Tim Rogers
The Dodgers Triple-A affiliate, the Oklahoma City Dodgers, will begin their season against the Albuquerque Isotopes on Tuesday, April 5th. One of their top pitching prospects, Ryan Pepiot will be the Opening Day starter. Another top prospect, André Jackson, gets the start on Thursday in the third game. Note – as of this writing we do not have a finalized roster for the OKC Dodgers so we will do a little speculating.
Ryan Pepiot will start Opening Night for @okc_dodgers on Tuesday.
Andre Jackson scheduled to start Thursday. #Dodgers
— Alex Freedman (@azfreedman) April 3, 2022
There are really two main purposes for Triple-A. Let’s talk about those.
Getting Prospects Ready For The Big Leagues
This is the “Captain Obvious” part.
Of course, the main reason for the Triple-A team is to bring prospects closer to the major leagues. The pitchers mentioned earlier, Pepiot and Jackson are two top prospects. Both spent time in Triple-A in 2021 and Jackson even made a few successful appearances in the major leagues. As we wait further on the roster to be finalized don’t be surprised to see other top prospects like James Outman, Jorbit Vivas, Eddys Leonard, Jacob Amaya, Miguel Vargas, Andy Pages, Andy Pages, and Michael Busch in Triple-A either to begin the season or soon after it begins. Both Darien Nuñez and Zach McKinstry have already been optioned for more seasoning at OKC but also spent significant time in Los Angeles. Players like these are the future for the Dodgers. The player development program with the Dodgers is one of the best in baseball and these players will continue to benefit from it.
Miguel Vargas absolutely crushed this ball. Wow. pic.twitter.com/XZM872VC9o
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) March 23, 2022
In the next few years, many of these players could become the cornerstones of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
MLB Ready Players To Fill In
Last season, the bench players for the Dodgers did not help the team very much. Many of them have already been moved to other organizations. This season the Dodgers are making sure they have players with MLB experience ready to fill in if there is a time when someone at the MLB level struggles or gets injured.
This season the Dodgers have more help than last season.
#Dodgers announce that Jake Lamb will begin the season in the Minors. Likely up a spot on the roster for Edwin Ríos.
— Juan Toribio (@juanctoribio) April 4, 2022
Players like Jake Lamb, Tony Walters, Eddy Alvarez, Jason Martin, and Kevin Pillar are now on the Triple-A roster and all of them should be an upgrade from last season. Andy Burns is also still here and I think could see some time on the MLB roster. A low-key pitcher with plenty of MLB experience is Yency Almonte.
Jake Lamb just CRUSHED ONE pic.twitter.com/P6NAJjTb9O
— Blake Harris (@BlakeHHarris) March 21, 2022
Again, the player development department for the Dodgers comes into play. Kevin Pillar is hoping the Dodgers can transform his career.
Coming Soon
Us #ProspectHuggers cannot wait for the minor league season to start. To watch the games online, check out this link. The best way to watch the games is to watch them in person. If you can, try and get out to a MiLB game. We’ll keep covering the other three minor league teams as they approach their openers.
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