Massive round of Dodgers roster cuts has fans begging LA to let go of Ryan Ward

The Dodgers have slowly but steadily whittled away at the massive major league camp they staged at Camelback Ranch. With 32 non-roster invitees on top of everyone on the 40-man, the locker room must've been ridiculously crowded for a team with very few question marks heading into spring training.

The first round cut 11 players, including former Brewers first-round pick Keston Hiura and top prospects Patrick Copen and Adam Serwinowski, on March 2.

Even more followed on Sunday — 12 players were either reassigned to minor league camp or optioned to to their respective minor league homes. Top prospects Jackson Ferris, Josue De Paula, and Kendall George were among them, but so was fan favorite minor league outfielder Ryan Ward.

It's not necessarily a surprising move, but that doesn't make it any less exasperating.

The Dodgers vowed throughout the offseason to find a way to give Ward some reps in the majors — but that was before they signed Kyle Tucker. Now, there's virtually no way to squeeze him onto the major league roster without an injury to one of the corner outfielders.

Fans have been calling for it for a while, but this should be a breaking point. The Dodgers need to trade Ward.

Dodgers' latest round of roster cuts includes a handful of top prospects and fan favorite minor leaguer Ryan Ward

The longer the Dodgers keep in the minors, the harder it's going to get to find ways to get him onto LA's already impenetrable roster. Nos. 1 and 2 prospects Josue De Paula and Zyhir Hope are both knocking on the door of Triple-A, moving them up the pecking order and shifting Ward further and further down.

There are teams that could take an outfielder who slugged 36 homers with 122 RBI in Triple-A last year and plug him into a lineup immediately. It might not be an everyday thing — and probably shouldn't be — but he could be a useful role player or platoon bat against righty pitchers.

It might be a little weird for fans to be so attached to a minor leaguer who isn't and has never been a top prospect, but the prevailing sentiment is that the Dodgers are being unfair to Ward. They had the perfect opportunity last season, when Michael Conforto was flailing with literally no improvement, but they didn't take it.

Just let the guy go. He's 28. He's not getting his major league debut with the Dodgers. They might as well trade him while the shine from his PCL MVP award is still bright.