3 Dodgers starting pitchers who will begin 2024 season in Triple-A, 2 who won't

The Dodgers' 40-man roster is just about full, and 11 of those spaces are currently occupied by starting pitchers. With the offseason additions of Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, along with the Dodgers' continued pursuit of at least one more starter, not all of them will make the 26-man Opening Day roster and will have to be optioned back down to the minors. Glasnow, Yamamoto, Walker Buehler and Bobby Miller are clearly locks for the rotation, but some of the others ... not so much.

The seven other starting pitchers on the Dodgers' 40-man have varying degrees of experience in the major leagues, but innings pitched isn't the only contributing factor in whether or not a player will retain his roster spot by Opening Day. Some pitched 30+ innings in 2023 but couldn't perform, while another pitched two flawless innings. As we get closer to Opening Day and the Dodgers shuffle players around to make room for new additions, here are three players who won't make the 26-man cut (to start) and two who will.

3 Dodgers starting pitchers who will begin 2024 season in Triple-A

Gavin Stone

Stone is currently the No. 4 prospect in the Dodgers' pipeline, and he was called up for short stints last season to get his feet wet in the major leagues last year. It didn't go incredibly well for him, though; he started four games, appeared in relief in four more, and was lit up repeatedly. In his first three starts in May, he pitched 10 innings and gave up 16 earned runs for a 14.40 ERA. His appearances in relief went a little better (15 2/3 innings, eight earned runs), but when the Dodgers decided to give him one more try at the start of a game against the Padres in September, he gave up seven earned runs and two home runs in 5 1/3 innings. He ended the major league season with a 9.00 ERA.

While Stone is on the Dodger's 40-man roster at the moment, he probably won't be there by Opening Day. He still has two minor league options, one of which the club can use to send him straight back to Triple-A at the start of the season without sending him through waivers. He pitched 100 2/3 innings in Triple-A in 2023 between trips to the majors for an okay 4.74 ERA. The Dodgers will be hoping to see a return to form for him (in 2022, he pitched 121 2/3 innings from High-A to Triple-A with a 1.40 ERA) and continued development in the minors, but it's unlikely he'll be in LA at the start of the season.