It was brief but it is a memory that 25-year-old Auburn, New York native Tim Locastro will cherish for the rest of his life. The date was September 29, 2017 when the  6′-1″ / 200-pound utility infielder / outfielder received the phone call he had been waiting his entire young life for – he was going to the big leagues.

Even though the soft-spoken right-handed hitting and throwing speedster appeared in a grand total of five innings over the course of three games against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in the final series of the Dodgers regular season as a pinch-hitter, left fielder and pinch-runner, and even though he popped out to second in his one and only major league at-bat, he stole a base as a pinch-runner during the series. As such, and no matter what happens for the rest of his life. Locastro will be able to tell his kids, grand kids and (hopefully) great grand kids that he played in the major leagues.

For those unfamiliar with Locastro, he was originally selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 13th round of the 2013 MLB First-Year Player Draft out of Ithaca College in New York. He was traded to the Dodgers on July 2, 2015 (along with right-hander Chase De Jong) in exchange for two international bonus slots and was immediately sent to the Dodgers Advanced Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes.

Among his many other accomplishments while in the Dodgers minor league system, Locastro hit for the cycle on May 5, 2016 while a member of the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

In his two seasons within the Blue Jays minor league system at the Rookie, Low-A, and A levels, Locastro appeared in a total of 180 – all but six of them at either second base or at shortstop. However, during his three seasons within the Dodgers minor league system at the High-A, Double-A and Triple-A levels, the New York native appeared in a total of 304 games – all but 65 at either second base or at shortstop and three at first base.

By every indication, the Dodgers had acquired Locastro to be a middle infielder who, because of his excellent speed, could also fill in at all three outfield positions in a pinch.

…or so we thought.

After being added to the Dodgers 40-man roster this past off-season (to prevent him from being snatched up in the Rule-5 Draft), Locastro arrived for spring training this past Saturday, a day before position players were scheduled to report.

When asked what he hoped to get out of this, his first major league spring training camp, Locastro said what you’d expect and most certainly hoped he would say.

“Your goal is to open some eyes and make a good first impression,” Locastro said. “Definitely try make a little noise here and have a good spring training.”

The perfect answer. But is there any one specific area that he hopes to improve upon this spring?

“I think overall just any way I can to show what I have and how I can help the team,” answered Locastro.

But in spite of having spent most of his professional career at second base and at shortstop, and with Logan Forsythe and recently re-signed veteran Chase Utley expected to split time at second base and Corey Seager at shortstop, it appears that Locastro’s chances of supplanting any of the three lies somewhere between slim and none. In fact, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said as much.

“For us, we expect Logan Forsythe to get the lion’s share of the at-bats; certain days that he’s going to need a blow,” said Roberts. “I think that last year against right-handed pitching was certainly under his career norm, so he did some things in the winter to combat that. [He] looks ready, he’s excited. So yeah, we expect Logan to play.”

So where does that leave Locastro?

“I see him in the outfield,” Roberts said, without hesitation. “I know he can play some infield, some second base. So, for us, I think that it will be more to move him around the outfield and we’ll see where it goes.

“There might be some opportunities to … I mean, he’ll be taking grounders at second base, but we’ll see how that goes. But I see him more in the outfield,” Roberts added.

As has been previously noted – ad nauseam – there are a lot of guys that Roberts plans to move around in the outfield. In fact, when you add Locastro to the mix, there are now 14 guys vying for three outfield spots and (perhaps) two bench spots. In no particular order they are: Yasiel Puig, Joc Pederson, Matt Kemp, Chris Taylor, Kiké Hernandez, Rob Segedin, Trayce Thompson, Andrew Toles, DJ Peters, Alex Verdugo, Yusniel Diaz, Henry Ramos, Travis Taijeron, and now Tim Locastro.

Unless he is traded between now and then, it’s hard to believe that Matt Kemp and his $43 million salary will not be one of the Dodgers three Opening Day starting outfielders. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

The good news is, barring any trades between now and Opening Day on March 29, not only will the Dodgers have a stable full of outfield talent, so too will the Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers, the Double-A Tulsa Drillers, and perhaps even the Advanced Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes … and this doesn’t even include the newer outfield prospects hoping to move up through the Dodgers farm system.

But, as we’ve heard quite often at Camelback Ranch this spring: “Competition is a good thing and a nice problem to have.”

…although Tim Locastro and the 13 other outfield candidates might not quite see it this way.