The Dodgers announced their 26-man roster for their World Series showdown against the Blue Jays this morning. Among the notable omissions are Alex Vesia, Tanner Scott and Ben Casparius. Scott has been out since the NLDS after undergoing a lower body abscess excision. He was hopeful of returning for the World Series but has seemingly not been cleared. The Dodgers announced that Vesia is “away from the team as he and his wife Kayla navigate a deeply personal family matter.”
Los Angeles’ 26-man roster breaks down as follows:
- Catchers: Ben Rortvedt, Will Smith
- Infielders: Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy, Miguel Rojas
- Outfielders: Alex Call, Justin Dean, Teoscar Hernandez, Andy Pages
- Infielders/Outfielders: Tommy Edman, Enrique Hernandez, Hyeseong Kim
- Designated hitter/pitcher: Shohei Ohtani
- Pitchers: Anthony Banda, Jack Dreyer, Tyler Glasnow, Edgardo Henriquez, Clayton Kershaw, Will Klein, Roki Sasaki, Emmet Sheehan, Blake Snell, Blake Treinen, Justin Wrobleski, Yoshinobu Yamamoto
The Dodgers will turn to Snell to start Game 1 of the World Series tonight against Blue Jays rookie Trey Yesavage. Yamamoto is lined up to start Game 2, which is expected to be started by Jays righty Kevin Gausman.
Glasnow and Ohtani figure to start Games 3 and 4 for L.A., while Toronto will have Shane Bieber and former Dodger Max Scherzer as options in those contests. Of course, specific matchups haven’t yet been finalized and are subject to change anyhow, given the all-hands-on-deck nature teams tend to employ in critical postseason series.
I thought they only needed Ohtani? what are these other guys doing here?
Cheerleading, one assumes.
Vesia is surprising, will have to search the internet for the story.
I found an article that indicates Vesia’s wife Kayla is or was pregnant. I hope that it was not a miscarriage.
Any conjecture about it will be sad and worrisome so the best we can do is keep em in our thoughts and hope for the best.
apnews.com/article/alex-vesia-los-angeles-dodgers-…
Family medical emergency
Maybe he was gambling on NBA games with Ohtani’s translator?
If you’re talking about Vesia, maybe rethink this “joke”?
Here you go, Mr. Sad Face. 🙁
Duck The Fodgers, Duck The Fodgers, Get your ice cold Duck The Fodgers Here!!!
Your jealousy is hanging out there, you may want to reel it in a bit.
@Padres have zero
With some people that’s all they have.
Oof, hope they don’t need many innings from the pen….
It’s ok, the Jays have a terrible pen too, so it’ll make the game even more exciting lmao
Yeah some great starting pitching and 2-1 games that becomes 10-8 before it’s over lol 😅
It’s going to be a rough go with the boys out of the pen.
They’re really going to try to get Kershaw to make his final appearance somehow.
Wrobo, Banda and Dreyer are up to this. Toronto doesn’t have as big a lefty threat at the plate as any of the other teams LA has faced. Doc runs scared in the playoffs and rarely uses his full pen, resulting in over use of 2-3 bullpen arms. See 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 postseasons.
My objection is Dean over Conforto. Toronto pitching it right hand dominant and Dodgers have nothing on the bench to counter that in late innings. Dean is just an absolute waste of a roster spot. In fact, you can make a case that having him on the roster enables Doc to do stupid things like remove Teo prematurely and then have to remove Dean for a pinch hitter (see game 1 of Brewer series).
Conforto had a minus WAR. He wasted a roster spot all year. Every time i’d see his name in the line-up i’d flinch because of his not being able to contribute.
Dean will play OF on late innings when the Dodgers are leading. Dean is a better defender than Edman, Kim or Pages in CF.
Fan of your posts NorCal but I disagree here
I like Dean for late inns as I don’t trust Teo (Manny Ramirez ) Hernandez in the field
I thought about Conforto as well for the Rh pitching Jays but he hasn’t seen live pitching in almost a month . Kim can be that dude although Dave hasn’t really unleashed him all year (think he’s been semi hurt
Daves done less tinkering this year than ever in the playoffs….love the Kiki plays vs Rh pitching, love the faith in Pages thru and thru, dig the this is OUR 9 starting lineup every night no matter what side the pitcher throws from ….Imo Dave did TOO much Candy assszn past playoffs with platoons
Looks like a weak roster. I thought these guys were the top of the league? Man, MLB has declined in quality since the 1920s…
Wow, you were a fan back in the ‘20s???
Also, take note that there were only 16 teams or so in the ‘20’s. There are now 30.
@coloredpaper
Yes, they’ve watered down the quality of player with too many teams. Should return to 16 or less.
And what’s with all these cars??? Let’s get people back on horseback.
Old York
Dodger roster looks elite, not weak.
Yamamoto, Snell, Ohtani and Glasnow are the top starting rotation in this year’s post-season.
Ohtani, Freeman if healthy, Betts, all former MVPs.
Blue Jays are a good team, but maybe 75% that the Dodgers win this series.
The Dodgers have a very top-heavy roster, so it is fair to look at the supporting cast and their overall payroll and have a few questions. But the reality is that they spent in a huge way on the premium players, and even paid huge money for a couple of elite pitchers that are rarely healthy in Glasnow and Snell in the hopes that they would be playoff-ready.
This is why folks understand that they can buy competitiveness that others cannot, no matter what the Dodgers fan base would like to believe. The math is fairly simple. But they also end up scrimping in other areas due to that immense base payroll for the top tier talents.
I agree with you only half-way. Mets and Yankees comparably spent over the past few years and they are at home. Spending more is a big advantage but you need far more than that to win.
It’s the too heavy, impact players that win games in the post season. See, Ohtani.
Or you can hope that some scrub goes off.
Top heavy.
@mlbt1c – Oh, it is all in tiers. The top ten markets (roughly) have real advantages over the rest, and the bottom six or eight have truly hefty disadvantages.
But the Dodgers right now have a stranglehold on the biggest advantages, even if only by a smaller margin over the NY teams. Market size and revenues; ownership resources and influence plus the built-in top end Asian player market that will go there first if at all possible.
No Kirby Yates or Tanner Scott. Are they injured?
Yates was on the IL at the end of the season. Technically he could be reactivated at any time now, but it looks like he will not. Scott’s recent procedure for an abscess did not keep him off the other playoff rosters, but he made no appearances. Hope we won’t need any important innings from Henriquez or Klein.
The situation with Vesia could turn into a family leave, which makes him ineligible for three days. The Dodgers had until this morning to decide.
@ norcalblue
Even if they had Conforto on the bench, they still wouldn’t have anything on the bench to counter a good righty. Conforto was bad this season and was actually worse against righties: .190 avg and .615 OPS versus righties this season.
Conforto has been bad for a few seasons now. Here’s to hoping the suckage continues.
Why would you root against another human?
Prob a Giants fan
Cuz he’s a ducking fodger.
Adulthood is fun. Give it a try.
Overrated.
Says the guy with the cartoon name.
Nothing wrong with rooting for an opposing to do poorly. I only take offense when a fan roots for an opposing player to get injured.
KA-BONNNGGG!!!
He was cool.
I was more of a Slow Poke Rodriguez fan myself.
One of my favorite things I heard on a baseball brodcast this year was during a Mets game, when Keith Hernandez and Gary Cohen were reminiscing about old cartoons from their youth. Keith’s knowledge of such stuff is borderline encyclopedic. I’m sure he watched his share of Quick Draw McGraw.
I know he was left off the NLCS roster, but I wonder what this means for the future for Dalton Rushing. I think he is trade piece for than trying to figure out the roster with him and Smith on it going forward.
They should have traded Rushing in July for bullpen help. He’s permanently blocked by Smith, and the longer he’s in limbo the lower his trade value goes most likely.
I think they should keep Rushing even though Rortvedt was the right call for the WS backup.
Catcher is a physically demanding position. Will Smith alternates between MVP offenses and below the Mendoza line. Smith needs more games off or he will switch positions in three years. Either way, Rushing will get more shots.
Problem with this plan is it treats Rushing as a backup catcher when until now he has projected as a starter. Maybe the Dodgers have lowered their expectations for him, but if that’s so then they really missed a chance to get value for him last summer. Good defense-only backup catchers aren’t exactly a rare commodity.
When has Will Smith ever been below the Mendoza Line?
When has anybody made that claim, and what is the point of it?
Dalton lowered the expectations all by himself. A journeyman catcher came in when Smith was hurt and outplayed him by a mile. Daltons value was all projection, he hasn’t played his way on to any roster at this point. Dalton likely will be traded, cause Ben has 3 more years of control.
Up above.
“Will Smith alternates between MVP offenses and below the Mendoza line.”
I meant that Will Smith has stretches of a season when he is above 0.400 and was the team MVP even over Ohtani, and stretches when he was below 0.200. Not full seasons with either extreme. If Smith was playing 1B or 2B, he might win a couple batting titles.
Every player has slumps. You can say the same about Judge and Ohtani.
Agree. But Will Smith often seems worn down by the second half. In any event, my only point is that I think the Dodgers should keep Rushing unless they are truly overwhelmed with an overpay trade-offer. Using him to acquire a middle reliever would have been a bad move. I would sooner trade a starter-prospect like Frasso, who I also like a lot.
I see both of your points. Mine still being that playing a top catching prospect once a week is recipe for destroying his value and hampering his development. Maybe the Dodgers don’t see Rushing as a top prospect anymore (which is one explanation for leaving him off the playoff rosters). But either way, he’s blocked by Smith and forced into a backup role.
In July they could have used him as the centerpiece of trade for one of the available closers. I was really surprised to see him still in a Dodgers uniform on Aug. 1.
Will smith wasn’t worn down at all this year. He literally was at an MVP level and then fractured a finger on a ball deflection. And was out awhile and then once he ramped up has been good again. It wasn’t a slump.
I think he took the hit on the side of his hand. Either way it’s a fact that Smith historically has better first halves than seconds. You can see it in his spilts. It’s for real, and just as true this year as ever. Partly due to the injury no doubt — but still.
Yeah, surely a headscratcher….
He’s just a rookie, a rookie catcher for that matter where the learning curve is even steeper. They are still very high on him and see his future on the dodgers.
Problem is, unless something happens to Smith, his only future on the Dodgers is as a backup.
Yeah, you may have a point. I’m not that familiar with Dean but he gives me a Michael Martinez zibe, a guy who Tito used to love to fall back on while with Cleveland. A double M, a little mighty mouse minus the mighty. And wouldn’t you know it the 7th game went into extras and the last man standing was MM. It looked pathetic, he didn’t have a chance.
What’s perplexing is Cleveland had 24 year old Yandy Diaz who hit .325 in AAA that year and Jose Ramirez had been the hybrid infielder outfielder for much of the season so I’d have gone for the better bat. It’s the playoffs, the WS, empty the vault. Conforto or Rushing, whoever is swinging better, might make more sense. Of course LA has a much stronger lineup than the Indians of that year.
Get it done Blue Jays!
LOL I hope Freddie Freeman plays like last year’s WS and the Dodgers win again to spite you
Man… I feel so bad for the Dodgers… how will they ever navigate having so many players out with injury and personal matters… I hope the baseball gods are punishing this team for attempting to buy championships. I hope the Blue Jays wipe the floor with them.
I feel bad that the Mariners and Royals can never have the funds to “buy” a ring.
You’re rooting for a Top 10 payroll team by the way…
LOL Tanner Scott.
Whatever Vesia is going through must be rough to miss the Series. Really hope his family gets through this OK.