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Edgardo Henriquez

Dodgers To Select Eddie Rosario, Place Shohei Ohtani On Paternity List

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The Dodgers are going to select outfielder Eddie Rosario to their roster. He will take the active roster spot of designated hitter Shohei Ohtani, who is going on the paternity list. Right-hander Edgardo Henriquez will go on the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot for Rosario. The club hasn’t announced any of the moves yet. Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic first reported that Rosario was with the club in Arlington and that Ohtani would be going on the paternity list. Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register relayed that Henriquez would be the corresponding move.

Rosario, 33, signed a minor league contract with the Dodgers in the offseason. He has started the season in Triple-A and put up a massive .339/.406/.542 line in 14 games at that level. That’s in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League and he won’t be able to run a .419 batting average on balls in play forever, but he has a couple of home runs and is drawing walks at an 11.6% pace.

He has been incredibly streaky in recent years, so the Dodgers will see if they can ride the hot hand while Ohtani is attending the birth of his child. Rosario was actually pretty steady from 2017 to 2020, hitting .281/.317/.493 in that time for a 112 wRC+. But in 2021, he was down to .254/.296/.389 and an 88 wRC+ when he was flipped to Atlanta. He turned hot again at that time, hitting .271/.330/.573 for a 137 wRC+ with his new club. His hot/cold act continued into the playoffs, as he won NLCS MVP by hitting .560/.607/1.040 in that series. He then dropped to .227/.346/.318 during the World Series but Atlanta won it all regardless.

The seesaw production has continued since then. He hit .212/.259/.328 for a 63 wRC+ in 2022, then .255/.305/.450 for a 100 wRC+ in 2023, before dropping to .175/.215/.316 and a 45 wRC+ last year. As mentioned, he had to settle for a minor league deal with the Dodgers coming into this year. He had a rough .154/.241/.423 line in the spring before getting in a groove with Oklahoma City.

Paternity list stints last just one to three games, so Rosario might be in for a short stint on the roster while Ohtani is away. Perhaps he could stick around if he continues his recent hot streak, but that would mean giving up on someone else. Andy Pages is the only position player on the roster who can be optioned, and he’s getting regular playing time in the outfield. Players like Chris Taylor and Enrique Hernández aren’t hitting much but they provide more positional flexibility than Rosario, who can only play the outfield corners.

As for Henriquez, in early March, he suffered a left foot fracture in mysterious fashion. Manager Dave Roberts said only that there was some off-field “mishap”. His timeline is unclear but this transfer means he’s ineligible to return to the club until the middle of May at the earliest.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

Dodgers Add Roki Sasaki To 40-Man Roster

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The Dodgers have finalized their roster in advance of their Opening Day tilt with the Cubs. Los Angeles officially added Roki Sasaki to their 40-man roster. They also selected the contract of veteran reliever Luis García, who had been in camp as a non-roster invitee.

Brusdar Graterol and Michael Grove were placed on the 60-day injured list to create the necessary 40-man openings. Grove underwent season-ending shoulder surgery last week. Graterol is recovering from a labrum procedure in his own shoulder and will not be back until the second half of the season at the earliest.

Los Angeles placed an additional seven pitchers on the 15-day IL: Tony Gonsolin (back tightness), Edgardo Henriquez (left foot fracture), Kyle Hurt (rehabbing Tommy John surgery),  Clayton Kershaw (rehabbing toe surgery), Michael Kopech (shoulder impingement), Evan Phillips (rehabbing rotator cuff strain), and Emmet Sheehan (rehabbing Tommy John surgery). With Gavin Stone and River Ryan landing on the 60-day IL during Spring Training, the Dodgers have 11 pitchers beginning the season on the injured list. Each of Kershaw, Sheehan, Hurt and potentially Henriquez figure to land on the 60-day IL eventually.

By and large, these are procedural moves. The only real decision is their call to carry García in the bullpen. The hard-throwing righty inked a minor league deal that came with a $1.5MM base salary if he made the team. He didn’t have a great camp, allowing three runs with a trio of strikeouts across 5 1/3 innings. The Dodgers were nevertheless encouraged enough by his stuff to add him to Dave Roberts’ middle relief group.

García divided his 2024 season between the Angels and Red Sox. The 38-year-old pitched reasonably well for the Halos, working to a 3.71 earned run average through 43 2/3 innings. He posted roughly average strikeout (22%) and walk (7.7%) rates with a strong 51.2% ground-ball percentage. Things went sharply downhill in Boston. García missed a couple weeks late in the season with elbow inflammation. He was tagged for 15 runs across 15 1/3 innings in a Sox uniform. That pushed his season ERA to an unimpressive 4.88 mark through 59 frames.

Sasaki was not previously on the 40-man roster as a quirk of the international amateur system. The same age restriction that capped his signing bonus to a modest $6.5MM also limited him to signing a minor league contract. The Dodgers were never going to send him to Triple-A, of course, but he was technically in Spring Training as a non-roster invitee. Sasaki took the ball twice in exhibition play. He fired seven scoreless innings with seven strikeouts and three walks.

The touted 23-year-old righty will make his major league debut on Wednesday night in his home country (3:10 a.m. Pacific in the U.S.). He’ll go opposite Justin Steele in the second game of the season. It’ll be a matchup of Japanese-born starters Tuesday night at the Tokyo Dome, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto taking the ball against Shota Imanaga.

Dodgers Notes: Phillips, Kopech, Henriquez

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The Dodger bullpen was so crowded that Ryan Brasier was designated for assignment and flipped to the Cubs a little over a month ago, despite posting a solid 3.54 earned run average last year. Since camp has opened, a few injuries have created a bit of breathing room, with Evan Phillips and Michael Kopech a bit behind the rest of the group.

It was reported about three weeks ago that both pitchers were delayed as camp opened. Phillips was diagnosed with a small tear of a tendon in his rotator cuff during last year’s playoffs. Surgery was not recommended and a cortisone injection had led to some healing, but the damage lingered into at least December and slowed his offseason throwing progression. It was reported a little over a week ago that the righty would not be ready by Opening Day.

Manager Dave Roberts provided Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic with a positive update. Roberts relayed that he watched Phillips throw a bullpen session today and came away impressed. He added that Phillips will stay in Arizona to continue getting work in while most of the Dodgers head to Japan for the Tokyo Series. Phillips will miss those Tokyo games and the start of the domestic regular season but Roberts says he should be back with the club in the first half of April. That’s good news as Phillips posted a 2.21 earned run average with the Dodgers over the past three seasons, striking out 29.6% of opponents while only giving out walks at a 6.5% clip.

As for Kopech, his track record as a reliever is far shorter but he still projects to be a key part of the bullpen. A starter for most of his career, he moved to relief work last year and had a 3.46 ERA between the White Sox and Dodgers. His 12.2% walk rate for the year was high but he punched out 31.5% of batters faced.

But he has been battling some forearm inflammation in recent months, putting his status for the start of 2025 in question. Yesterday, Ardaya relayed that Kopech was throwing a bullpen session. Kopech’s status is still up in the air but it does at least seem as though some progress is being made.

With some extra bullpen opportunities opening up, it could have been a chance for someone like Edgardo Henriquez to earn a job, but that won’t happen now. The young righty was spotted in a walking boot in the clubhouse yesterday. Roberts told Ardaya that the righty had a “mishap” away from the field and will be out of action for about four to six weeks. While the nature of the injury is mysterious, the point is that Henriquez won’t be able to step up and force his way into the bullpen while Phillips and Kopech are delayed.

Henriquez, 23 in June, was called up by the Dodgers late in September of last year. He tossed 3 1/3 innings but impressed the club enough to make the playoff roster, tossing another five innings in the postseason.

It’s hard to read much into that small sample of work but he averaged 98.7 miles per hour on his heater and 89.4 mph with his cutter. Prior to his call-up, he logged 53 minor league innings last year with a 2.72 ERA and 38.9% strikeout rate. The 12.8% walk rate is on the high side but the punchouts are huge and he is still young. He should factor into the Dodger bullpen mix down the line but will have to stay on ice for now.

Division Series Roster Notes: Padres, Dodgers, Phillies, Yankees, Tigers

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We’ve already covered some notable roster additions for the Guardians and Mets as the Division Series begins, and the Royals are sticking with the same 26 players used in the Wild Card Series against the Orioles.  Now that all eight teams in the LDS rounds have revealed their rosters, here are the details…

  • The Padres made two changes from their NLDS roster, adding left-hander Martin Perez and right-hander Alek Jacob and removing Joe Musgrove and infielder Nick Ahmed.  Musgrove was obviously out due to his impending Tommy John surgery, while replacing Ahmed with a pitcher gives San Diego 13 pitchers to go with 13 position players.  Perez is one of five southpaws on San Diego’s roster, as ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez (X link) was among those who noted that the Padres are guarding themselves as best they can against Shohei Ohtani and other powerful left-handed Dodgers bats.
  • The Dodgers will go with an even mix of 13 batters and 13 pitchers, and rookie Edgardo Henriquez has made the list of available arms.  Henriquez only made his MLB debut on September 24 and he has played in just three games as a big leaguer, but Los Angeles will give the hard-throwing righty a look in October to add some velocity to the bullpen.  It’s probably safe to assume that Henriquez wouldn’t have made the cut if the Dodgers weren’t ravaged by pitching injuries, yet the rookie also got the nod over veteran Joe Kelly, who had an inconsistent year but was pitching well after returning from the IL in mid-September.  On the position player side, L.A. didn’t include either Kevin Kiermaier or James Outman, so Andy Pages will be the only true backup outfielder along with utilitymen Enrique Hernandez and Chris Taylor in the bench mix.
  • The Phillies will use 14 position players and 12 pitchers in their NLDS matchup with the Mets, with left-hander Kolby Allard joining the relief corps.  Allard has worked as something of a swingman throughout his career, and this ability of covering multiple innings earned Allard the spot, as manager Rob Thomson told MLB.com’s Paul Casella and other reporters.  “He’s going to probably give us the most length if we get into an extra-inning game….so I just wanted as much length as we could get,” Thomson said.  Utilityman Weston Wilson also got the Phils’ last bench spot, as Casella observes that Wilson brings more positional versatility than outfielder Cal Stevenson.
  • The Yankees went heavier on position players (15) than pitchers (11) for their ALDS roster against the Royals.  Anthony Rizzo is missing the series due to two broken fingers and DJ LeMahieu wasn’t yet activated from the injured list, but New York still has plenty of room on its bench, including pinch-running specialist Duke Ellis.  The Yankees appear to be loading up on bats to take on the Royals’ tough rotation and more porous bullpen, which left right-hander Marcus Stroman off the ALDS roster as the odd man out of the starting staff.
  • The Tigers made just one change from their Wild Card Series roster, as rookie righty Keider Montero has been included in place of Casey Mize.  Montero posted a 4.76 ERA over 98 1/3 innings in his first Major League season, starting 16 of 19 games.  This doesn’t necessarily mean Montero will start against the Guardians in the ALDS, however, as Detroit’s pitching staff (apart from ace Tarik Skubal) is very malleable in terms of specific roles.

Dodgers Select Edgardo Henriquez

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6:37pm: Los Angeles officially selected Henriquez’s contract while optioning Ben Casparius to clear a bullpen spot. The Dodgers transferred Gavin Stone to the 60-day IL to open the 40-man roster spot. Manager Dave Roberts announced last week that Stone’s season was likely over because of soreness in his throwing shoulder. That’s now official.

5:15pm: The Dodgers are going to promote right-hander Edgardo Henriquez, reports Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic on X. The righty isn’t on the club’s 40-man roster, so a corresponding move will be necessary to add him.

Henriquez, now 22, was an international signing of the Dodgers out of Venezuela a few years ago. He made his professional debut with 30 Rookie ball innings in 2019. The minor leagues were then wiped out by the pandemic in 2020.

In 2021, he tossed 34 2/3 innings, mostly at the Arizona Complex League. He allowed 4.93 earned runs per nine and walked 15.9% of batters faced, but struck out 33.1% of opponents. In 2022, he made 14 appearances at Single-A, 13 starts. He had a 4.54 ERA and 11% walk rate but a strong 27% strikeout rate. Going into 2023, FanGraphs ranked Henriquez the 20th best prospect in the Dodgers’ system, noting that his fastball sat in the high 90s and he also possessed an elite slider.

Tommy John surgery wiped out the 2023 season for Henriquez but he’s been back with a vengeance in 2024. He has gone through four levels this year, mostly pitching in relief, going from Single-A to High-A, Double-A and Triple-A. Between those four stops, he has 53 innings pitched with a 2.72 ERA. Control is still an issue, as he has walked 12.8% of batters faced on the year, but he’s also punched out 38.9% of them. As noted by Ardaya in the tweet above, Henriquez has hit 104 miles per hour with his fastball this year.

The Dodgers are currently 93-63. They have already clinched a playoff spot and have a good shot at both winning the National West division and securing a first-round bye. They are three games up on the Padres, though the two sides are kicking off a three-game series in Los Angeles tonight. Assuming the Dodgers don’t get swept and find themselves in a tight divisional battle, they should be in line for that bye since they are currently four games clear of the Central-leading Brewers.

As they play out the final games of the season, they can likely find a few moments to experiment a bit with Henriquez to see if his stuff can play against major league hitters. He may be a work in progress with his youth and wildness, but there’s clearly some talent and bat-missing ability here. If Henriquez can impress the club’s decision makers, perhaps he can pitch his way into a postseason role. He wasn’t on the 40-man prior to September but he was in the organization. Such players are allowed to be placed on postseason rosters via petition to the commissioner’s office, something that essentially a formality as it happens with regularity around the league.

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