May 20th, 2019 at 12:00 pm 
by 0799291000348 On May 8th we identified ten Double-A Tulsa Drillers players who were on the cusp of being promoted to the Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers, noting that some would be sooner-than-later. Last week the Dodgers Player Development group assigned three of those players to OKC; right-handed, starting-pitcher Mitchell White, left-handed relief-pitcher Adam McCreery, and left-hand-hitting outfielder Zach Reks. In order to advance the other Driller prospects to OKC, there must be corresponding roster moves to replace the promoted players. Therein-lies-the-rub, how to fill the roster openings created by the promotion of deserving players.
One-off player reassignments occur regularly during every minor league season for various reasons (injuries, rehabilitation, promotions, demotions, etc.), and are easily administered by most teams. But the Dodgers are facing a much more difficult challenge with a Double-A roster loaded with prospects chafing-at-the-bit for the next opportunity, and an OKC roster with many under-performing players.
While it isn’t realistic for the Dodgers to effect an immediate makeover of the OKC roster, the team’s owners and fans deserve a competitive team, and prospects the opportunity to move-up when ready. Therefore, it would not be out-of-the-question to see a 50% roster-turnover (including White, McCreery, and Reks) phased-in prior to the 2019 All-Star break.
Presently, there are several OKC players who may benefit by returning to Double-A Tulsa: infielders Drew Jackson, Jake Peter, Errol Robinson; and, pitchers Stetson Allie, and Louis Head. In effect, a player-swap could be occur with “older” prospects Zach McKinstry (24-year-old infielder), Logan Landon (26-year-old outfielder), and Marshall Kasowski (24-year-old right-handed relief pitcher) heading to OKC.
However, there are at least five more prospects who appear ready for the next step in their respective career advancement: infielders Omar Estevez, Gavin Lux, Cristian Santana; pitchers Dustin May, and Shea Spitzbarth. Replacements for those players would likely come from the Dodgers Advanced Single-A team in Rancho Cucamonga (21-year-old outfielder Carlos Rincon and 23-year-old relief pitcher Jordan Sheffield were promoted to the Drillers last week).
Infielders Devin Mann (22-year-old, 2018 5th-round draft selection), and Jeter Downs (20-year-old, 1st-round compensatory selection by Cincinnati Reds) have been playing very well with the Quakes and could soon be playing with in Tulsa.
There are several pitchers deserving of advancement: 21-year-old starting pitcher Edwin Uceta (1.89 ERA, .250 Batting Average Against (BAA)); 23-year-old starting pitcher Victor Gonzalez (1.65 ERA, .173 BAA); and, six relievers (Ryan Mosely, Connor Mitchell, Wes Helsabeck, Logan Salow, Wills Montgomerie, and Max Gamboa) who arguably are ready for the next step in their careers.
There are three Great Lakes Loons prospects who have played well enough to be considered for promotion to Rancho Cucamonga, 19-year-old infielder Miguel Vargas (.297 / .404 / .375 / .779), 21-year-old catcher Hunter Feduccia ( .306 / .427 / .500 / .927), and 22-year-old outfielder Niko Hulsizer ( .254 / .373 / .500 / .873); Feduccia could even skip a level and move directly to Double-A Tulsa. However, promotions from Great Lakes may have to wait until after the upcoming 2019 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft on June 3 – 5 in order to restock the Loons roster.
For the Dodgers Player Development group, the movement of players is akin to arranging dominoes so that they fall at the right-time, in the right direction, and only when the team is ready to effect the first move.
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Good write-up as usual, Jesse! I agree that there are quite a few players on that OKC roster that are underperfoming terribly and probably should be demoted to AA Tulsa or released outright (if they are no longer considered prospects, that is). Good news is that it appears Zach Reks might very well be on his way to becoming the next parent club call-up when a roster spot opens up again in the near future. He just had another big day at the plate today in OKC’s win and is now batting .300 as expected through his first 5 games since being promoted. Will Smith’s not far behind either, but I’d rather see him work more on taking charge of their extremely volatile pitching staff in the meantime.
As for Tulsa, they can go ahead and start swapping several players with OKC right now beginning with Lux, McKinstry, Santana, and Spitzbarth. Estevez and Kasowski I’d hold off on for now. Don’t forget Cody Thomas, who’s been on a tear so far this month and is batting close to .300 overall (including .303 AGAINST LEFTIES, which was what I was really looking for out of him). Should he maintain his current pace, I fully expect him to be manning the OF for OKC by the end of the 1st half.
Getting to Rancho, the only players I should be seeing in Tulsa right now are Leo Crawford (back to form since coming back from blister problems that plagued his first couple starts last month), Salow, Helsabeck, and Moseley. Gonzalez already got promoted to Tulsa and did rather well in his debut yesterday despite the pen blowing the lead in the 9th and losing the game outright. The others I’d hold off on until after the Draft for the very reasons you’ve mentioned.
I agree that it might not be time to move any of the top-performing prospects on that Loons roster right now (especially when they’re having quite a season to remember, still leading ALL of pro-baseball in drawing walks too O_O), BUT if they must then they should start with Feduccia (should be with Rancho already, truth be told) and Hulsizer (already getting pitched around despite his solid power numbers) on the position side with Andre Jackson (should’ve tuned in to his outing yesterday, buddy; nearly had a perfect game going through 6 IP and he was attacking that K-zone repeatedly with his A-list stuff), Jose Chacin (might be on his way to Rancho right now as he’s currently not listed on the Loons roster, and Austin Drury on the pitching side.
Good points. Although I think the 24-year-old Kasowski has shown enough to deserve a promotion to OKC. Yes, Thomas should be included in the list after the last couple of weeks performance. Moving Rincon to Tulsa was a real stretch and so far it looks like he is way over his head. The unknown is how players are performing in extended spring training like infielder Mike Ahmed, third baseman Jeffrey Souffront, and outfielder Josh McClain (perhaps injured?)
In that case, I feel Andre Scrubb should also get equal consideration for an OKC promotion as he’s been just as effective as Kasowski by comparison of late. Speaking of Thomas, I now know which big-league player he reminds me of the most: Hunter Pence. Same size, same athleticism, hits both lefties and righties almost equally well, and can play all three OF positions competently at the very least. Said before my money was on this guy in terms of being the one that could have the best chance of sticking with the Dodgers long-term (though Hulsizer could turn out to be nice insurance in case DJ Peters never figures it out in time) and from the looks of it I might end up collecting fairly soon on that bet, lol.
I’m not all that concerned about Rincon as he’s already proven in the 2nd half of last season that High-A ball was no trouble for him. AA’s where he’s gonna remain anyway until he either settles in like Thomas finally did this month or ends up getting dealt like Johan Mieses and Ibandel Isabel before him. To be honest, only thing he has going for him is his power bat as he’s not a particularly good defensive outfielder despite having a strong arm for the position. AL team is what I see in his future if he does manage to pan out.
Btw, Miguel Vargas with another multi-hit outing today for the Loons and now batting .312 for the moment. Actually would’ve gone 4-4 if not for a couple of well-hit balls going for outs. 19-year old C Jair Camargo also making a fair bit of noise recently since batting 2nd behind Vargas in the order. Might be worth keeping tabs on, but we’ll see…
Fair point about Scrubb. I watched him in spring training; reminded me of a young Jonathan Broxton in build and how hard he throws. Kasowski strike-out rate is right at 2 per inning this season, and in his Dodgers career is 1.8 per IP. I am not sold on Rincon, at all. I have seen him play in spring training and it wasn’t pretty. Overweight, one of the slowest runners in camp, a lot of swing-and-miss in his swing, and is not athletic which makes him a very poor defensive player; huge power, but that is it. I think last season stats at OKC were an aberration — IMO he should not be in Dodgers top-30.
Failed to respond to your points about Cody Thomas. I am pulling for the former OU Sooners QB (I am a life long Sooners fan), he is a terrific athlete, but a career 30% strike out rate in the minors is not a good sign. If he can make consistent contact then he will play for some team if not the Dodgers.
So THAT’S why Rincon’s been struggling so much this season to repeat what he did in the 2nd half for Rancho last year, I should’ve known. Guess he’s no different than Miguel Sano of the Twins in terms of self-discipline (or lack thereof regarding proper nutrition, lol). In either case, I don’t see him hanging around in the Dodgers’ system anyway so it’s up to him to turn himself around so he can at least make himself attractive to another ballclub looking for some OF depth in the meantime.
And you shouldn’t be worried about Thomas’ strikeout rate. Like I said before, if they’re of the swinging variety they should indeed be cut down…BUT if they’re on account of getting CAUGHT LOOKING (especially on full counts), then it’s not as big an issue as you might suspect because it means that hitter’s making an effort to gauge the ump’s strike zone (and considering how increasingly bad it’s become this season for calling balls and strikes at the big-league level in particular, it’s totally understandable for me). Back to Thomas, he’s already making consistent contact much like he did during his breakout campaign for Rancho last season and is currently the league leader in RBI and also ranks near the top in HR. OKC will most likely be his eventual landing spot by the All-Star break should he continue swinging a hot bat. I get the feeling had he not split time between two sports prior to getting drafted and just concentrated on baseball instead from the very start, he’d probably be a big-league regular by now…