2 more Dodgers who won't be on roster June 1 after Chris Taylor DFA

On Sunday, the Dodgers parted ways with veteran utilityman Chris Taylor, who was released as Tommy Edman came off of the IL. It was either dump Taylor, who barely batted .200 last season and is batting .200 this season, or option Hyeseong Kim, who's already endeared himself to Dodgers fans with electric baserunning and a nearly .500 batting average. It's still kind of surprising that the Dodgers finally gave up on Taylor after his disaster of a 2024, but it was the only thing they could do.

Taylor's DFA came on the heels of the same fate for Austin Barnes, cleared to make space for No. 1 prospect Dalton Rushing, and marked the departures of LA's two longest-tenured players. The Dodgers' bench was the weakest part of the roster from day one, and they finally did something about it.

However, another roster crunch is right around the corner. Teoscar Hernández is rehabbing in Single-A, and someone will have go down in exchange. Whenever the copious amounts of pitchers on the IL start coming off, it'll be more of the same.

2 more Dodgers who won't be on roster June 1 after Chris Taylor DFA

James Outman

Outman is the most obvious candidate to go down when Hernández returns, but it won't be as dramatic as Taylor or Barnes' departures. He's only appeared in nine games since he was called up in Hernández's absence, but he's batting .125 with a .597 OPS and has struck out 13 times in 24 at-bats. A player who once looked like he could turn into an instrumental building block in the team's future is an afterthought now, and seems destined to be packaged in a trade that will let some other team try to figure out what went wrong after his rookie season.

Miguel Rojas

Rojas could survive until the trade deadline if the Dodgers haven't already shored up their bench even more, but he could also easily be the next veteran out the door. He's batting .254 with a .612 OPS in 28 games, and the Dodgers have been turning more often to Kiké Hernández in pinch-hitting and substitute scenarios.

Just like Barnes and Taylor, he's generally known as a solid clubhouse presence (at least with the Dodgers), but the bat isn't up to snuff and his defense is the worst it's been in years. The Dodgers even have a clear replacement for him in Triple-A in shortstop/utility infielder Alex Freeland, who could easily creep up on Rojas sooner than later.