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Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Hyun-jin Ryu will begin the 2015 season on the disabled list due to discomfort in his throwing shoulder, according to manager Don Mattingly. 

Continue for updates.

No Structural Damage Found in Ryu’s Shoulder

Tuesday, March 24

Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reported that no structural damage was found in Ryu’s shoulder and that the pitcher was prescribed rest to let the discomfort pass.

On March 23, Mattingly said Ryu would be sent back to Los Angeles to undergo a shoulder examination and assess the extent of the damage.

“I think he’s feeling something. If he was feeling nothing, we wouldn’t be trying to get him in front of Doc [team physician Neal ElAttrache],” Mattingly said via Mark Saxon of ESPN Los Angeles. “We know to move forward it’s going to be a heavier workload, so we’ve got to be sure where we’re at. I saw the look on Hyun-jin’s face, and it wasn’t typical Hyun-jin.”

Ryu, who turns 28 on Wednesday, went 14-7 with a 3.38 ERA and 1.19 WHIP last season. He’s won 28 games in his first two MLB seasons and has been among the Dodgers’ most consistent fixtures in the rotation. The lefty was scheduled to be the team’s third man up in the rotation behind Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke.

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.

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When the Los Angeles Dodgers began spring training two weeks ago, most positions featured clear-cut starters who would not be facing much job competition leading up to Opening Day.

The exception—and biggest question mark facing the organization as it prepared to defend its National League West division crown—focused on the opening in center field.

For most of last season, Yasiel Puig manned the position. That was because Los Angeles had Matt Kemp in right field and Carl Crawford in left field. Andre Ethier was relegated to the bench and top outfield prospect Joc Pederson was tearing up Triple-A.

But now, Kemp is gone and Pederson is ready for his shot. Crawford is on track to begin the season in left field and the Dodgers would prefer Puig in right field in order to best utilize his excellent throwing arm.

The net result? A position battle between Pederson and Ethier, and so far, the highly touted prospect is leading the seasoned veteran by a wide margin in the race to become the Dodgers’ center fielder.

The Performance

Pederson has quite simply been the Dodgers’ best hitter in spring training.

Entering the weekend, he is batting .433 with a team-high 13 hits—including two home runs, four doubles and six RBI. Pederson yanked one of his home runs deep to right and lofted the other one over the fence in left-center, demonstrating impressive power to all fields. His seven runs scored rank second on the club, and he has also stolen a base.

“I just show up every day, go about the process that was set by the coaching staff,” said Pederson, per Kevin Baxter of the Los Angeles Times. “[I] work hard and try to do everything I can on the field to help the team win.”

The Dodgers selected Pederson in the 11th round of the 2010 draft. His progression through the minor league ranks was smooth and natural, culminating in his breakout campaign last season at Triple-A.

Pederson slashed .303/.435/.582 with 135 hits and 78 RBI in 121 games prior to his September call-up last year, becoming the Pacific Coast League’s first player since 1934 to hit at least 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in the same season, according to Mike Axisa of CBSSports.com.

He has started more games in center field than any other outfielder on the Dodgers this spring, and has looked comfortable at the position defensively.

“Once you’re up there, you never want to leave,” Pederson said, per Baxter. “You’ll do anything you can to stay up there.”

The Competition

Ethier, on the other hand, is hardly putting up a fight when it comes to this in-house battle.

The eight-year veteran owns a mediocre .250/.300/.321 slash in 28 at-bats this spring through Thursday. His first extra-base hit did not come until this week, and he leads all Los Angeles batters with eight strikeouts.

Ethier has played 142 games in center field during the past two seasons, more than any other Dodger during that span, according to Baxter. But after reluctantly coming off the bench last season, Ethier made it known back in December that he would rather be traded than repeat the situation he endured a year ago, per the Los Angeles Times‘ Steve Dilbeck.

It was fun trying to win the way we did last year, but it didn’t prove any more successful than me playing every day or not playing every day. I’d rather play every day and help this team win — or whatever team it is — to the best of my ability. I feel I can, if given a role. As I stand here today, I’m preparing every day to be a starting outfielder for the Dodgers, until I’m told otherwise. I’m not changing my mind about that. It’s probably going to be a little less wanting to take the same role as I did last year.

The Dodgers tried to acquiesce around the time Ethier made that statement, but were unsuccessful as a potential trade that would have sent him to the Arizona Diamondbacks fell through, according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports. 

Ethier is coming off the worst season of his career, one in which he batted .249 with just four home runs and 42 RBI in 341 at-bats. Part of the difficulty in trading Ethier is the $56 million he is owed over the next three seasons.

However, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reported that the Dodgers would be willing to eat half of that in order to unload Ethier, who will turn 33 in April. 

The Decision-Makers

Although the numbers speak for themselves this spring, Dodgers’ manager Don Mattingly has refused to announce what figures to be an inevitable decision favoring the team’s top outfield prospect.

“We’re still in camp and we’re still competing,” said Mattingly, per Baxter. “But obviously we like what we’ve seen from Joc. We’re looking at Joc’s processes as much as we are just the results. How’s his work? Has he got good routines? How’s he kind of dealing with it all?”

Mattingly considers Pederson the “best defensive center fielder” on the Dodgers, per Dilbeck, and the rookie has done nothing to dispel that notion so far at Camelback Ranch.

The Los Angeles skipper remained diplomatic when asked about Ethier’s body of work during spring training.

“Andre’s at-bats have been pretty good,” said Mattingly, per Baxter.

This noncommittal stance from Mattingly has not wavered from the official party line that team president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman established several months ago while discussing the 2015 center-field outlook.

“I think we’ll take some time in spring training and assess that, get a feel for [Pederson] in camp and how he’s handling things,” Friedman told Dilbeck. “It’ll be a discussion we’ll have with the staff and I’m sure it will be an ongoing discussion between now through the last game in March.”

With just one week left in March, the question has reached a crescendo but the answer is a simple one: Pederson should be the Opening Day center fielder for the 2015 Dodgers.

All statistics are courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise stated.

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Spring training has begun, and the Dodgers are still a few weeks away from moving from Arizona to Los Angeles. However, their roster is still slightly in flux; I believe the platonic ideal of their Opening Day roster is not what it would actually look like if the team broke camp today.

Expensive players remain on the roster, and contractual issues ensure that those players will be on the 25-man roster unless they are no longer in the organization. Therefore, the following moves will be designed to create extra roster flexibility.

Trade Andre Ethier

This is the single most important move the Dodgers could make. They are clearly trying to move him, as recent reports have indicated that they are willing to pay “about half” of the money still owed to the outfielder, per Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. What this indicates to me, though, is that they may not be trying hard enough.

Ethier is both expensive and unproductive, and he takes up a valuable roster spot. The lefty is owed about $54 million over the next three years, and he does not provide enough value to be worth anything close to that. He hasn’t posted an ISO above .200 since 2010, and the presence of Yasiel Puig and the Carl Crawford/Scott Van Slyke platoon means he will have to be a center fielder. Unfortunately, the defensive metrics paint a bad picture: FanGraphs’ UZR has him as a solid negative in center field.

Trade Alex Guerrero

This move is not an either/or proposition with regards to Ethier. Guerrero has a clause in his contract that stipulates he cannot be sent to the minors without his permission, but I don’t think the Dodgers would want to keep him on the big league roster if they did not have to.

Guerrero’s skill set matches Justin Turner’s pretty well, and the Dodgers are already well stocked with bench bats. Turner is the backup infielder, and Chris Heisey and Scott Van Slyke are outfield options. While Guerrero could well be a better hitter in the long run, we don’t actually know if that will be the case.

Sign Rafael Soriano

Soriano is the only notable free agent left, and he certainly isn’t perfect. He is a 35-year-old reliever, but he also has a recent track record of success. He’s posted a 2.84 ERA and 3.36 FIP over the last three years, and he would come free.

The Dodgers bullpen was notoriously bad last year, and their decision to release Brian Wilson clearly indicates they are aware that spending money on relief pitchers is a fool’s errand. Soriano, though, would have to be a cheap option at this point in the offseason, and he would be worth a flier.

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Through the first nine games of spring training at Camelback Ranch, it’s clear that the Los Angeles Dodgers are beginning to shake off the winter rust.

Most of the players are, anyway.

Some members of the team have yet to find their rhythm on the mound and in the batter’s box. While the sample size is small, these players will need to turn things around if they have aspirations of making the 25-man roster when camp breaks in less than three weeks.

Here’s the shortlist of early-spring disappointments for the Boys in Blue.

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As all (or most) people reading this are well aware, spring training began last week—and the Los Angeles Dodgers have already tied twice. And while seven games is neither enough to be a validation of existing ideas or to justify an opinion reversal, it is worth taking a look at some of the top performers thus far.

Nearly all of the players on this list will be hitters, for the simple reason that there are a grand total of zero pitchers who have thrown five innings. The hitters, though, have each had a few at-bats, and there have been some noteworthy performances that are worth pointing out. Each player presented here has a chance to have a real role with the team, so not everyone with an impressive OPS will be listed.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers underwent their first full workout of spring training this week, officially turning the page on a busy offseason and opening the 2015 chapter with high hopes.

Succumbing to the St. Louis Cardinals in the playoffs for a second straight year prompted the franchise to rethink its overall philosophy last October. Ownership opted to hire an entirely new front office, headed by president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi, shortly after the postseason defeat.

This analytic-minded duo wasted little time revamping the roster, trading away fan favorites Matt Kemp and Dee Gordon while allowing Hanley Ramirez to walk via free agency in an effort to improve defense, chemistry and financial flexibility.

Spring training games against other MLB opponents at Camelback Ranch don’t begin until March 4, but the Boys in Blue are eager to see what their new—and hopefully improved—roster can do on the field.

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With the recent news that closer Kenley Jansen will be out for two or three months, the Los Angeles Dodgers will have a new back of the bullpen for the first part of the season. There are a few different potential replacements currently on the Dodger roster: Joel Peralta, Yimi Garcia, and Dustin McGowan.

Those three seem the most likely because of their combination of track record and pure stuff. Typically, closers throw hard and strike batters out, and each of those three has the potential to do that.

Joel Peralta, 5 Percent

Peralta is the most established member of the Dodger bullpen. He will be 39 years old on Opening Day, and he has filled in as a closer before as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays. He has 12 career saves, and he still throws really hard, as you can see from this chart from BrooksBaseball.

He seems to be the most likely option to get the first shot because he has virtually no platoon split and he will slot in at the back end of the bullpen anyway. It would be a seamless transition to bump him back to the eighth inning when Jansen comes back.

Yimi Garcia, 2 Percent

Garcia is at the opposite end of the experience spectrum and isn’t seen as an elite reliever prospect given his lack of incredible strikeout potential. His career strikeout rate in the minor leagues is 10.8 per nine innings, which would have ranked around 30th in the majors last year. However, he was a closer in the lower minors early in his career, and he accumulated 36 saves across 2012 and 2013. Because of that track record and experience in the ninth inning, he could get a shot—although that is unlikely given his youth.

Dustin McGowan, 1 Percent

McGowan is probably a long shot, but he certainly has closer potential. He was a mediocre starter who missed a couple of years with injury, but the Dodgers signed him as a reliever. He has never put up elite numbers, but his stats as a reliever are better than as a starter. Additionally, he still has excellent velocity so could be a dark-horse candidate if Peralta or others fail in the job. However, he would have to perform at a level above what we have seen him do.

Others, 1 Percent

There are a few other potential options that have late-game experience. Paco Rodriguez was excellent in 2013 but barely appeared in 2014, so he is a long shot. Brandon League has 74 career saves but has essentially turned into a platoon reliever unable to get lefties out. J.P. Howell was quite good for much of 2014 but then faded down the stretch, so others will likely get a chance before he does. The further down the list we go, the less likely it is that any individual pitcher keeps the job over even the others on this list, let alone Jansen.

Jansen, 90-plus Percent

Ultimately, though, the only way anyone other than Jansen is the closer by midseason is if he cannot get back on the mound. The big righty from Curacao is one of the best relievers in all of baseball, and he should be reinstalled as the closer as soon as he gets back. However, the scary nature of this surgery—two or three months for a foot injury is worrisome—makes it difficult to rely on the listed timetable.

Jansen is a great pitcher. He has the third-highest strikeout rate and third-best xFIP among all relievers over the last five years. His dominance cannot be overstated, and so there is no performance from any of his potential replacements that would result in him losing his job.

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Dodgers prospect Julio Urias made a statement last spring in his first big league camp, as the then-17-year-old struck out a pair of Padres as part of a scoreless inning.

This year, Urias, now 18, is back in camp with the Dodgers and ready to prove to the organization that despite his age and relative lack of experience, he’s ready for the major leagues. Positive reports on Urias have already started to come in this spring, with veteran A.J. Ellis offering high praise for the teenager after a recent bullpen session.

“I’d like to know how old he really is because there’s no way a kid 18 years old can have that type of composure,” Ellis joked, via Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times. “That’s what was most impressive to me, his tempo, his ability to stay in the moment.”

But even if Urias dazzles this spring as he’s expected to, the Dodgers still are likely to send him to the minor leagues for the start of the season. At the same time, with all eyes on the left-hander this spring, he certainly stands to improve his estimated time of arrival in The Show.

The Dodgers signed Urias in August 2012 and sent him to Low-A Great Lakes in the Midwest League the following year for his professional debut. Though he was the youngest player at a full-season level, Urias, only 16 at the time, posted an outstanding 2.48 ERA with 67 strikeouts in 54.1 innings over 18 starts.

Urias solidified his status as one of the game’s top pitching prospects in 2014, as the precocious left-hander dominated older hitters in the hitter-friendly California League in his age-17 season. After celebrating his 18th birthday on Aug. 12, Urias capped his outstanding campaign by posting a 0.44 ERA with 31 strikeouts over his final 20.1 innings (five starts) for High-A Rancho Cucamonga.

On the season, the southpaw pitched to a 2.36 ERA and 1.11 WHIP with 109 strikeouts in 87.2 innings while also holding opposing hitters to a dismal .194/.292/.290 batting line.

Urias’ stuff and feel for his craft are truly special, and not just in the context of his age. The 5’11”, 160-pound left-hander’s mechanics are smooth and repeatable, allowing him to find a consistent release point from a three-quarters slot. His fastball already sits in the low 90s and bumps 94-95 mph, and he’s adept at manipulating the pitch to generate both sinking and cutting action.

The southpaw’s curveball shows plus potential in the 78-82 mph range, and he has a distinct feel for changing the shape and pace via adding/subtracting. Urias also throws a fading changeup in the low 80s with late fading action, though his feel for the pitch lags behind his other two offerings. 

Urias isn’t your average pitching prospect, and so far, the Dodgers haven’t treated him as such, challenging the teenager with aggressive full-season assignments.

“I’ve never had an 18-year-old that I’ve played with or managed with that kind of polish with four pitches,” said Rancho Cucamonga manager P.J. Forbes via MiLB.com. “You watch him throw a bullpen [session], it’s special. You watch him attack hitters during a game, it’s special. There’s really not enough adjectives to explain or talk about his development this year because it just seems to continue to grow.”

While Urias’ stuff seems to be about ready for the major leagues, the Dodgers are understandably hesitant to cut him loose at the highest level with only 142 career innings under his belt (not including spring training or any minor league playoff appearances). Plus, the southpaw hasn’t been stretched out at this point in his promising career, as he’s been allowed to complete five innings just twice in 43 career games (38 starts).

“I think, with him, it’s just going to be using his total innings last year and building off that,” general manager Farhan Zaidi said about Urias’ potential workload, via Hernandez. “In general, you don’t want a guy’s innings to jump by more than 20 or 50 innings or so.”

By that logic, Urias will probably log around 100-120 innings next season, as the organization is expected to finally loosen its leash on the enormously talented left-hander.

“I’ll categorize it like this: They are going to take the gloves off a little bit. I don’t know the exact number of innings, the number of pitches, but it sounds like he’s growing up,” manager Don Mattingly said, via Eric Stephen of True Blue LA. “That’s part of the player-development side.”

Urias is a safe bet to debut in the major leagues as a teenager, but he’s far from a lock to do so in 2015, according to Mattingly:

“Probably not. I don’t think that is part of the plan. With our guys you want to give them the best chance to develop, so that when they do come it’s not back-and-forth. Everybody really has high hopes for him, and nobody wants to see him rushed.”

It would seem that the 2016 season is a realistic estimated time of arrival for Urias, though that obviously will depend on his performance during spring training and the regular season, which he’s likely to begin in Double-A.

That Urias is so off-the-charts advanced makes it easy to overlook his age and limited workload as a professional, but we’re still talking about an 18-year-old kid with less than 150 career minor league innings to his name.

Even if Urias were to reach the major leagues in 2015, it still might take him several years to settle in against the game’s top hitters and work his way to the front end of the team’s starting rotation.

However, given Urias’ overwhelming successes in previous years and the rave reviews he’s received from players, coaches and front-office personnel alike, it’s clear that no matter what happens this year, the young left-hander has an increasingly bright future ahead of him.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers aren’t above shopping for potential bargains, as evidenced by their reported signing of right-handed pitcher Brandon Beachy. 

According to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, the Dodgers signed Beachy to a one-year deal with a team option for 2016. 

Eric Stephen of True Blue LA provided contract details:

Rumors of Beachy signing have been floating around for weeks. Darren Wolfson of ESPN 1500 in Minnesota reported on January 24 the right-hander had decided on a team but was still ironing out some details. 

Dodgers general manager Farhan Zahidi told reporters the expected timeline for the pitcher’s recovery:

Beachy has been plagued by injuries throughout his career, most recently having Tommy John surgery for the second time last March. He’s only made more than 15 starts in a season once in four years though his results have been strong when healthy.  

From 2010-13 with Atlanta, Beachy had a 3.23 ERA with 275 strikeouts and 217 hits allowed in 267.2 innings. 

Signing with the Dodgers takes pressure off Beachy as he continues to rehab his elbow. The team isn’t lacking for talent in the rotation with Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Brandon McCarthy in place. 

If Beachy comes back healthy later in 2015, he adds more depth to one of the National League‘s best rotations. He could also be a bullpen option for manager Don Mattingly if they don’t want to throw him into the fire right away. 

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Zack Greinke’s 2015 season isn’t off to a great start, as the Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander reportedly received a preventive shot to help his pitching elbow.  

According to Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register, the Dodgers announced that Greinke will be shut down after getting a “lubricating injection.”

This is an important year for Greinke. He’s 31 years old and has an opt-out clause in his contract after this season, which he could leverage to get more average annual money from the Dodgers or another team in the offseason. 

The Dodgers are smart to play things safe with Greinke, as he’s got the kind of stuff and proven results that can help take this franchise where it hopes to go in October. 

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