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3 Dodgers who don’t deserve to be on the 40-man roster
It's time to trim.
The Dodgers' Opening Day lineup will easily be one of the best in baseball. Absolutely stacked with stars of mega-watt proportion, it's hard to find a single imperfection in that armor. Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith — these are basically household names and, barring disaster, those names will stay at the top of the Dodgers' lineup cards for the vast majority of the season.
However, look a little further down, widen the search to the bench and the pitching staff, and some cracks do start to show. The Dodgers have done a lot to make their selection of everyday players one of the most fearsome in baseball, but there are still names that aren't so forward-facing and could be more easily exploited.
After signing James Paxton, the Dodgers' 40-man is full, but there are players who might (or, rather, should) be on the chopping block if anymore additions are made to the team.
3 Dodgers who don’t deserve to be on the 40-man roster
Miguel Rojas
With Gavin Lux returning to play shortstop everyday, Mookie Betts moving to second base, and Freddie Freeman, dependable-as-ever, at first base, it hard to figure out where Miguel Rojas fits in anymore. Brought in on a trade with the Marlins in 2022 and then extended for two guaranteed years with a club option for 2025, he was the team's most frequent fixture at shortstop last year after Lux got hurt. Although Rojas is a more than serviceable defensive player, his offensive production left a lot to be desired. He seemed to hit a wall in 2023, or maybe a low plateau, because the numbers he put up that season were almost identical to the ones he hit for in 2022 with the Marlins.
A lot has changed since Rojas was extended; he might've even had a shot at second base if the team wasn't committed to moving Betts. He was originally signed to be a utility player before moving to shortstop, but as additions have been made and the Dodgers have fortified their lineup, there don't seem to be a lot of openings for Rojas. Freeman has only missed seven games over the last three seasons and Betts only missed 10 last season. The Dodgers might keep him to serve as a backup for Lux, but the Dodgers also seem higher on Chris Taylor as a bench bat.
There's nothing wrong with having multiple utility options — if anything, the exact opposite — but the Dodgers could do better than Rojas. Getting rid of his contract could be a little tricky but not impossible, and they could kick in a few other players to sweeten a trade.
Austin Barnes
Asking anyone to play second-fiddle to Will Smith is sort of a tall order, but Austin Barnes doesn't do it particularly well. He's been a longtime fixture in the Dodgers' clubhouse, traded from the Marlins in 2014 while he was in the minors for three players including Dee Strange-Gordon and, funnily enough, Miguel Rojas. The Dodgers might appreciate having a veteran so familiar with the organization behind Smith, who's a few years younger, and be fond of Barnes on a personal level, but it might be time for them to move on from him.
He only played in 59 games around Smith in 2023 and hit a paltry .180/.256/.242, some of the worst numbers of his career. His defensive numbers also suffered last year, with 11th percentile blocking and fifth in caught stealing above average. The team extended him for two years in 2022, with a club option for 2025. However, hot on his heels are both top prospects Dalton Rushing and Diego Cartaya, both of whom have invites to spring training this year (though, it should be noted that Cartaya's 2023 season in the minors was less than stellar and he fell off MLB Pipeline's top 100 prospects list this year).
If the Dodgers keep Barnes throughout the 2024 season, choosing not to exercise their club option for next season would be best for the team.
Gus Varland
In 2021, Varland was traded to the Dodgers from the A's, but he only spent two years in the minors with LA before being nabbed by the Brewers during the 2022 Rule 5 draft. He spent a year in their farm system, with occasional call-ups to the majors, before being DFA'ed the day after a very rough major league outing against the Cardinals. He was grabbed off of waivers by the Dodgers, who he pitched 11 2/3 innings for in 2023. Those innings were a lot less disastrous than his 8 2/3 with the Brewers (3.09 ERA with LA vs. 11.42 with Milwaukee), but they might not be enough to justify his place on the 40-man.
The Dodgers do love themselves a fixer-upper, especially when it comes to pitchers, and Varland might've looked promising enough in those innings for LA that the Dodgers might keep him to give him more opportunities to rehabilitate and prove himself, but there are other options that they could turn to. Nos. 3 and 9 prospects Nick Frasso and Landon Knack will both be at spring training, and Knack is reportedly expected to make his MLB debut this season. The Dodgers bullpen features some fantastic talent in Evan Phillips, Brusdar Graterol, and Joe Kelly, and getting another reliever who could outperform Varland would give them more depth and take some pressure off of those three pitchers.
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