Dodgers add trio of prospects to clogged 40-man roster that needs a lot of work

Tuesday at 3 p.m. PST marked the deadline for MLB teams to add eligible prospects to the 40-man roster and protect them from the Rule 5 Draft, which will take place at the Winter Meetings next month. The Los Angeles Dodgers were dubbed a "team to watch" throughout the day.

The deadline came and went. and the Dodgers chose their guys. Out of the five eligible names, LA opted to give 40-man rosters spots to top prospects Nick Frasso (No. 4), Landon Knack (No. 9) and Hunter Feduccia (No. 29). Outfielder Jose Ramos (No. 19) and catcher/second baseman Yeiner Fernandez (No. 26) will be exposed to the draft in December.

And they'll probably be taken! Everybody swipes players from the Dodgers in hopes of emulating their success.

But dare we say this Dodgers 40-man roster looks ... bad right now? Adding three prospects to it doesn't change the outlook whatsoever (which we already knew), but now a slew of trades has to be coming if improvements are on the way.

It's hard to see where Feduccia fits in with Diego Cartaya and Dalton Rushing way ahead of him in the farm system, and the most recent batch of Dodgers pitching prospects were a mixed bag, so the jury will be out on Frasso and Knack until proven otherwise.

Dodgers add trio of prospects to clogged 40-man roster that needs a lot of work

Here's the quick primer. Frasso reached Triple-A in 2023 after a sterling 2022 and finished with a 4.16 ERA and 1.27 WHIP in 25 starts (only 93 innings). Knack rebounded big time after a tough 2022 to log a 2.51 ERA and 1.16 WHIP in 22 starts (100.1 innings) between Double-A and Triple-A. Feduccia spent a full season at Triple-A and impressed with a solid 11 homers, 57 RBI and .838 OPS in 90 games. They could be kept. They could be traded.

The dilemma is that the 40-man roster is also filled with underperformers, unknown commodities and injured players. Yency Almonte, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May, Michael Grove, Kyle Hurt, Bryan Hudson, Emmet Sheehan, Gavin Stone, Gus Varland, Austin Barnes, Michael Busch, Gavin Lux, Miguel Vargas, Miguel Rojas, Jorbit Vivas, Jonny Deluca and Andy Pages are the others.

The non-tender deadline is this coming Friday, so the herd may be thinned by the way of letting guys go or swinging deals to add new players/clear roster space for forthcoming bigger moves.

It's encouraging the Dodgers appear to be embracing their youth, which could help build the proper foundational blocks in the future. But there's just not enough established talent and depth to get excited yet.

Their moves on Tuesday were likely setting the stage for grander offseason theatrics ... we can only hope.