Dodgers: Pre-Spring Training 25-man Roster Predictions
Spring training is here. Pitchers and catchers report on Feb. 13 and from there the long process of roster building begins. The Dodgers will have to choose from the 40 rostered players and build a group of 25 guys that they feel give the team the best chance at winning a World Series.
Dave Roberts, Andrew Friedman and the rest of the coaching staff will aim to have the rotation and bullpen picked with a week or so left in spring camp and their batters selected shortly after.
Based on performances and health, the roster will feature players old and new but as is with every season, the selections are rather unpredictable when it comes to players on the fringe of the roster.
Before any playing or decisions happen, I wanted to make my roster picks. I’ll be building a roster and separating each aspect of the 25-man team by slides starting with the rotation and followed by the bullpen, the lineup and the bench.
Here is my early shot at the 2019 Opening Day roster.
Every single year the story is the same. How will the Dodgers build a four-man rotation? This is about who follows Clayton Kershaw and that is obvious.
Kershaw not only heads up the rotation for me and anyone else taking the picks for a roster but, he should be making his team-record ninth straight start on Opening Day. Kershaw is not penciled into the rotation, he is written with permanent marker. Kershaw is on the roster.
The story begins when you look past Kershaw. Who will go behind one of the best pitchers to ever live? This year, Walker Buehler is my early pick to be the number two starter.
Buehler put together an eye-opening performance last year and particularly as the season came to an end when he owned the Rockies in game 163 to decide the NL West winner. Buehler possesses one of the best fastball-curveball combos in the league and he is only 24-years-old.
Buehler is on the early list of contenders for a Cy Young Award and he is also my pick to make an Opening Day start should something happen to Kershaw over the course of spring training.
Next in line will be Rich Hill. Hill is entering his age 39 season and he still plays at the level of someone much younger than himself.
The big question for Hill is his health. Over the last three years, the storied veteran has pitched just 378.2 innings with a 162 game average of just 126 frames. The Dodgers have made it clear that his health is not an issue and the team has the depth to replace him if need be.
Putting health aside, Hill is the third best starter on this roster and he will be written in the rotation as such.
The fourth and fifth spots get a little tricky. The Dodgers traded away Alex Wood over the offseason and Ross Stripling is in my bullpen, not my rotation. For the reason, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Kenta Maeda take up the remaining two slots in the starting five.
The story for both Ryu and Maeda is they can do whatever the team needs. Both can pitch from the bullpen or the rotation and both would be happy to do either. Maeda is slightly more suited than Ryu to do relief work but that is no matter as I do not have Stripling making a push into the rotation unless there is an injury like there was last year.
Thus, my rotation is as follows:
Rotation- Kershaw, Buehler, Hill, Ryu, Maeda
The Dodger bullpen is a storied group of peaks and troughs. The Dodgers have worked to build what they think is the perfect group of men to close the bridge to Kenley Jansen and I think, as the roster stands, they have that group.
The big question every year is how many people are in the pen. For me, it is eight and that eight-man group starts with Kenley Jansen.
Jansen had a surprisingly unimpressive season last year by his normal standards. The 6’5 superstar posted an ERA over 3.00 for the first time in his career and owned and ERA+ below 130 for the first time as well. Struggling or not, Jansen is the closer in Los Angeles and that has not changed. The bridge to Jansen, however, has switched up a bit.
The first man in the bullpen is new addition, Joe Kelly. Kelly signed a three-year deal with the Dodgers over the offseason and his 100 mile per hour fastball should be used as the eighth inning man and as the backup closer. There is not much debate for this.
Joining Kelly and Jansen will be Pedro Baez and Scott Alexander, two staples in last year’s relief corps. Baez had a nice year in 2018, posting a 2.88 ERA and an ERA+ of 135, the second highest total in his career. Alexander, like Jansen, had a down year in 2018 and it was not even all that bad. He throws from the left side and gets outs. He’s in the pen.
That leaves us with four more spots and taking up one of them will be Ross Stripling. Stripling was an All-Star in 2018 and that was done in large part from the rotation. Stripling has quietly been one of the most important players on the Dodgers for the last three years and this season should be no different. He and Kenta Maeda are interchangeable from the pen to the rotation but, out of the gate, I have Ross in relief.
This is where things get really fun.
Tony Cingrani and Yimi Garcia are all out of minor league options. That means they must either make the Opening Day roster or be DFA’d. Of those players, Cingrani, is on my roster and Garcia will be the victim of numbers. Josh Fields is also out of options.
Cingrani and Fields getting onto the roster forces Julio Urias and Caleb Ferguson to the minor leagues and it leaves us with one spot left in the pen. For me, it goes to a pitcher who was quietly one of the best in baseball last year, Dylan Floro. You can read about his successes in 2018 here.
My bullpen is as follows:
Bullpen: Jansen, Kelly, Baez, Alexander, Stripling, Cingrani, Fields, Floro
Time for the lineup! Since this has the potential for being the longest slide by a mile and a half I am going to bold the player and his position with a small blurb about him under the bolded name.
Catcher, Russell Martin
The Dodgers went and traded for Russell Martin when their chances at acquiring JT Realmuto got too bleak. Martin is in his second stint in LA and the soon to be 36-year-old will look to prove he still has “it”. Martin is my starting catcher to start the season.
First Base, Cody Bellinger
Cody Bellinger could see a significant amount of time in center field this season with Puig no longer on the team and AJ Pollock’s health being a question mark. To start the year though, Bellinger is the first baseman.
Second Base, Chris Taylor
Second base was a big question heading into the offseason and there is no clear answer to that question quite yet. However, my guess for the opening day starter is Chris Taylor and he will switch off with Enrique Hernandez and Max Muncy depending on the opposing pitcher.
Shortstop, Corey Seager
This is super exciting. After missing the majority of 2018 after Tommy John surgery, Seager is healthy and projected to be ready for the start of the year Putting Seager back into the lineup brings one of the best Dodger bats back on the diamond and he will be a massive boost to the batting order.
Third Base, Justin Turner
Turner is the heart and soul of this team. He is one of the best bats on the roster and there was never a question about whether or not he would be starting at third to open the campaign.
Left Field, Joc Pederson
There were rumors going around that he would be traded but Joc Pederson is still on the roster. So long as he is, he projects to be the starting left fielder with Enrique Hernandez and Chris Taylor there to back him up against southpaws.
Center Field, AJ Pollock
The Dodgers inked Pollock to a four-year deal with a fifth-year option and there is a reason for that. When he is healthy, Pollock profiles as an extremely productive bat that can hit at the top of the order. He also brings amazing defense to the table thus, he is the starting center fielder.
Right Field, Alex Verdugo
Well, this is sad. For the first time in six years, Yasiel Puig is not the starting right fielder for opening day. He’s on the Reds now. Alex Verdugo is here and ready to play and for the first time in his career, he should be a big league starter.
Here is the starting lineup (not in batting order):
Lineup: Martin, Bellinger, Taylor, Seager, Turner, Pederson, Pollock, Verdugo
Finally, we have the bench. These are the guys that round out the roster and two of them will get more at-bats than your average bench player but they do not have one defined position.
The list starts with Enrique Hernandez. Hernandez is the Dodgers most productive bench piece both offensively and defensively. In 2018, he played every position but catcher (yes, he pitched) and in 2019 there should be no change.
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Hernandez brings to the table what every team dreams of in a bench spot, he is versatile.
Second of the four bench players is Max Muncy. Muncy and Hernandez will take up tons of at-bats in starting roles but, again, their positions are undefined. Muncy could see time at first base, second, third and in left field.
Russell Martin will need a backup catcher and Austin Barnes has that job on lock unless the team makes a surprising move. Barnes will look to improve upon a seriously underwhelming 2018. His improvement may not mean much though as the Dodgers two young superstar catchers, Will Smith and Keibert Ruiz, are right on his heels.
Finally, rounding out the 25-man roster is David Freese. Freese brings to the table what Chase Utley did for the last three years, a veteran presence. Freese is productive and knowledgeable and his role is equally as important as anyone.
My roster is set and I will list it fully here. In the rotation, the Dodgers will have Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Rich Hill, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Kenta Maeda. In the bullpen, it will be Kenley Jansen, Joe Kelly, Scott Alexander, Pedro Baez, Ross Stripling, Tony Cingrani, Josh Fields and Dylan Floro. In the lineup, it will be Russell Martin, Cody Bellinger, Chris Taylor, Corey Seager, Justin Turner, Joc Pederson, AJ Pollock and Alex Verdugo. And, on the bench, Enrique Hernandez, Max Muncy, Austin Barnes and David Freese.