LAD Farm System

While we are waiting for AF to acquire Francisco Lindor or Aaron Judge or whoever, I wanted to chime in on LAD player development.

First, the two players identified in the earlier discussion…Hunter Feduccia and Ryan Ward.

Of course neither would be headliners in ANY trade, but why would anyone assume that nobody is asking for Feduccia.  IMO, the Dodgers are holding onto Feduccia because he is the perfect insurance for a Dodger catcher injury.  Why did he get to that level?  Because the development team has not been able to develop Diego Cartaya.  Is that fair for Feduccia?  He has two options remaining.  Feduccia is 28 this year.  Not exactly the age of a MLB All Star.  I am guessing that he would prefer to play for another team and get a legit shot at MLB as the full time backup catcher, or for some teams, a shot at the every day job.

Ryan Ward is a 27 year old LHH DH with heavy RHH and LHH splits.  This will be Ryan’s final year in the LAD organization as he will become a MiLB Free Agent 5 days following the WS, unless LAD purchases his contract at some point this season.  He would be a throw in as he was not selected again in the Rule 5 draft, but I hope he gets a shot with another team.  He is after all the overall AAA leader in HR in 2024.

I have included a table below for the top 10 draft picks for every year in the AF era, plus any players who reached MLB drafted after the 10^th round, or are included in the latest MLB Pipeline LAD Top 30 prospects.  There have been 12 players reach MLB drafted after the 10^th round, and there are currently 2 players in the top 30 drafted after the 10^th round.

What makes the Dodgers an envied farm system (IMO) is the number of players they put into MLB.  Almost always as depth, but MLB players just the same.  But elite All Stars?  NO!  In the 10 drafts in the AF era, there have been 3 All Stars; 2 pitchers (Walker Buehler and Tony Gonsolin) and 1 position player (Will Smith).

You can count on one hand the number of players who have had a significant impact on another team (okay 1 hand plus 1 finger):

• Dean Kremer to Baltimore in Manny Machado trade.
• Connor Wong to Boston in Mookie Betts trade.
• Luke Raley to Tampa Bay for Tanner Dodson. Raley had another good year with Seattle in 2024.  As of now, Luke will be regular 1B for Seattle.
• Zach McKinstry to Chicago in Chris Martin trade. But Zach became a regular once he landed in Detroit.
• Ryan Pepiot to Tampa Bay in Tyler Glasnow trade.
• Michael Busch to Chicago for Jackson Ferris and Zyhir Hope.

If you look more into the drafts, you will find that LAD has been able to develop pitching, but are devoid of any everyday position player, sans 1 (Will Smith).  Gavin Lux, James Outman, and Andy Pages will have another opportunity in 2025 to establish themselves as a regular, but they look to be platoon players for LAD.

There have been a couple of very good drafts and couple of forgettable drafts, but even those have some gems.

As of this writing, the Dodgers have only 2 position player prospects who are anywhere close to being MLB ready: C Dalton Rushing and SS Alex Freeland.  Dalton Rushing is not going to be the LAD everyday catcher.  I have no idea how far this experiment with Rushing to LF will go, but after reading the tea leaves and some reports, it appears the Dodgers want to keep him at catcher.  He does have a chance at making his MLB debut this year, as he needs to be protected.

But do the Dodgers need 3 AAA catchers (Rushing, Feduccia, and Diego Cartaya)? Cartaya’s trade value has disappeared, and Feduccia could be a backup catcher at the MLB level.  That leaves Rushing as the best catcher asset available for trade.  It is not that I do not like Dalton Rushing.  It is that he is too good to be a MiLB catcher, and that is exactly what he will be with LAD.  Your best prospect is a backup catcher and a wannabe LF for AB.

Alex Freeland may be the LAD SS of the future, and then again he could be another Gavin Lux, platoon infielder, or Jacob Amaya. Freeland deserves the opportunity to showcase his talents to LAD and the other 29 teams.  While he is the top SS in the LAD system, he can play 2B and 3B, but has the skill set to stick at SS.  For the year (three levels), Freeland is an above-average runner and was one of just four players in MiLB with 30 or more doubles and stolen bases.  His confidence is at a high level, without the cockiness.  He will not let the game get too big for him. Freeland should make his debut this year, as he too needs to be protected this year.

The LAD 40 man has exactly 4 homegrown position players: Smith, Lux, Outman, and Pages.  Pitchers are in bigger supply as homegrown.  11 of the 24 on the 40 man are homegrown.

• Ben Casparius
• Jack Dreyer
• Tony Gonsolin
• Michael Grove
• Edgardo Henriquez
• Landon Knack
• Dustin May
• Bobby Miller
• Emmet Sheehan
• Gavin Stone
• Justin Wrobleski

Somebody asked the question, how many MLB ready pitchers does one team NEED?  Every one of the 11 have reached MLB except Jack Dreyer.  The remaining 13 pitchers on the 40 man have all pitched at the MLB level. That is 23 pitchers on the 40-man who are MLB pitchers.  That does not count Clayton Kershaw.

Some on the 40-man are injured this year and will not pitch: Gavin Stone, River Ryan, and Kyle Hurt.  The first two are prized prospects who figure to be MLB starting pitchers, while Hurt has the ability to be a late inning high leverage reliever.

Starters this year?

• Blake Snell
• Tyler Glasnow
• Yoshinobu Yamamoto
• Shohei Ohtani (May?)
• Bobby Miller
• Tony Gonsolin
• Landon Knack
• Justin Wrobleski
• Emmet Sheehan (All Star Break)
• Ben Casparius (probably more reliever now)
• Clayton Kershaw (June/July)
• Dustin May (I have to include him because he can start. But I do not think he will).

Next year, add Gavin Stone and River Ryan.  Also Jackson Ferris and maybe Jared Karros could be ready.  Ferris almost assuredly.  15 SP for 2026 (May will be gone), and possibly losing only Kersh and Gonsolin for 2027? Yes they are loaded with pitching.

Certainly many of the SP could be moved to the bullpen, and will be. But the bullpen is going to be busting at the seams as well.

I do not know enough about the pitching shapes of the many pitchers’ pitches to know which would be best to retain. Pitches should come out of different slots to give opponents a different view.  I will let AF/BG make those decisions without my input.  They are all talented, and it will hurt to lose any of them, as it hurt to lose Ryan Pepiot, my favorite LAD pitcher not named Clayton Kershaw at the time.  IMO, Tyler Glasnow was worth my loss.

It is not just the draft picks that have been wanting.  International free agents have not been a source of top talent for LAD.  The much ballyhooed Miguel Vargas was more of a bust for LAD.  Andy Pages still has a chance to be a regular.  After that?  They need to reach puberty before we can properly assess them.

The rookie and A levels have multiple IFA who could make an impact.  But they are teenagers, and none of them are Vlad Jr., Jackson Chourio, Elly De La Cruz…There are undoubtedly more Luis Rodriguez’s and Wilman Diaz’s in that group.

The Dodgers have missed out on some of their top draft picks.  But two of the current disappointments (for me) at this time are the first two picks in the 2021 draft, Maddux Bruns and Peter Heubeck.  They have been in the LAD organization for 3.5 years, and have only reached A+.  I was more bullish of Heubeck than Bruns at the draft, but he too has not developed as hoped.  Of course there is still time for both, but I think Bruns is going to end up in the bullpen.  Then again, maybe Heubeck can be traded to get another Aneurys Zabala or Zach Neal.

While the top two picks of the 2021 draft may have been disappointments (thus far and in my opinion), that draft also produced Emmet Sheehan, Ben Casparius, Justin Wrobleski, and Nick Nastrini.

So in conclusion, the Dodgers develop pitchers exceptionally well, however they seem to lack in their development of position players. Why?  I have no idea.  Hopefully the next wave of prospects will be more productive.  But it will be years before they are ready.  Hopefully we will see some of them reach AA this year, as AA is barren of talent outside of Jackson Ferris and Jared Karros, again 2 pitchers.

Some out there will judge the LAD farm system as top because of the number of players they put into MLB. That is a fair assessment.  You have to give credit to teams who actually put players in MLB. That is their job.  For me, I prefer to assess them on the significant players (starters) they develop.

We all have different opinions.  I do not pretend to have any special knowledge to fairly assess the talent.  I am not a scout, and have never been asked to be one.  I do not get paid for my “editorials”. I am just one guy who has a blog and an opinion. Such as it is.