Now that Vicente Padilla is our Fourth Starter, I can officially add him to my 40-Man Roster Excel sheet. He is the 37th Dodger on this year’s roster, therefore leaving three more slots to fill. Judging from past experience, those holes are usually filled by non-roster invites, but according to Dylan Hernandez of latimes.com, "Colletti said the free agents the Dodgers are looking to sign to be bench players are players who would merit major league deals."
There’s also always the possibility of players presently on the roster being designated for assignment, being moved to the 60-day DL, or, as is the case with Carlos Monasterios and Armando Zerpa, just being given back to their old team, but for the purpose of this post, I will focus on just the three current openings. From my viewpoint, it looks like an obvious position to add to the roster will be a backup shortstop. The NRI candidates for this position include Angel Berroa and Nick Green. Everything I read about Green leads me to believe that he will be added, although we saw Berroa 2 years ago and he was serviceable. This is all very bad news for Chin-lung Hu.
The second hole would appear to be available for Brad Ausmus. If Ausmus retires (probable) or signs elsewhere (unlikely), AJ Ellis looks to be the guy that will backup RJ Martin. Should Ellis remain the bench Catcher, that 40-man roster spot would be left open for Doug Mientkiewicz or a yet unsigned player of “merit”. I'd rather see Rod Barajas over Ausmus and Ned and I both know there will be pinch hitter-type sluggers available late in the Winter who might take a McContract and serve us a little better than Mientkiewicz.
The final roster spot is less easily defined. In all likelihood, the Fifth Starter will come from a group of players that are already on the team and another member of this group who does not win a starting gig should hang on as a long reliever. So, by deduction, the final hole will most likely be filled by a relief pitcher who is currently a Free Agent or already on our NRI list. Ron Mahay or Joe Beimel would be a nice addition, I think, but of all the names that Ned has signed so far on minor league deals, a few caught my attention. Luis Ayala, Scott Dohmann, and Justin Miller all look promising to me along with Juan Perez, but only because he’s left-handed. In summary, we would be lucky to see a Brad Ausmus or a Joe Beimel signing at this point, as the majority of holes look to be filled from within the organization.
There’s also always the possibility of players presently on the roster being designated for assignment, being moved to the 60-day DL, or, as is the case with Carlos Monasterios and Armando Zerpa, just being given back to their old team, but for the purpose of this post, I will focus on just the three current openings. From my viewpoint, it looks like an obvious position to add to the roster will be a backup shortstop. The NRI candidates for this position include Angel Berroa and Nick Green. Everything I read about Green leads me to believe that he will be added, although we saw Berroa 2 years ago and he was serviceable. This is all very bad news for Chin-lung Hu.
The second hole would appear to be available for Brad Ausmus. If Ausmus retires (probable) or signs elsewhere (unlikely), AJ Ellis looks to be the guy that will backup RJ Martin. Should Ellis remain the bench Catcher, that 40-man roster spot would be left open for Doug Mientkiewicz or a yet unsigned player of “merit”. I'd rather see Rod Barajas over Ausmus and Ned and I both know there will be pinch hitter-type sluggers available late in the Winter who might take a McContract and serve us a little better than Mientkiewicz.
The final roster spot is less easily defined. In all likelihood, the Fifth Starter will come from a group of players that are already on the team and another member of this group who does not win a starting gig should hang on as a long reliever. So, by deduction, the final hole will most likely be filled by a relief pitcher who is currently a Free Agent or already on our NRI list. Ron Mahay or Joe Beimel would be a nice addition, I think, but of all the names that Ned has signed so far on minor league deals, a few caught my attention. Luis Ayala, Scott Dohmann, and Justin Miller all look promising to me along with Juan Perez, but only because he’s left-handed. In summary, we would be lucky to see a Brad Ausmus or a Joe Beimel signing at this point, as the majority of holes look to be filled from within the organization.
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