The Dodgers just made an absurd addition to the 40-man roster

The 40-man roster deadline for the Rule 5 Draft was at 6:00 p.m. ET on Friday. Players who have been with an organization for five years (if signed at 18) or four years (if signed at 19) are eligible to be snagged by another club in the Rule 5 if they’re not added to the 40-man roster in time.

Thus, teams have to add certain prospects to the 40-man to avoid losing them, and the Los Angeles Dodgers made a few decisions worth looking into.

The Dodgers added James Outman, Jacob Amaya, Eddys Leonard, Jorbit Vivas and Michael Grove to the 40-man roster on Friday. Four of those additions make sense, as they’re ranked among the team’s top 30 prospects by MLB Pipeline.

The one player that stands out as different from the rest is Michael Grove, who not only isn’t a top 30 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, but has been horrible in his professional career with the Dodgers.

Michael Grove is such an absurd 40-man roster addition for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

You don’t always have to be a top prospect to thrive and make your mark in the big leagues. Just look at all the reclamation projects that the Dodgers have brought in and turned into All-Stars over the years.

That being said, those players at least possessed a foundation that the Dodgers can perhaps successfully work with. Grave? Not so much.

Sure, the Dodgers are closely examining his performances as well as his “stuff,” and know better than anyone else. But the soon-to-be 25-year-old just doesn’t have the numbers to back it up.

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Grove spent all of 2021 in Double-A with the Tulsa Drillers and did not have a great season in the slightest. He appeared in 21 games, throwing 71 innings, and finished with a 7.86 ERA and 1.79 WHIP. The only encouraging stat was his 88 strikeouts.

Yikes.

This wasn’t just a bad season for Grove, either. He spent time in High-A Rancho Cucamonga in 2019 and was as equally disappointing. He threw 51.2 innings and maintained a 6.10 ERA and a 1.54 WHIP. It would feel better if he at least had decent numbers in the lower levels of the farm system.

What makes it worse for Grove is his age and where he should be along in his development. The Dodgers drafted him in the second round back in 2018 out of West Virginia. You could make an excuse for a high school pitcher that performs like this. College prospects are typically expected to progress a bit more quickly through the farm system.

Would the Dodgers really miss much if they let Grove go to the Rule 5 Draft? More importantly, would another team even want to bring Grove in? (Probably, teams always try and get Dodgers’ leftovers). Still, this would be a massive reach.

Last year the Dodgers had two pitchers get selected by other clubs in the Rule 5 Draft. Brett de Gues was picked second overall by the Texas Rangers and is now on the Arizona Diamondbacks. de Gues sported a 7.56 ERA in the bigs in 2021. Jordan Sheffield was picked seventh overall and spent 2021 with the Colorado Rockies. He finished with a 3.38 ERA out of the bullpen.

Maybe Grove will turn into something and make us eat crow. But for now, he looks like an absurd addition to the 40-man roster when such spots are as valuable as ever in today’s game.

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