3 Dodgers position battles to watch in spring training

The Dodgers have a lot of completely immovable parts that make their Opening Day roster pretty easy to figure out. Shohei Ohtani at DH, Freddie Freeman at first, Mookie Betts (yay) at shortstop (less yay), Will Smith at catcher and so on. These guys have nothing to fight over in spring training; their only goal is to ramp up again for the long season.

However, there are a few parts of the roster that might be a little bit more up for grabs. While non-roster invitee position players have little chance of threatening for a major league spot, there might be a door open here and there for them, and moreso for pitchers.

3 Dodgers position battles to watch in spring training

Will Tony Gonsolin or Dustin May get the last spot in the rotation?

Andrew Friedman said that he expected the Dodgers to use a traditional five-man rotation until Shohei Ohtani is ready to pitch again, which will leave one of either Tony Gonsolin or Dustin May out. Both are coming back from surgeries after missing all of 2024, but Gonsolin was on a better track to return by the end of the year (he had completed a rehab assignment) while May kept running into speed bumps.

Gonsolin seems the likeliest option to rejoin the rotation, but the Dodgers have kept May around this long despite all of his injuries, so he could plausibly have a shot if he can show out in spring training. Bobby Miller could also lurk with the potential to spoil things for both.

Who's on second?

If Kiké Hernández and Hyeseong Kim were the only two Dodgers capable of playing second, it would be easy to figure out how their time there would be split, given that one's a righty and the other is a lefty. However, the Dodgers have a few other guys who they'll have to figure out how to give time to — Chris Taylor and Miguel Rojas, mainly, and kind of Tommy Edman.

Taylor, Rojas, and Edman all possess a certain amount of defensive versatility, which will work to the Dodgers' advantage, but as long as Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, and Max Muncy can stay healthy in the infield and Teoscar Hernández and Michael Conforto can do the same at the outfield corners, the rest of the bench guys might have to fight for time at second.

Does Landon Knack make it back to the majors as a reliever?

With either Gonsolin or May likely to be turned into a reliever, that leaves the bullpen pretty full. Brusdar Graterol will start the season on the IL, Michael Kopech and Evan Phillips might also, but Gonsolin or May, Alex Vesia, Blake Treinen, Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates, Anthony Banda make six of what's expected to be an eight-man bullpen.

Landon Knack and Ben Casparius eke into the rotation mix as the seventh and eighth men, but this is where non-roster invitees (or other members of the 40-man) at spring training could sneak in and steal a spot. Jack Dreyer, who the Dodgers protected from the Rule 5 draft, could be one to watch.