Major League Baseball is tough.

When you stop and think about the millions of little leaguers around the world who grow up with the dream of someday playing in the MLB; and the hundreds of thousands who go on to play high school and college ball; and the thousands who go on to play minor league ball; and then you realize that there are only 750 guys actually playing in the big leagues, it is absolutely mind-boggling. And even after making it to ‘The Show’ (as Major League Baseball is commonly called), it is even more difficult to stay there.

History has shown us time and again that the game waits for no one. If you get injured or if you struggle after getting that coveted call up to the major leagues, there are literally thousand of guys just waiting to take your place. Nobody knows this more that former Dodgers Jerry Sands and Alex Castellanos.

When the Dodgers drafted Jerry Sands (26) out of Catawba College (North Carolina) in the 25th round of the 2008 amateur draft, he gave every indication that he would develop into a solid MLB outfielder. He had good power, decent speed and adequate defensive skills. In fact, in his six seasons in the minor leagues, he had a triple slash of .276/.366/,526 with an OPS of .892. And while these aren’t Hall of Fame numbers, they are more than adequate MLB numbers. But as we all know, minor league numbers rarely equate to major league success and Sands simply could not make the transition.

Heading into spring training 2012, the everyday left field job was Jerry Sands’ to lose. Unfortunately, he did just that. (Ron Cervenka – ThinkBlueLA.com)

During his two MLB seasons with the Dodgers (70 total games with 227 total plate appearances), Sands hit only .244 with 60 strikeouts. In his defense, he was never really given a chance to be an everyday outfielder and coming off the bench as a pinch hitter or a late innings defensive replacement was definitely not Jerry’s forte. Sands was eventually sent to the Boston Red Sox as part of the blockbuster trade that brought Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto to the Dodgers in August of 2012, and from there he was traded to the Pirates organization where he never made it above the Triple-A level. Sands was designated for assignment by the Pirates on December 13, 2013.

Alex Castellanos (27) was acquired by the Dodgers in the trade that sent oft-injured shortstop Rafael Furcal to the Cardinals in 2011. But like Sands, Castle (as he was called by teammates) had very limited opportunities to prove himself on the major league level, this in spite of doing exceptionally well at Triple-A Albuquerque. Castellanos appeared in only 24 games with the Dodgers over a two-year period, hitting only .171 in 43 plate appearances (he hit .288 in six minor league seasons).

Although Alex Castellanos did well at Triple-A Albuquerque, he simply couldn’t hit MLB pitching.
(Photo credit – Kirby Lee)

Here again, with an outfield that is pretty much locked up for the next four or five seasons, Alex never saw much playing time and the outlook for such was rather dim. As a result, Castellanos was eventually designated for assignment on October 23, 2013. He was quickly picked up by the Red Sox but was again designated for assignment on December 12, 2013.

As luck would have it, on Monday both Sands and Castellanos were picked up by the Rays and Rangers respectively – both on minor league contracts with invitations to spring training. And while this is great news for a couple or really great guys, both face situations similar to those that they faced with the Dodgers – outfield depth. Regardless, both Jerry and Alex have been given another chance to make it to The Show.

Godspeed to you both.