May 17th, 2019 at 8:37 am 
by 0799291000348 “Local Boy Makes Good” may be the sports headline this morning in Chino Hills and surrounding communities in Southern California with the announcement that 27-year-old Kyle Garlick will be added to the Dodgers 40-man and active rosters prior to play on Friday.
Born in La Habra, California and a 2010 graduate from Chino Hills High School, this weekend Garlick will realize his dream of playing in the MLB.
The 6′-1″ / 210-pound Garlick was already 23-years-old when he was selected by the Dodgers in the 28th round of the 2015 MLB First-Year Player Draft as a fifth year senior out of Cal Poly Pomona. Not listed among the MLB Top-100 prospects or the Dodgers Top-30 prospects, he could be described as a “grinder,” making the most of his abilities – more akin to the turtle than the hare in the race to the Majors. Step-by-step progression through the minor league system, his four-plus year minor league career stats are solid but unspectacular: .283 / .341 / .519 / .860 with 78 home-runs and 244 RBI.
After spending four years at the University of Oregon (red-shirting his junior season due to a broken wrist), Garlick chose to transfer to Cal Poly Pomona after the 2014 season. Disappointed that he was not drafted by a Major League team, wanting to continue to play baseball, and a desire to be closer to his home where his mother was battling breast cancer, Garlick helped the Broncos reach the Division II College World Series in 2015, slashing .358 / .456 / .667 / 1.119 with a school record 17 home-runs.
Welcome to the Dodgers Kyle. Hopefully you join the Dodgers fraternity of players who started their careers with the team in their late 20’s, like Maury Wills, Sweet Lou Johnson, Justin Turner, and Max Muncy.
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I like Garlick. He never gave up on his dream and if not for him transferring to Cal Poly Pomona to tend to his ailing mother at the time, he probably would’ve been drafted. Not sure how long he’s gonna stay with the parent club, but one thing he’ll provide them right out of the gate is a solid power bat from the right side against southpaws in particular. He can also play either corner OF position in a pinch if need be.
Btw, quite a day yesterday down in the minors for many of the Top 30 Dodger prospects and especially the ones that finally made their season debuts at their respective levels (like last year’s 3rd rounder/LHP John Rooney down at Low-A Great Lakes, for instance: 4 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, 2 pickoffs). Recently promoted Zach Reks killed it in his long-awaited AAA debut with a game-breaking 3-run home run that helped win the game for struggling OKC. Cody Thomas and Keibert Ruiz both went a combined 7-for-7 with four runs scored, 3 BB, and 3 RBI at the plate in AA Tulsa’s win over their current main rival Arkansas (recently promoted Jordan Sheffield also pitched a dominant 3-inning save in which he only gave up a hit and a walk while striking out 4). Devin Mann’s on absolute FIRE right now with his second straight 4-hit game in High-A Rancho’s series-clinching win over main rival Lancaster, while Josiah Gray finally shook off the long layoff with a 5-inning, 5-hit, 2-run, 1-walk, 9-strikeout performance in that very game as well.
So yeah, lot of action went down that day in the Dodger farm system my goodness…
😉
Yes, a number of prospects getting settled and starting to play as they were expected. Miguel Vargas (Great Lakes Loons) has been on-fire for last couple of weeks raising his batting average to .293. I think he will soon head to Rancho Cucamonga, perhaps as a replacement for Mann or possibly Jeter Downs who is playing much better of late. Regarding Garlick, from what I read he was very disappointed about not being drafted after the 2014 season and that was when he decided to move to Cal Poly Pomona.
Shoot, I almost forgot about our favorite young Cuban phenom! Yeah, Vargas has indeed fully awakened this month for the Loons and now it looks like he’s pretty much mastered the Low-A level on top of that. Like Gray before him, Dodgers might have to bump him up to High-A Rancho soon just to keep him thoroughly challenged. I wouldn’t do it just yet, at least not until Deacon Liput finally returns from the IL for the Quakes. Moment he does, they can also go ahead and send Mann on his way to AA Tulsa with their blessings (Quakes’ main play-by-play guy actually said he reminded him of Corey Seager physically not too long ago; too bad he’s not nearly as smooth a fielder as Seager is though-lol).
And it was only a matter of WHEN Downs would get his bat going and this month he finally has, whew! All his other tools he’s already shown plenty enough times so far, just needed to work on his average a bit. In due time, could very well see him and Gavin Lux anchoring the middle infield for the Dodgers long-term. No rush to move him, however. Dodgers are not hurting in that specific area of organizational depth right now. Ha, I wonder if Garlick’s gonna start picking fellow ginger Justin Turner’s brain for hitting tips while he’s getting his cup of coffee in the bigs…