For those who closely follow the Dodgers minor league teams, one of the biggest mysteries this season has been where the heck did top infield prospects Edwin Rios and Matt Beaty go?

As most Dodgers prospect watchers know, Rios and Beaty had received invitations to major league spring training camp this past March and both absolutely tore it up with the big league club.

The 24-year-old Rios, who the Dodgers selected in the 6th round of the 2015 draft out of Florida International University in Miami, slashed a remarkable .379 / .419 / .793 for an insane 1.212 OPS in the 15 major league spring training games in which he appeared. He also slugged three home runs, three doubles, and drove in seven.

But what the 24-year-old Caguas, Puerto Rico native was most remembered for this past spring was that two of his three spring training home runs went over the batters eye in center field, which would put them somewhere in the 500+ foot range.

Of the three home runs that Rios hit for the Dodgers this spring, two of them cleared the batters eye in center field. (Courtesy of SportsNet LA and Fox Sports – Click on image to view video)

As for the 25-year-old Beaty, who was also selected by the Dodgers in the 2015 draft but in the 12th round out of Belmont University in Tennessee, he only slashed .333 / .333 / .667 for an OPS of 1.000 in the 11 spring training games in which he appeared with the Dodgers. The Snellville, Georgia native hit two home runs and drove in four in his 18 spring training at-bats.

Even during his early days with the Dodgers Advanced Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, it was abundantly clear that Beaty was destined for the major leagues. He is now but one step away.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Although it was very unlikely that Rios or Beaty would break spring training camp with the major league team, there was every reason to believe that both would begin the 2018 campaign with the Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers.

They did not.

…and no one seemed to know why until April 7, 2018, when MLB.com’s Jim Callis reported that Rios and Beaty had remained at extended spring training for what Callis called “minor dings” suffered during spring training.

What was suspiciously missing from Callis’ report was exactly what those “minor dings” actually were, nor were there any follow-up reports by Callis on his popular @MLBPipeline Twitter account – or anywhere else, for that matter.

…until Thursday afternoon.

Shortly after noon PT, Oklahoma City Dodgers play-by-play man and communications director Alex Freedman tweeted this out:

Needless to say, this is great news for Dodger fans – both Oklahoma City and Los Angeles. And even though Rios and Beaty are both corner infielders by trade (with Rios also having outfield experience), this gives the Dodgers even more depth to their already stacked farm system.

Mystery solved.