One of the most difficult parts of professional baseball is often the least publicized – the times when teams release minor leaguers.

Each year, right after Major League Baseball’s first-year player draft, hundreds of minor league players find themselves cut adrift by their respective teams. Poof!, they’re gone; as if part of a David Copperfield magic act. Seldom are their names publicized by the team from which they were cut. One minute they were there and the next they were not.

Many of these released players never came close to fulfilling their dream of playing in the majors – The Show – or even having that metaphorical ‘cup of coffee.’ Their organizations replaced them with younger, talented players who are ready to begin their own dream journeys.

This year is no different, even though the MLB draft was only five rounds in length. The cancelation of the 2020 minor league season was certainly a factor, as well as MLB’s goal of cutting more than 40-minor league teams to reduce organizational operating costs. The bottom line: hundreds of minor leaguers have been released. For most, their dream of professional baseball is over. Some may find their way onto rosters of other minor league teams or land in the Independent League or foreign leagues.

The Dodgers? Over the last few weeks, they have quietly made the equivalent of a minor league roster disappear. Poof! The names? Unless one of these young men is a relative, friend, or you are a diehard Dodgers fan, the names of these players will have no significance; just another group of young men who can say that they played professionally for the Los Angeles Dodgers organization. That is quite an accomplishment, one that they should forever cherish.

According to @tombaseball19, these are the players recently released by the Dodgers:

Pitchers:

• Kieran Lovegrove
• Tyler Ferguson
• Ricky Knapp
• Casey Crosby
• Ben Holmes
• Yeison Cespedes
• Chris Mathewson
• Jeronimo Castro
• Bradley Gonzales
• Riley Ottesen
• Austin Hamilton
• Igor Avila

Catchers:

• Jose Lobaton
• Hamlet Marte
• Ramon Rodriguez
• Cesar Mendoza
• Tyler Ryan

Infielders:

• Jake Peter
• Eric Peterson
• Aldo Espinoza

Outfielders:

• Blake Gailen
• Starling Heredia
• Jaime Perez
• Rolando Lebron
• Jeremiah Vison

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