With the Dodgers having completed their first full week of spring training, both Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman made one thing perfectly clear – they plan to go with an opening day starting rotation of left-handers Clayton Kershaw, Rich Hill, Alex Wood, Hyun-Jin Ryu and right-hander Kenta Maeda; in no particular order at this point … other than Kershaw, of course.

“If you look at the roster, I think that after the last few years, there’s been more starting pitching depth as far as established major league starting pitchers in the potential rotation,” Roberts told reporters, when pitchers and catchers reported last Tuesday. “But you look at Clayton, Alex Wood, Rich Hill, Kenta Maeda, and Hyun-Jin Ryu.

“And then outside of that you’ve got [Julio] Urias coming back at some point, you’ve got Walker Buehler in the mix, and [Ross] Stripling, and [Brock] Stewart,” Roberts added. “So there’s guys – and guys are going to be competing – but right now I like our pitching.”

Not wishing anything bad on anyone, but there is an exceptionally good chance that Dodger manager Dave Roberts’ “potential rotation” on February 13, 2018 may not be the same one on March 29, 2018, when the Dodgers open the 2018 season. (Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

Among those nine names, two will (probably) begin the 2018 campaign on either the 30-day or 60-day disabled list; those being Urias and Buehler. Mathematically, that leaves Stripling and / or Stewart as the potential first man up in the event of an injury or a complete meltdown by the aforementioned “potential rotation” named by Roberts and later affirmed by Friedman.

As we all know, Stripling surprised everyone when he broke spring training camp in 2016 in the Dodgers starting rotation. And even though he pitched mostly out of the Dodgers bullpen during the 2017 season and postseason, he proved to everyone that early spring training pitching projections don’t always work out as planned.

And then there’s 26-year-old fellow right-hander Brock Stewart.

“Good, I feel good. My arm is definitely stronger,” said the Normal, IL native and Dodgers 2014 sixth-round draft pick out of Illinois State University after his first week in major league spring training camp as a member of the Dodgers 40-man roster. “It’s easier to go through the whole throwing motion, it feels clean and easy, so that’s great news.

“Just trying to get things rolling,” Stewart added. “My last bullpen was about 35 pitches and this one today (Saturday) will probably be about the same.”

What currently appears to be a battle for the number six spot in the Dodgers rotation between Brock Stewart and fellow right-hander Ross Stripling could very well end up being a battle for the fifth spot on the Dodgers opening day rotation. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

As you may recall, Stewart made his major league debut on June 29, 2016, appearing in a total of seven games, five as a starter. He finished the 2016 season with a record of 2-2 and an ERA of 5.79. He was called back up to the big leagues on June 20 of 2017 and appeared in 14 games, of which he started four, to finish the Dodgers 2017 National League Championship season with no record but with a very impressive 3.41 ERA; good, but not quite good enough to earn a spot on the Dodgers 2017 postseason roster.

But with Roberts’ and Friedman’s (very) early starting rotation projection that does not include the 6′-3″ / 210-pound right-hander – for the moment, that is – is there anything that Steward can or is doing to improve his chances this spring?

“Just trying to get all of the command back, command of the off-speed pitches,” Stewart said. “That’s the last thing to come but it’s coming out good right now and that’s all that matters.

“Everything is progressing well, I’ve just got to keep it going and stay on top of my shoulder program and stay healthy,” he added.

A very good plan indeed.

But here again and as we all know, with a total of 33 spring training games scheduled before the Dodgers regular season home opener on Thursday, March 29 against the Hated Ones at Dodger Stadium, anything can happen with that “potential rotation” thing. As such, the extremely likable and soft-spoken kid from Normal, Illinois appears to be in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.