grove was working 92-96 mph with a good slider when he blew out his elbow two months into his sophomore season at West Virginia. Aside from some pre-draft bullpens, he didn’t pitch as a junior, and spent the rest of the year finishing rehab and working on secondary stuff in the ‘pen. The Dodgers, a team that tends to take risks on rehabbers who otherwise wouldn’t fall to them if healthy, popped Grove in the 2018 draft’s second round; he was the first player taken that year who wasn’t on our pre-draft ranking.

Since then, Grove, like lots of Dodgers pitchers, has been handled pretty gingerly from an innings standpoint, with his 90 IP in 2022 representing the most of his career. Perhaps that means Grove wouldn’t throw quite so hard if he were working like a typical starter, but he has thrown harder since his pro debut, going from the 90-93 mph range up to 92-95 and peaking at 98 in 2022, when he made a handful of major league spot starts. He’s the type of starter who would hold down a five-and-dive role in most teams’ rotations, but with Los Angeles, he’s on the fringe of the active roster. Grove has a vertical arm slot but tends to work with downhill plane toward the bottom of the zone, which makes his fastball pretty hittable in there and causes him to nibble. It does, however, help him set up his plus slider, which looks like a fastball near the bottom of the zone until it bends beneath it. His curveball, which he tends to land in the zone, has big depth and different shape than the slider. The breaking ball utility here is diverse enough that Grove has a starter’s repertoire even though he barely throws a changeup. It’s a no. 4/5 starter’s repertoire with a low projected innings count that slides him into more of a fifth starter’s projection.

23. Landon Knack, SP

Drafted: 2nd Round, 2020 from East Tennessee State (LAD)
Age 26.0 Height 6′ 2″ Weight 225 Bat / Thr R / R FV 40
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Curveball Changeup Cutter Command Sits/Tops
55/55 50/55 45/50 55/60 40/50 91-96 / 99

Knack had multiple freak shoulder injuries as an underclassman and had 40-grade velocity in the two years afterward. He took a huge leap as a fifth year senior and struck out 51 hitters while walking just one in 25 innings of work before the 2020 shutdown. Knack didn’t break camp in 2021 until June, when the Dodgers sent him to High-A for his pro debut, and he dominated there across about 10 outings before a late-season promotion to Double-A. His regular season ended in September as the Dodgers shelved him with a hamstring strain, then he picked up innings in the Fall League, where he looked fine. He was once again not ready to break camp to start 2022 and was left back in extended spring training due to another hamstring tweak; later in the season he hit the IL again, throwing just 64 innings on the year. When healthy, Knack can miss bats with all four of his pitches, three of which he tends to mix in pretty evenly (fastball, changeup, slider) with a mid-90s fastball leading the way. The injury piece combined with Knack’s fluctuating velocity when healthy is pulling down his profile, which fits neatly as a contender’s no. 4/5 starter when he’s healthy.

Drafted: 11th Round, 2021 from Oklahoma State (LAD)
Age 22.5 Height 6′ 1″ Weight 194 Bat / Thr L / L FV 40
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Curveball Changeup Cutter Command Sits/Tops
45/50 55/55 45/50 30/40 35/55 92-95 / 96

Wrobleski’s nomadic amateur career path wound through Clemson, State College of Florida, and finally through Stillwater, Oklahoma in his draft year. Wrobleski had TJ close to the 2021 draft and didn’t get on an affiliate’s mound until the very end of 2022, then picked up more innings on the complex in the fall. He’s a little behind the developmental eight ball for a pitcher his age but looked good on the backfields, sitting 93-95 mph for three innings at a time, working with an above-average curveball, a changeup that flashes average, and a fringe cutter. When you consider his ability to manipulate fastball shape and movement, he essentially has five pitches. Wrobleski has traditionally sat in the 88-91 range, and if he can sustain the 2022 velo bump across a full season of innings while also polishing up his changeup (arm decel was evident in the fall), he’ll move quickly and threaten to snare a rotation spot a few years from now.

25. Jonny DeLuca, CF

Drafted: 25th Round, 2019 from Oregon (LAD)
Age 24.5 Height 6′ 0″ Weight 200 Bat / Thr R / R FV 40
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
40/45 50/50 40/45 55/55 40/45 50

DeLuca left Oregon as a speed-first switch-hitter but has gotten stronger as a pro (he’s actually broken some of the equipment the Dodgers use to measure lower body strength) and is now more of a well-rounded, righty-hitting outfield prospect with a fair blend of contact and power, both of which are slightly undercut by his swing decisions. While he’s capable of playing all three outfield spots, DeLuca is a 40 in center field and his best fit is in right. He doesn’t have a corner regular’s tools, but he does enough stuff well to have obvious big league roster utility, pinch-hitting here, pinch-running there, representing a defensive upgrade once in a while and getting the occasional start against a left-hander. That’s a modern fifth outfielder. He was added to the 40-man after the season, and with Los Angeles’ outfield situation in flux, he’s likely to debut at some point in 2023.

26. James Outman, RF

Drafted: 7th Round, 2018 from Sacramento State (LAD)
Age 25.6 Height 6′ 3″ Weight 215 Bat / Thr L / R FV 40
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
30/40 55/55 40/50 60/60 50/50 55

Outman is a pull-and-lift hitter who has above-average power and speed that has helped him go from small school college prospect to imminent big league contributor. His uppercut swing helps him hit the ball in the air regularly (he hit a whopping 31 homers in 2022), and his ball/strike recognition helps him hunt pitches he can damage. A lack of barrel control and in-zone vulnerability against letter-high fastballs means he will likely end up with a 40-grade hit tool at best, and one source was also bothered by his breaking ball recognition. A lefty-hitting outfielder with this kind of power, even with a below-average hit tool, is typically a solid big league role player as the larger half of a platoon. Outman’s feel in center field is only fair, and while he can play out there in a pinch, he’s better suited for right field, where he played all but a few times during the back half of 2022. Of all the outfielders who figure to be competing for a 2023 big league roster spot, only Outman and Jason Heyward hit left-handed, making them a particularly good fit with some combination of the righty-hitting Chris Taylor, Miguel Vargas, and J.D. Martinez as the LF/DH group.

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2021 from Dominican Republic (LAD)
Age 19.5 Height 6′ 3″ Weight 220 Bat / Thr S / R FV 40
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
20/40 45/55 20/50 30/30 30/40 45

While he has some things to clean up on defense, Liranzo’s offensive ceiling as a switch-hitting catcher with power makes him one of the more exciting, higher-variance prospects in the lower part of this system. Liranzo is extremely strong and physical for a player his age and he shows power, as well as uncommon hand-eye coordination, from both sides of the plate. Even though his swings can sometimes be awkward and off balance, which is typical for a switch-hitter this age, Liranzo can still find a way to put the bat on the ball and use his strength to drive it somewhere hard. When he takes a comfortable, max-effort hack, there is rare power for a teenage switch hitter here, let alone one who might catch. Half of Liranzo’s 2022 starts came at either first base or DH, which makes sense given the presence of Jesus Galiz on the complex roster, but on its own would be an indictment of his defensive chops. Liranzo is far from a lock to stay back there (his arm stroke is long and low, and he may eventually have mobility issues since he’s already the size he is), but if he can, his ceiling is huge because of his offensive potential.

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2022 from Curacao (LAD)
Age 17.9 Height 6′ 3″ Weight 175 Bat / Thr R / R FV 40
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
20/35 45/70 25/60 55/50 30/50 60

If this entire farm system walked off one giant bus in uniform, Martinus would stand apart from the rest because of his broad-shouldered, statuesque frame, which might grow into huge raw power as he enters his prime. His big, noisy swing features a huge leg kick and bat wrap, and produces some epic pull-side contact when he’s on time, which isn’t often. There’s hit tool risk stemming from both Martinus’ pitch selection and his feel for contact, but there’s no telling what kind of power he might grow into.

29. Luis Valdez, SP

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2019 from Mexico (LAD)
Age 19.5 Height 6′ 2″ Weight 158 Bat / Thr L / L FV 40
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Curveball Changeup Command Sits/Tops
40/45 50/50 55/60 25/60 86-92 / 93

Valdez doesn’t throw all that hard, but he carved the Arizona Complex League by commanding a plus changeup and average breaking ball. The wispy southpaw might yet throw harder as his frame matures, but shape and angle might cap Valdez’s fastball effectiveness even if that happens. Lefties with plus command of plus changeups tend to pitch in the big leagues, and Valdez is ticketed for the back of a rotation at his current velocities.

30. Samuel Munoz, 1B

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2022 from Dominican Republic (LAD)
Age 18.3 Height 6′ 1″ Weight 190 Bat / Thr L / R FV 40
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
25/60 35/50 20/45 40/40 30/50 45

Munoz had a strong pro debut in the DSL. He has precocious feel for the barrel and is short to the ball for a hitter his size. The combination of Munoz’s feel to hit and his frame’s projectability excites scouts, though with strength and power will likely come a move from the outfield to first base. It may also take a swing change to get to all the power, as Munoz’s downward cut is geared for low-lying contact, but feel for loft may also come naturally. Of the young hitters in this system with a chance to break out, he’s the one with the most advanced skill for contact.

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2021 from Venezuela (LAD)
Age 18.5 Height 6′ 2″ Weight 205 Bat / Thr R / R FV 40
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Curveball Changeup Command Sits/Tops
50/55 40/50 50/55 30/40 25/55 93-96 / 99

Martinez’s fastball was sitting 95-98 mph when he was still a few months shy of his 18th birthday, a spike from the fall before when it was merely sitting 92-95. Two starts into the Complex League season, Martinez was shut down with an elbow strain and didn’t pitch again in 2022. He was the youngest player at the Dodgers’ 2021 instructs, the lone prospect with a 2004 DOB, and yet he had more polish than projectability, and his scouting report read more like that of a college pitchability prospect with a low-variance back-of-the-rotation eval until his velocity surged last spring.

Martinez’s fastball doesn’t have big life and it gets tagged when it’s in the meat of the zone, but he is already throwing strikes (much more than most high school pitchers who throw this hard) and has a compact, repeatable delivery, so future plus fastball command seems in play here. His best looking secondary pitch is his upper-70s curveball, which has big depth and plus raw movement, but it doesn’t play great off of his fastball. While Martinez has a mid-80s slider (it bites late, but lacks length and is almost cutter-y) and an upper-80s changeup, both pitches are below-average right now. He is much more physically mature than most other pitchers his age, his build more akin to a catcher’s, so there wasn’t an obvious path toward more velocity here, and yet he was still throwing much harder last spring. He needs to improve his secondary stuff to really break out. Until then, he feels more like a high-probability back-of-the rotation type, which is an odd thing to say about a pitching prospect this young whose season ended with an injury.

32. Ronan Kopp, SIRP

Drafted: 12th Round, 2021 from South Mountain CC (AZ) (LAD)
Age 20.4 Height 6′ 7″ Weight 250 Bat / Thr L / L FV 40
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Changeup Command Sits/Tops
60/60 55/60 30/40 20/35 94-97 / 99

There was a little while during his pre-draft summer coming out of high school when Kopp looked like a potential first round pick. He was an extremely projectable, 6-foot-4 (now 6-foot-6) lefty who was already reaching back for mid-90s heat. But Kopp’s ability to find the strike zone evaporated, and he struggled to throw strikes against even Single-A varsity hitters in Arizona during his senior year at a little school in Scottsdale. His velocity regressed as he desperately aimed for the zone, and not only did area scouts start to develop fatigue here, but Kopp also de-committed from ASU and instead opted to go to South Mountain Junior College, where these issues continued. Fresh eyes got to watch Kopp throw in the MLB Draft League and at the Combine, seeing a young, projectable lefty with huge arm strength rather than fixating on his issues. Now pro scouts can’t believe Kopp lasted until the 12th round. He spent 2022 working two and three innings at a time mostly at Low-A Rancho, where he sat 94-97 mph with a routinely plus slider. Kopp is still quite wild and will need to progress in the strike-throwing realm to have any sort of regular big league role, but his stuff is consistent with a late-inning lefty reliever. He’s a FV tier behind pitchers with similar stuff because of his distance from the big leagues, and because his command is a bit more tenuous than the Sheehan/Henriquez types.

33. Joel Ibarra, MIRP

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2018 from Mexico (LAD)
Age 20.5 Height 6′ 1″ Weight 225 Bat / Thr R / R FV 40
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Changeup Cutter Command Sits/Tops
60/60 55/60 40/45 50/55 20/40 94-96 / 98

Ibarra was intriguing as a two-way amateur because of his on-mound athleticism and the whippiness of his arm action, but his stuff was only in the 88-92 mph range and he was very wild. His pro career began as a shortstop in the 2019 DSL. He spent 2021 in the DSL again, this time on the mound, and was a walk-prone 90-94 mph. During 2022 extended spring training, he showed a massive velocity uptick, sitting 94-96, up to 98, and held that throughout what amounted to approximately 50 innings across the season when you factor in his extended and instructs innings. He bends in some plus 82-84 mph sliders at roughly 2,700 rpm, some plus cutters at 92-93 mph and an occasionally good changeup or two in the 86-88 mph band, but these are all inconsistent, which one might expect given Ibarra’s developmental context. He is a 19-year-old former shortstop with monster stuff but still very little feel for location, behind enough that he has pure relief projection here even though he’s only recently focused on pitching. Keeping Ibarra stretched out in a starting or multi-inning relief capacity will help him polish up those secondaries, though, which is important considering that 2023 is already his 40-man evaluation year. If he can throw strikes while reaching High-A, there’s a chance he’s added after the season. He has late-inning relief potential but is still a long way off from that reality.

34. Oswaldo Osorio, SS

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2022 from Venezuela (LAD)
Age 17.7 Height 6′ 1″ Weight 171 Bat / Thr L / R FV 40
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
20/40 40/50 20/45 50/60 45/55 55

The second-youngest prospect on Los Angeles’ instructs roster, Osorio was also one of the group’s better infield defenders. He’s a skill-based fit at short but there’s still a wide error bar on his physical projection at this stage of his career. His pretty, low-ball swing generates nearly average pull-side power, impressive for a middle infield prospect this age, but swings like this tend to be vulnerable to hard, high fastballs, which Osorio really hasn’t seen yet. The defensive ability and physical projection are the pillars of Osorio’s prospectdom.

35. Jesus Galiz, C

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2021 from Venezuela (LAD)
Age 19.1 Height 6′ 1″ Weight 200 Bat / Thr R / R FV 40
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
20/40 45/50 20/40 30/20 40/55 70

While Galiz isn’t quite as polished a defender as his amateur billing might have indicated, he does do some ridiculous stuff back there and has enough of an offensive foundation to consider him a high-probability backup who has a puncher’s chance to be a primary catcher. Galiz can really throw, with pop times in the 1.85-1.94 range during 2022 looks, lots of them lasers Galiz sends to second base from his knees. There’s hit tool risk here. He swings through a lot of pitches in the zone and his head tends to fly all over the place as he does. From a bat speed perspective, Galiz is quite exciting for a teenage catcher with a premium defensive trait.

35+ FV Prospects

Drafted: 3rd Round, 2021 from Gilman School (MD) (LAD)
Age 20.5 Height 6′ 3″ Weight 170 Bat / Thr R / R FV 35+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Curveball Changeup Command Sits/Tops
40/50 30/50 45/55 30/40 30/40 91-94 / 96

Heubeck brought a snappy curveball and projectable frame to the table as a high school draftee, and there was hope that he could really pop as a prospect if he could develop more velocity and find more consistent feel for release. So far neither has happened, and Heubeck struggled through 15 short, inefficient starts in 2022 once he finally left the complex and went to an affiliate. While his delivery is very loose and fluid, Heubeck doesn’t repeat it consistently right now, working in the low-90s with carry at the top of the strike zone. That inconsistency extends to his curveball quality, which is nasty when Heubeck snaps it off right. The Dodgers have tended to be an organization that can help players like Heubeck tighten these things up and come closer to reaching their ceilings, but league-wide, for every long-term pitching prospect who hits in a big way, there are many more for whom things remain stagnant or go awry. This is the track Heubeck is on. He’s list-worthy because of the hope that things will somehow click, which is still feasible at his age.

37. Alex Freeland, 3B

Drafted: 3rd Round, 2022 from Central Florida (LAD)
Age 21.4 Height 6′ 2″ Weight 200 Bat / Thr S / R FV 35+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
30/45 45/50 30/45 40/40 35/55 60

Freeland was a prominent high school prospect who went to a mid-tier college and hit .289/.405/.485 across two seasons, as he was draft-eligible after his sophomore year. A switch-hitting left-side infielder, Freeland’s best offensive skill is his freel for the strike zone. He struggles to cover the outer third of the zone from both sides of the plate but sprays extra-base contact to all fields. Freeland’s actions, internal clock, and arm strength are all fits at shortstop, where he played in college, though he may not have enough range to play there in the big leagues and could slide to third base. He deserves a shot to prove he can play short as he climbs the minor league ladder. He projects as a role-playing infielder.

38. Kyle Hurt, MIRP

Drafted: 5th Round, 2020 from Southern California (MIA)
Age 24.6 Height 6′ 3″ Weight 240 Bat / Thr R / R FV 35+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Curveball Changeup Command Sits/Tops
55/55 40/45 40/40 55/60 30/40 93-96 / 97

Hurt was a SoCal high school arm of some repute, a projectable 6-foot-3 guy with low-90s heat. Throughout college, his arm strength stayed the same, showing 93-94 mph early in outings and more 91-93 late. Just before the COVID shutdown, he shoved against TCU (6 IP, 9 K, 1 BB, 1 R) at a heavily attended tournament in LA, touching 95 several times. The Marlins drafted him, then later traded him and Alex Vesia to the Dodgers for Dylan Floro. Hurt spent most of 2021 on the shelf and only pitched about 20 innings during the regular season before wrapping up in the Arizona Fall League, where he sat 94-97 with natural cut and had a plus-flashing changeup. The Dodgers continued to deploy him as a three- to five-inning starter for most of 2022 and he struggled badly with walks. He isn’t the best on-mound athlete and that projects to be a chronic issue, likely limiting him to the bullpen eventually. Hurt showed progress in other areas, though, as his slider/cutter quality improved (his spin rates were up about 250 rpm from our previous sourced data, which seems like real progress) and he’s mixing in four different pitches. If he can get the walks into a livable spot, Hurt will be a long reliever.

39. Ben Casparius, MIRP

Drafted: 5th Round, 2021 from UConn (LAD)
Age 23.9 Height 6′ 0″ Weight 208 Bat / Thr R / R FV 35+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Changeup Command Sits/Tops
40/40 70/70 40/45 30/40 91-93 / 95

A two-way player as an underclassman at North Carolina, Casparius transferred to UConn for the 2021 season and began to focus on pitching. He ran an exorbitant ERA in 2022, but Casparius’ stuff is pretty exciting, especially considering this was just his second full season on the mound. Most impressive is his sweeper slider, which often looks like it’s going to finish in the middle of the right-handed batter’s box before it takes a hard turn and bends onto the corner of the plate. If he can ever develop consistent feel for landing his slide piece on the corner like this, the pitch will be unhittable. Casparius’ fastball isn’t as nasty on its own, but it sometimes blows up hitters in on their hands because they are trying desperately not to pull off of the slider and have guessed wrong. Developing more pitches is a key aspect of Casparius’ development, and he showed an upper-80s cutter and mid-80s changeup, both deployed at a 15% clip, in 2022. The early returns on both pitches are promising, as the cutter gives Casparius another hard pitch that moves differently than his heater, helping him stay off barrels, while the changeup generated an average chase rate and above-average whiff rate. It’ll be interesting to see how his fastball plays against upper-level hitters, but Casparius is tracking like a back-of-the-rotation starter.

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2017 from Dominican Republic (LAD)
Age 22.1 Height 6′ 2″ Weight 170 Bat / Thr R / R FV 35+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Command Sits/Tops
55/60 55/60 30/35 94-98 / 100

In his age-21 season, De Los Santos repeated Low-A and performed at roughly the same level as he did in 2021: 12 K/9 IP, 6 BB/9 IP and a FIP close to 4.00 in 43 relief innings, a mix of electric stuff and maddening inconsistency. One area in which De Los Santos does seem to have changed is in the breaking ball department. Past in-person notes have him using a hard, curve-shaped breaking ball in the 83-86 mph range whereas 2022 pitch data shows De Los Santos’ slider averaging 87 mph, while his fastball velocities have continued tracking in the 94-97 mph band. Depending on what flavor of “arm strength flier” prospect you prefer — and there are many in this system — De Los Santos is the one with the most explosive-looking on-mound athleticism. You don’t need a radar gun to know this guy throws hard — it’s evident in the way he throws a baseball. He has seventh or eighth inning stuff but will be relegated to low-leverage up/down work if his control stays this way. At a young 22, it’s feasible that some of those issues will get ironed out.

41. Chris Campos, SIRP

Drafted: 7th Round, 2022 from St. Mary’s (LAD)
Age 22.4 Height 5′ 10″ Weight 170 Bat / Thr R / R FV 35+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Curveball Changeup Command Sits/Tops
40/55 40/55 30/45 30/45 90-94 / 95

A very athletic two-way player at St. Mary’s, Gonsolin, er, I mean Campos, was up to 95 mph on the mound for the Gaels and has exciting looseness and capacity for movement. He was also a capable defensive shortstop with pretty decent contact skills, but he only pitched after the draft. With so few innings under his belt (Campos threw only worked 34.2 frames in college) there’s lots of developmental meat on the bone here, and an exciting arm strength and athleticism foundation on which to build.

42. Payton Martin, SP

Drafted: 17th Round, 2022 from West Forsyth HS (NC) (LAD)
Age 18.6 Height 6′ 0″ Weight 170 Bat / Thr R / R FV 35+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Curveball Changeup Command Sits/Tops
40/50 50/60 30/50 20/50 92-93 / 94

A nice little Day Three find from the 2022 draft, Martin looked good at instructs, sitting 92-93 mph with riding life and carry to his fastball, as well as a shapely low-80s curveball. At a compact 6-feet tall, he lacks prototypical body projection, but Martin is a great on-mound athlete with a lovely, spiral staircase-style arm action. The foundation here — athleticism, natural curveball quality and fastball action — makes for a nice developmental pitching prospect.

43. Alvaro Benua, SIRP

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2021 from Dominican Republic (LAD)
Age 20.0 Height 6′ 4″ Weight 220 Bat / Thr R / R FV 35+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Command Sits/Tops
55/60 45/60 20/35 95-98 / 99

A gigantic 20-year-old righty with huge arm strength, Benua (pronounced like in Joaquín Benoit, or like the first name of Daniel Craig’s molasses-tongued detective in Rian Johnson’s recent murder mystery flicks) was sitting 96-98 mph and touching 99 at 2022 instructs. He is a relief-only prospect due to a general lack of mechanical fluidity and athleticism, but there’s plus fastball/slider projection here.

44. Reynaldo Yean, SIRP

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2021 from Dominican Republic (LAD)
Age 19.0 Height 6′ 4″ Weight 240 Bat / Thr R / R FV 35+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Command Sits/Tops
60/60 45/60 20/35 95-98 / 100

One of the hardest throwers in the 2022 DSL, Yean came to instructs and continued to show a huge arm and, occasionally, a nasty slider. His frame is already maxed, so we’re likely talking about a relief-only prospect here, one of two very young ones with exceptional arm strength at the bottom of this system.

45. Madison Jeffrey, SIRP

Drafted: 15th Round, 2021 from West Virginia (LAD)
Age 22.8 Height 6′ 0″ Weight 190 Bat / Thr L / R FV 35+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Curveball Command Sits/Tops
60/60 55/60 20/30 96-98 / 99

Jeffrey showed promising arm strength and a good breaking ball at West Virginia, but was so wild that he fell to the 2021 draft’s third day. Shelved for a while after the draft, Jeffrey showed more velocity at 2021 instructs, a trend that continued throughout the ’22 season. He touched 97 mph in college and now sits there, while his low-80s bender is often plus. The strike-throwing is still pretty rough, though, and Jeffrey walked a batter per inning in his 42-frame pro debut. He probably needs to develop much better control just to reach the big leagues, but his stuff is nasty and gives Jeffrey some prospect-y clout despite the hill he has to climb.

46. Nick Robertson, SIRP

Drafted: 7th Round, 2019 from James Madison (LAD)
Age 24.5 Height 6′ 6″ Weight 265 Bat / Thr R / R FV 35+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Changeup Command Sits/Tops
50/50 50/50 50/55 40/50 94-97 / 99

Robertson appeared poised to surge through the minors en route to a quick middle relief role, and while he’s pitched pretty well at the upper levels, his fastball has settled into the 94-96 mph range (at times he’s been 95-99) and looked vulnerable against more experienced hitters because of its hittable downhill angle. Signs of adjustment were apparent in 2022 as Robertson began mixing in his secondary stuff more heavily this year, accelerating the use of his changeup so much that it’s now his most-used weapon. He has pretty good arm-side feel for the changeup, but he’s underneath the pitch a lot and it tends to have awkward running action rather than true bat-missing finish. Both Robertson’s secondaries sit in the 85-87 mph range, and the slider/cutter bends in with glove-side bite, more adept at inducing weak contact than missing bats. With just one bat-missing weapon, Robertson was left off the Dodgers 40-man and went unselected in the Rule 5 Draft, but there are still plenty of low-leverage relief components here and Robertson is likely to pitch in the big leagues for somebody in the near future.

47. Nelson Quiroz, C

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2018 from Mexico (LAD)
Age 21.2 Height 5′ 8″ Weight 194 Bat / Thr S / R FV 35+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
35/50 30/35 20/30 30/30 20/40 40

Quiroz is a compact, switch-hitting catcher who has above-average bat speed. He has to swing with big effort to generate that kind of bat speed, and he’s not quite the athlete that wee Yeiner Fernandez (above) is, but he still finds a way to put the bat on the ball consistently and spray hard, low-lying contact all over the place. Quiroz isn’t a lock to catch, but he does have workable ingredients, and while definitely not built like a prototypical big league backstop, he’s much sturdier and more physical than the typical 5-foot-8 20-year-old. A broken hamate limited his 2022 playing time.

48. Wilman Diaz, SS

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2021 from Venezuela (LAD)
Age 19.1 Height 6′ 0″ Weight 170 Bat / Thr R / R FV 35+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
20/35 40/50 20/40 60/60 45/60 60

An extremely high-profile amateur prospect, Diaz plays a very good shortstop, but he’s struggling to cover enough of the plate to be viewed as a potential impact player even after changes to his swing. The wowing rotational explosiveness he showed as an amateur quickly dissipated in pro ball, though some of this may have been due to the swing alteration. At this point, we’re talking about a 30-grade hitter with a 30-grade approach, someone who might be a glove-first bench option down the road barring a surprising resurgence.

49. Ryan Ward, LF

Drafted: 8th Round, 2019 from Bryant University (LAD)
Age 24.9 Height 5′ 11″ Weight 200 Bat / Thr L / R FV 35+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
40/40 45/45 50/50 40/40 30/40 30

Even though he approached 30 homers for the second straight year, Ward was left of the Dodgers 40-man and went unselected in the Rule 5 Draft. He slashed .255/.319/.486 at Tulsa, a dip from his previous year’s production, especially from a batting average standpoint (his BABIP tanked from .320 to .280, which played a role), good for a solid but unspectacular 100 wRC+ for a 24-year-old at Double-A. There’s real power here, both measurable thump and visible bat speed that results in all-fields home run clout. The issue is Ward’s defensive fit. He’s a below-average left fielder with a 30-grade arm, putting a ton of pressure on his bat. Consider Andrew Vaughn’s 2022 WAR output, for instance. Ward’s hit tool is a little below average even though he has fair bat control because he struggles to contact and spoil pitches on the outer edge of the zone. And so this power-only profile, while probably above replacement level, is tough to envision occupying a roster spot in perpetuity and playing a consistent big league role. He’s a candidate for a big payday in Asia.

50. Damon Keith, RF

Drafted: 18th Round, 2021 from Cal Baptist (LAD)
Age 22.6 Height 6′ 3″ Weight 195 Bat / Thr R / R FV 35+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
30/40 60/60 30/50 55/55 30/55 60

Keith has plus, strength-driven raw power, plus plate discipline, and a plus arm. Even as a small school prospect he was probably too advanced to start 2022 at Low-A, where he did a ton of his damage before his power output returned to a more typical level for Keith, who is strong as an ox but kind of stiff. It’s tough to profile at the bottom of the defensive spectrum, but Keith’s carrying tools give him a shot to do so in a role-playing capacity. He’s also the sort of player pro teams in Asia should be monitoring.

51. Robinson Ortiz, MIRP

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2016 from Dominican Republic (LAD)
Age 23.0 Height 6′ 0″ Weight 190 Bat / Thr L / L FV 35+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Curveball Changeup Command Sits/Tops
50/55 45/55 50/55 30/40 89-94 / 98

The pandemic ended what may have been a breakout season for Ortiz before it even began. He arrived at 2020 minor league spring training with a leaner lower half and was touching 98 mph in the bullpen before the shutdown (he was 90-93, touching 95 in 2019). His delivery had been tweaked, with his stride direction altered to help him get over his front side and on top of his breaking ball. Ortiz was already showing exciting velocity and a good changeup, and a better breaking ball might have helped him break out. Instead, Ortiz is now in limbo, as he missed almost all of 2021 due to the misdiagnosis of an injury that turned out to be a microfracture in his forearm rather than anything to do with his ligament. He had surgery in January of 2022 and missed the whole season.

Other Prospects of Note

Grouped by type and listed in order of preference within each category.

Toolsy Youngsters
Jeral Perez, SS
Logan Wagner, 3B
Christian Romero, RHP
Chris Newell, OF
Nicolas Perez, SS
Jose Izarra, SS

I cheated Jeral Perez, 18, into this category — he’s really a skills-over-tools shortstop with good feel for contact and a loose if somewhat unexplosive swing. Wagner was LA’s 2022 sixth rounder out of P27 Academy in South Carolina. He’s a twitchy switch hitting third baseman who finds a way to put the bat on the ball, even though his swing (especially from the right side) is a bit unkempt. Romero, 20, sat 92-94 mph with a plus changeup in limited Complex League innings last year. Newell, old for this group as he was just drafted out of Virginia, has a huge frame and plus power but a very flimsy hit tool. Nicolas Perez is a Puerto Rican shortstop who can really pick it. He was in the third round mix about a year before his draft and fell to Day Three as the process played out due to his offensive performance, but he looked good after signing, especially on defense. Izarra, a junior college shortstop, is similarly gifted on defense and is a wonderful little athlete who may not have big league physicality.

Rehabbers
Franklin De La Paz, LHP
Juan Morillo, RHP
Jeisson Cabrera, RHP
Jonathan Edwards, RHP
Hyun-il Choi, RHP

De La Paz, 23, didn’t pitch at all in 2022 while he rehabbed from Tommy John, but when healthy, he’ll show you 92-93 mph with a plus-plus slider. Morillo, now 23, has thrown just one affiliated inning since 2019 but is apparently throwing very hard in the bullpen this offseason. He spent four years in rookie ball before he blew out and was last on a prospect list in 2021. Cabrera, 24, has thrown just six affiliated innings since 2019. He was 95-98 with an above-average curveball during Instructional League, albeit with tons of effort and few strikes. Edwards was a 2021 undrafted free agent who has also pitched very little the last couple of years, including during his final two college seasons. He struggled badly with walks in 2022 but was sitting 94-96 with a firm upper-80s slider and upper-70s splitter at instructs, and his frame and arm action are both visually pleasing. Choi’s velocity was in the 86-89 range during Fall League.

Water-Carrying Secondary Pitch
Ryan Sublette, RHP
Christian Suarez, LHP
Joan Valdez, RHP
Antonio Knowles, RHP

Sublette, 24, sits 93-95 mph and has an above-average slider. Suarez is a little 22-year-old lefty with a 90-92 mph fastball and a mid-80s cutter than opposing hitters don’t seem to see. Valdez, 23, sits 92-93, has a lanky, projectable 6-foot-4 frame, and is very loose. He has a weird mid-80s changeup with big fade that he throws more than half the time. Knowles, a 22-year-old JUCO draftee, throws his mid-80s slider nearly 70% of the time. All four have struggled with walks and are being deployed in short relief and could be trick-pitch up/down relievers.

Huge Arm Strength
Jordan Leasure, RHP
Waylin Santana, RHP
Ricardo Montero, RHP
Kelvin Bautista, LHP

Leasure, 24, was a 2021 Day Three pick. He sits 93-98 mph with big carry and below-average secondary stuff. Santana, 19, has been up to 97 and sits 94-95. He has an okay changeup but is very raw, even for his age. Montero is a 6-foot-6 righty who spent 2022 in the DSL working 95-97 with sink and a fair slider. Bautista is a little lefty who typically sits 94-98, but has very little feel to pitch, even now that he’s in his mid-20s.

Prospect Pu Pu Platter
Tanner Dodson, RHP
Nick Biddison, LF
Orlando Ortiz-Mayr, RHP
Jacob Meador, RHP
Yunior Garcia, 1B
Chris Alleyne, 2B

Dodson, a former two-way prospect, sits 94-96 mph and has a solid average slider. He’s in an up/down relief area and is big league ready. Biddison had a breakout draft year at Virginia Tech and went in the 2022 fourth round, a well-rounded corner outfield prospect. Ortiz-Mayr is a 25-year-old undrafted free agent with one year of pro experience under his belt. He has a very athletic drop-and-drive delivery and three workable pitches, but struggled to throw strikes in 2022. Meador was the club’s 12th rounder out of Dallas Baptist and is also powerfully athletic but a little wild. He’s also capable of missing bats with his three pitches. His low-90s fastball lives off angle and ride, and his changeup has big fading action. Garcia has plus bat speed and is coming off his best season as a pro after taking forever to get off the complex. Alleyene hit 24 homers in his fifth college season and is a well-built switch-hitter with pop and a below-average hit tool.

System Overview

Still one of the deeper orgs in baseball, the Dodgers finished 2022 as our seventh-ranked farm system and based on how the prospects line up in this offseason update, they’re likely to hover just outside the top five at the end of this cycle. FV upticks to Bobby Miller and Miguel Vargas are counterbalanced by injuries to some of the young, high-upside pitching in the thick middle of the list, something LA is well-equipped to deal with based on the rate at which they seem able to develop arms. The system perhaps lacks the near-ready star power it has had in recent years, but Diego Cartaya might soon change that. Based on the way their offseason transpired, the Dodgers are entering a period where they’re going to let a lot of these kids play to see which of them can rise to the NL West’s occasion. Because of this, and because they’re likely to be buyers on the trade market, it’s likely that this system will take a sizable hit via deals and graduations over the course of the next calendar year. Even though they’re almost always trading prospects away to make the big league club better, the Dodgers will occasionally make a trade that nets them a prospect, and on this list the pro department is responsible for Nick Frasso and River Ryan.

Tip-of-the-iceberg types are prevalent in this system. Former two-ways players, injured players, prospects who had a recent uptick in performance or ones who weren’t given much playing time for one reason or another — they all seem to find their way into this system and improve as part of perhaps the game’s best player development program. The Dodgers tend to be good at enacting swing changes in their hitters and at getting pitchers to throw harder, and they often coax pitchers with poor breaking balls to at least try a different breaker, though it isn’t always a good one. There seems to be a conscious effort to hand the dev group as many high-end athletes as possible and just see what they can do with them, and this is true of both the international and domestic amateur departments. The sheet number of prospects combined with the rate at which lots of them change can make it hard to keep one’s finger on the pulse of the system, but luckily the industry has a lot of incentive to scout this org (both for trade purposes and to try to suss out some of their dev secrets through pattern recognition) and the Dodgers conduct plenty of backfield activity, enabling a thorough audit.





Eric Longenhagen is from Catasauqua, PA and currently lives in Tempe, AZ. He spent four years working for the Phillies Triple-A affiliate, two with Baseball Info Solutions and two contributing to prospect coverage at ESPN.com. Previous work can also be found at Sports On Earth, CrashburnAlley and Prospect Insider.

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coachthurman
1 year ago

Has Eddys Leonard completely dropped out of the picture for the Dodgers?