May 9th, 2019 at 8:00 am 
by 0799291000348 When Andrew Friedman was hired by the Dodgers as president of baseball operations in 2014, he immediately began implementing significant changes throughout the organization, including a new and more aggressive player development process under the leadership of former Dodger (and current Philadelphia Phillies manager) Gabe Kapler (2014-2017). Kapler has since been replaced by current Director of Player Development Brandon Gomes, who has continued with Friedman’s methods.
Replacing the methodical advancement of players advocated by previous regimes, the Dodgers have been prudent and forward-looking in advancing prospects through their minor league system. When a player demonstrates that he is ready for the next challenge, the team has not hesitated to promote him, at times even skipping a level for the most talented and mature prospects.
After the first month of the 2019 season, one can sense that the Dodgers are on-the-cusp of promoting a group of worthy prospects. In addition to providing a challenge to those players, there is a significant need to improve the Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers roster after a 10-win, 21-loss start to its season. Other than 27-year-old outfielder Kyle Garlick, 28-year-old relief pitcher JT Chargois (who has three seasons on MLB experience), and 24-year-old starting pitcher Tony Gonsolin (currently on minor league Injured List), OKC’s player performances have been dreadful; so much so that on May 7, the Dodgers released left-handed pitcher Josh Smoker and outfielder Ezequiel Carrera from the team, two underperforming journeyman players who had both received invitations to Dodgers major league camp this past spring.
This, of course, brings up the burning question of who will be heading to OKC sooner rather than later to replace them? Other than the aforementioned Garlick, Chargois, and Gonsolin, a case could be made to simply swap the Triple-A OKC Dodgers and Double-A Tulsa Drillers rosters, including coaching staffs. Seriously; just take a look at the stat pages for both teams and you will see for yourself. Only 100 miles separates the two minor league teams. A couple of charter buses heading in opposite directions on I-44 could get the job done in under two hours.
Obviously this isn’t going to happen, but realistically, which Drillers players are the most likely to soon be playing at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark in OKC instead of ONEOK Field in Tulsa?
Here are some very real possibilities:
Position players
- Gavin Lux – 21-year-old middle infielder .307 / .354 / .604 / .958
- Omar Estevez – 21-year-old middle infielder .351 / .431 / .500 / .931
- Cristian Santana – 22-year-old first/third-baseman .340 / .364 / .491 / .854
- Zach Reks – 25-year-old outfielder .326 / .422 / .565 / .987
- Zach McKinstry – 24-year-old infielder/outfielder .323 / .450 / .615 / 1.065
- Logan Landon – 26-year-old outfielder .304 / .338 / .493 / .831
Pitchers
- Dustin May – 21-year-old right-handed starting pitcher 3.25 ERA / .204 BAA (batting average against)
- Mitchell White – 24-year-old right-handed starting pitcher 1.85 ERA / .151 BAA
- Adam McCreery – 26-year-old left-handed relief pitcher 1.32 ERA / .200 BAA
- Marshall Kasowski – 24-year-old right-handed relief pitcher 2.38 ERA / .167 BAA
And who, then, might fill the holes left on the Drillers roster if/when these players move up?
Good question.
We’ll take a look at the Advanced Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes players who may be on the move to Double-A Tulsa in our next segment.
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Good write-up, Jesse. I already know which players from AA Tulsa should’ve been on that AAA OKC roster by now. Yeah, I knew OKC would struggle right out of the gate this season due to the massive turnover in personnel this past winter (gonna miss manager Bill Haselman the most, though)…but I didn’t think they would be so ATROCIOUS, yikes! They actually have no bullpen right now, not to mention their starting staff’s having trouble making it past the 5th inning so far. Not sure how much of it is due to 2nd-rated C prospect Will Smith not handling these pitchers as well as previously expected, or they just don’t have enough decent pitching period. Glad the Dodger brass has already taken note of this and is doing something about it.
That said, the players you listed that definitely should make the trip to OKC sooner rather than later are: Zach Reks (HUGE no-brainer right there, lol), Gavin Lux, Omar Estevez, Logan Landon, Mitchell White (might be on his way after posting arguably his best start in the minors so far in his previous outing), Masrshall Kasowski, and Andre Scrubb (not listed, but he’s been so good dating back to his breakout performance for Rancho during the 2nd half of last season). Dustin May, Cristian Santana, Zach McKinstry (nice under-the-radar prospect right there, btw), and Jared Walker (also not listed, but keeps progressing at a rate that also warrants fast-track consideration) bear honorable mention as well so we’ll probably see them at OKC later on in the season.
Will certainly be looking forward to your Rancho write-up soon. Ought to make for some rather interesting reading…
I did not include Scrubb (or Nolan Long) because of their extremely high rate of walks per inning pitched. I think both will benefit from staying at Tulsa until either, or both, gain better command of the strike zone, Jared Walker has taken a long time to reach this point and I think he also should stay at Tulsa and hopefully reduce his strike out rate that is approaching 32%.
Good point. I just looked up Scrubb’s walk totals for the season. Ouch, lol! In that case, might as well hold off on promoting Kasowski for the very same reason as he’s also had trouble with the BB to start the season (9 allowed in just over 11 IP).
Totally understandable about needing to keep Walker down at Tulsa a little while longer (that’s why I didn’t put him with the initial group that can pretty much head straight to OKC right now), but on the bright side he’s not showing any real weaknesses against LHPs so far (.444 avg; small sample size I admit, but at least it’s worth bringing up). Thing I have with hitters striking out, though: if they’re of the swinging variety, that’s obviously not good and should be cut down…but if they’re on account of getting caught looking, then I don’t mind ’em as much. Means that hitter’s actually making an effort to gauge the ump’s K-zone, at least that’s what I take from it anyway.
Btw, do you happen know what injury Gonsolin sustained that landed him on the IL earlier on in the season? I can’t seem to find anything about it on my end, but perhaps you could. Thanks!