If I had been consulted by Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi a few days ago regarding which three players should immediately be promoted in the Dodgers minor league system by Monday I would have selected Julio Urias, Kyle Garlick and Scott Griggs. There may be other worthy candidates for upward movement, such as Tim Locastro of the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, but three is the number on which I was hypothetically asked to make a recommendation.

My third choice and one I think was a misplacement by the Dodgers minor league staff to begin the season is right-hander Scott Griggs. He is 25 years of age and it seemed a better placement for him at the beginning of the year would have been with the AA Tulsa Drillers.

Griggs was selected by the Dodgers as a college junior in the eighth round of the 2012 First Year Player Draft out of the UCLA. This was the same draft that netted the Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager and right-handed pitcher Ross Stripling. Griggs had previously been selected by the Seattle Mariners in the 2009 June draft but chose not to sign at that time.

He was born in Alamo, a suburb of San Francisco Bay Area’s East Bay region, and played baseball on the San Ramon Valley High School team in neighboring Danville where he was spotted by UCLA’s renowned head coach John Savage.

“He’s a competitor,” UCLA baseball coach John Savage says. “His better days are definitely ahead of him. The ball exploded out of his hands. He had a live fastball and a downward curve. He was a big guy with two potential knockout pitches. It was easy to see he was a guy with great potential.”

After graduating from high school he played three seasons with the UCLA Bruins whose home ball park is Jackie Robinson Stadium. In his junior year he made 36 appearances, all in relief, and established UCLA’s single-season saves record recording 15 saves in 17 opportunities. He went 3-1 along with a 2.65 ERA while striking out 64 and walking 31.

On the season he was rewarded with third-team All-America honors from the NCBWA and third team acclaim from Baseball America and Louisville Slugger/Collegiate Baseball.

Scott Griggs
(Photo credit – Jerry Espinoza)

Griggs made his professional debut with the Ogden Raptors of the rookie level Pioneer League on June 26, 2012 striking out three Idaho falls Chukars in an inning of relief. On the season between the Raptors and Great Lakes Loons of the Midwest League he posted a 3.97 ERA while allowing only 12 hits in 22.2 innings and striking out 32. Control was an issue as he walked 21 hitters.

In a return to the Great Lakes Loons in 2013 Griggs was simply dominant in relief. In 34 appearances over 45.2 innings he recorded a 2.56 ERA and struck out a whopping 74 hitters. Control was again an issue as he walked 33.

At that point I was willing to declare Scott Griggs the Dodgers minor league reliever of the year for the upcoming 2014 season regardless of where he might be assigned. Little did I know he would miss the entire 2014 and part of the 2015 campaign while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery.

He again was assigned to the Loons in 2015 and had an ineffective first outing on June 18th in which he gave up four runs in one inning of work. He followed up that appearance with a 21 game streak in which he allowed only an additional four earned runs for the rest of the season. He finished the season with 49 strikeouts and 18 walks in 30.1 innings along with a 2.08 ERA. To that point in his career he had given up but 64 hits in 101 innings and only one of those hits was a home run.

So why would I have skipped by Rancho Cucamonga with Scott Griggs to start the 2016 season? Well, he has the “stuff” with a fastball in the low-90’s that can top out at 95 mph along with an above average change up. His curve ball is described as having a lot of bite. Command has not been an issue with Griggs in that he is able to effectively use his pitching repertoire as evidenced by his low hit count. During the course of his minor league career opponents have a combined .167 batting average against him. Control has been an issue in that he has had trouble hitting his spots with his arsenal but each year it has improved.

This year the 6’4” – 215 lb right-hander has appeared in 12 games with the Quakes over 12.1 innings and has given up three hits. He has recorded seven saves while striking out 10 and walking two resulting in an ERA of 0.73 and a WHIP of 0.41. He has given up one hit and one walk in his last seven innings and has not been relying solely on the strikeout to get batters out which suggests that perhaps control is catching up to command.

On the flip side of the coin one wonders if Quakes pitching coach Kip Wells has been able to help Griggs master the fine art of pitching. Perhaps it has been a confidence instilled by manager Drew Saylor who in mid-April declared Griggs the team’s closer. If so, perhaps I should withdraw my initial question about his 2016 assignment.

As mentioned Griggs turned 25 in May so it is definitely time to move on up especially with the success he has had in the hitter-friendly California League and on Monday morning it was announced that his next appearance will be with the Tulsa Drillers.

It is undoubtedly good to get him back on schedule with his promotion and to determine if he must be protected in the Rule 5 Draft in December.

My guess is that this is not his final stop in 2016.