Dodgers Option Hyeseong Kim; Alex Freeland To Make Roster
The Dodgers announced a round of camp cuts today, headlined by their decision to option utility man Hyeseong Kim to Triple-A. Infielder Nick Senzel, outfielder Jack Suwinski, and catcher Seby Zavala were also re-assigned to minor league camp. That leaves the door open for infield prospect Alex Freeland to make the team’s Opening Day roster, and Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic confirms that Freeland has been informed that he’s done just that.
Freeland, 24, was a third-round pick by the Dodgers in 2022 and made his big league debut last year. A consensus top-50 prospect in the sport last season, the infielder hit quite well at Triple-A with a .263/.384/.451 (115 wRC+) slash line across 106 games for Oklahoma City. Freeland swatted 16 homers and 30 doubles while walking at a whopping 16.3% clip and striking out 21.9% of the time. Those strong numbers didn’t translate to a 29-game cup of coffee with Los Angeles this last year, however, as he hit just .190/.292/.310 across 97 trips to the plate.
Despite that tough start to his MLB career, Freeland will round out a Dodgers bench that already includes Santiago Espinal, Dalton Rushing, and Alex Call. Call and Rushing figure to serve in pure bench roles, backing up the outfield and catcher Will Smith respectively. As for Freeland and Espinal, however, they appear likely to share playing time at second base with veteran Miguel Rojas to open the season, while also filling in for Mookie Betts and Max Muncy on the left side of the infield as needed. With both Enrique Hernandez and Tommy Edman on the injured list to open the season, there’s plenty of room in the club’s infield mix for Freeland to earn himself playing time in the early days of the 2026 campaign.
It’s at least somewhat surprising that opportunity won’t go to Kim. The 27-year-old hit a solid .280/.314/.385 (95 wRC+) across 170 trips to the plate in a bench role for the Dodgers last year while handling second base, shortstop, and center field as needed. It seems as though production during Spring Training didn’t factor into L.A.’s decision regarding their final bench spot, either; Kim slashed an incredible .407/.448/.519 in 30 spring plate appearances, while Freeland struggled during camp with a paltry .116/.286/.233 slash line across 56 plate appearances. Jack Harris of the California Post notes, however, that the Dodgers felt Freeland’s discipline (with 11 walks and 11 strikeouts) was impressive and that Kim struggled with his mechanics during and after his stint with South Korea in the World Baseball Classic.
It’s also plausible that the decision to roster Freeland is about getting him an opportunity while there’s a relatively clear shot at regular playing time. Edman is expected to begin the year on the injured list, and while his stay may not be very long it could still allow Freeland to get consistent MLB playing time for a couple weeks. That could be hard to come by on the club’s roster once Edman returns from the shelf, and the Dodgers have at times had prospects struggle to break through due to lack of opportunities in this past. If that’s the case, it’s not hard to imagine Kim being the next man up for a bench role in the event Espinal or Rojas either struggles or heads to the injured list. Whatever the Dodgers’ exact reasoning may be, Kim will open the season at Triple-A for the second season in a row and look to stay ready for when a big league opportunity eventually does arrive.
Roberts: “Hard To Imagine” Espinal Not Making Dodgers’ Roster
Veteran infielder Santiago Espinal is in Dodgers camp as a non-roster invitee, but it seems he’s already positioned himself as a favorite to break camp with the club. Manager Dave Roberts said this morning that it’s “hard to imagine [Espinal] not being on the team” (via Jack Harris of the California Post). Plenty can change over the final few weeks of camp, but it’s still notable that Espinal already has caught the attention of his new skipper. Roberts spoke highly of Espinal when players reported to camp, and the veteran infielder has since gone 8-for-14 with a pair of doubles and a stolen base in his first handful of Cactus League plate appearances.
Espinal is a versatile, righty-swinging infielder with considerable experience at both third base (1794 MLB innings) and second base (1621 innings). He’s also logged 343 major league frames at shortstop (most coming back in 2020), chipped in 114 innings in the outfield corners and logged another 16 at first base. It’s the sort of defensive flexibility that the Dodgers tend to prioritize with their bench players.
The 31-year-old Espinal has spent the past two seasons in Cincinnati, struggling at the plate both years. He hit a combined .245/.294/.322 in 719 plate appearances as a Red but provided some solid defensive chops at the hot corner in particular. He’d be more of a second base option with the Dodgers — a potential right-handed complement to lefty-hitting Hyeseong Kim, who’s entering the second season of a three-year contract.
Kim played superlative second base defense last season but was largely shielded from left-handed pitching. He hit well in the 21 left-on-left plate appearances the Dodgers allowed him to take (8-for-21 with a double and a homer), but Kim also fanned at a near-31% clip in 170 plate appearances overall and posted poor batted-ball metrics. Espinal is a career .291/.344/.409 hitter versus left-handed pitching. Back in 2021-22, he slashed a combined .282/.340/.382 in 737 plate appearances for the Blue Jays.
Second base is eventually earmarked for the versatile Tommy Edman, but he’s expected to begin the season on the injured list as he continues recovering from November ankle surgery. Kim’s stellar defense gives him a strong chance to secure regular work at second base in the interim, though veteran Miguel Rojas is on hand as an alternative, as is well-regarded prospect Alex Freeland.
Breaking camp with Espinal on the roster would allow the Dodgers to more easily get Freeland everyday at-bats back in Triple-A. The switch-hitting 24-year-old was L.A.’s third-round pick in 2022 and is a year removed from ranking among baseball’s top-100 prospects at Baseball America and MLB.com. He turned in a nice .263/.384/.451 batting line in Triple-A last season (115 wRC+) but hit .190/.292/.310 with 35 strikeouts in 97 MLB plate appearances.
Dodgers Notes: Second Base, Edman, Hernández
One camp battle opened for the Dodgers this week. Manager Dave Roberts confirmed that Tommy Edman would begin the season on the injured list as he works back from right ankle surgery. That leaves the season-opening second base job up for grabs among a handful of players.
As Jack Harris of The California Post writes, that could be most meaningful for Hyeseong Kim and Alex Freeland. Kim played in 71 games as an MLB rookie, hitting .280/.314/.385 but striking out in more than 30% of his plate appearances. He had an overaggressive approach and rarely hit the ball hard. Kim’s profile in the KBO was built around his speed and middle infield defense, and his early MLB results align with that.
The 24-year-old Freeland is one of the organization’s better position player prospects. He struggled in a 29-game debut, batting .190 while punching out 35 times across 97 trips to the plate. Freeland had a strong year with Triple-A Oklahoma City, though, hitting .263/.384/.451 with 16 home runs and 18 stolen bases. He walked at a huge 16.3% clip while striking out 22% of the time in the minors.
Kim is a left-handed bat, while Freeland is a switch-hitter who was much better from the left side last season. Either could work in a second base platoon with righty-swinging Miguel Rojas, who projects as their top utility infielder. Kim has the leg up from a versatility perspective, as his plus speed also allows him to back up Andy Pages in center field. Freeland can move around the infield but isn’t a burner and has no professional outfield experience. Both players have minor league options remaining and could be sent to OKC without going on waivers. That’d be more plausible if a non-roster invitee like Santiago Espinal or Ryan Fitzgerald plays their way into a bench job with a strong spring.
Edman’s injury also subtracts from the early-season outfield depth. He’d have been in line for a decent amount of center field work if he were at full strength. Kim could play that role instead, particularly late in games for defensive purposes. That’d occasionally allow Pages to slide to left field, where Teoscar Hernández will pick up the majority of the playing time. Hernández is changing corners after the Kyle Tucker signing.
It wasn’t a lock that the two-time All-Star would remain on the roster all winter. Hernández came up in some trade rumors, with the Royals among the teams known to have interest. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman acknowledged that the front office took calls on his availability but downplayed their desire to trade him at any point (link via Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic).
“Teams call and ask about different guys all the time,” Friedman said. “Some that get out there, some that don’t. But we very much value clubhouse chemistry. It’s not something that we would be willy-nilly about. I don’t blame teams for asking. … But obviously it’s not lost on us the importance he has, not just on the field but in the clubhouse as well.”
There’s no indication that any talks have carried into Spring Training. Hernández remains a potent power threat coming off a 25-homer season, but the rest of his production dropped. He hit .247 with a career-worst .284 on-base percentage across 546 plate appearances. Hernández also had a second straight tough year defensively. The 33-year-old said today that he never felt at full strength after a mid-May left groin strain.
That only required a two-week injured list stint but certainly could have impacted his mobility after he returned. That said, Hernández has never been a great defender and is unlikely to improve much in his mid-30s. He’s not an ideal roster fit on a team that can’t offer playing time at designated hitter, but he’s signed for another two years and $33MM (including an option buyout for 2028). Even with the majority of those salaries deferred, that’s more than he would have landed as a free agent this offseason. The Dodgers have no need to force a salary dump and were unlikely to get much of value in a trade return.
Dodgers Notes: Rotation, Bench, Hernandez
The Dodgers don’t yet know whether they’ll be heading to Milwaukee to face the Brewers or welcoming the Cubs into Dodger Stadium for Monday’s series opener of the NLCS, but that’s not stopping them from making plans for the series. In particular, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including MLB.com’s Sonja Chen) this afternoon that he expects the club to carry at least one more pitcher on their roster for the upcoming series after carrying 11 (plus Shohei Ohtani) in the NLDS against the Phillies.
That will consequently mean shortening up a bench that was six players deep during this past series. Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register suggests that utility man Hyeseong Kim and outfielder Justin Dean are the most likely candidates to be left off the NLCS roster. Kim, 26, has a wRC+ of 95 in 71 regular seasons games this year in his rookie campaign after signing with the Dodgers out of South Korea during the offseason. He’s primarily played second base this year but has also made cameos at shortstop and in center field. Dean, meanwhile, has just two plate appearances in the majors this year as he’s been used almost exclusively as a pinch runner by Los Angeles. He does have a stolen base this postseason, however, while Kim has made just appearance so far across L.A.’s two series.
Alex Call, Ben Rortvedt, and Miguel Rojas have all drawn starts in the playoffs already and seem likely to once again be parts of the bench mix headed into the NLCS. Dalton Rushing has seen virtually no playing time so far, but might be needed insurance for the Dodgers at the catcher position given that Will Smith is playing through a hairline fracture in his throwing hand. Keeping Rushing on the roster would mean that the Dodgers will have two catchers available even if Smith needs a game or two off at some point to manage the injury. Without a three-catcher setup, a day or two off for Smith would likely necessitate a placement on the injured list, which would then make him unavailable for the World Series if the Dodgers were to advance.
One player that definitely won’t be removed from the roster, it seems, is utility man Enrique Hernandez. Hernandez has served as the club’s starting left fielder this postseason and, while he’s known to have been nursing a day-to-day back injury since the Wild Card series against Cincinnati, Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic relays that Hernandez is doing fine in spite of that injury and that the days off between the end of the NLDS and the start of the NLCS should help him get healthy. Hernandez has long been excellent in the postseason and that hasn’t changed this year, with a .318/.400/.409 slash line (132 wRC+) across 25 plate appearances.
Turning back to the rotation, Roberts indicated to reporters (including Chen) that despite both Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto needing extra rest built in between their starts, he does not anticipate the Dodgers needing more than four starters for their upcoming seven game set. That quartet figures to be the aforementioned duo of Ohtani and Yamamoto, plus Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow. Clayton Kershaw and Emmet Sheehan have both been available to provide length out of the bullpen so far, and headed into the NLCS it’s possible someone like Ben Casparius or Andrew Heaney is added to the playoff roster to give the team another long relief option.
Dodgers Promote Alex Freeland, Place Hyeseong Kim On 10-Day IL
TODAY: The Dodgers officially selected Freeland’s contract, and placed Kim on the 10-day injured list in the corresponding move. Kim is dealing with bursitis in his left shoulder, and manager Dave Roberts said over the weekend that Kim had been dealing with shoulder discomfort for about a week.
JULY 28: The Dodgers are calling up top infield prospect Alex Freeland, reports Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. They already have an opening on the 40-man roster, so they’ll only need a corresponding active roster move.
Freeland, 23, ranks third among Dodger farmhands at MLB Pipeline and sixth at Baseball America. A switch-hitter who mostly divides his time between shortstop and third base, Freeland has raised his stock since being selected in the third round of the 2022 draft. The University of Central Florida product has hit .253/.372/.416 across four minor league seasons. That’s almost an exact match for this year’s .253/.377/.421 showing over 453 plate appearances at Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Evaluators praise Freeland’s advanced strike zone discipline. He has walked at a massive 16.6% rate while very rarely expanding the zone in Triple-A. He takes a lot of strikes as well, leading to deep counts and slightly elevated strikeout rates despite relatively few whiffs. Freeland has shown solid bat speed. He hit 18 homers a year ago and has connected on 12 longballs and 26 doubles this season. His Triple-A exit velocities are strong as well.
Freeland is viewed as more of a solid athlete than a spectacular one. Many scouts believe he fits better at third base than shortstop as a result. Third base is obviously the much cleaner positional fit for his first MLB action. Since the Dodgers lost Max Muncy to the injured list on July 3, their third basemen have hit .203/.261/.359 in 70 plate appearances. Most of that falls on Tommy Edman, who has been mired in a three-month slump after an excellent April. Edman is capable of playing plus defense almost anywhere on the diamond, so he’ll remain a regular lineup presence. That could come more at second base, where Hyeseong Kim is hitting .204/.218/.222 this month.
Muncy is expected to begin a minor league rehab assignment tomorrow. That’ll put him in position to return to MLB action not long after the trade deadline. It’s unlikely the Dodgers would’ve called Freeland up if they anticipated sending him back down in a week or two. Even after Muncy reclaims the third base job, Freeland could stick as a multi-positional bench bat who plays three or four times a week. The Dodgers have gotten rookie catcher Dalton Rushing his first MLB action in that type of role.
Latest On Dodgers’ Outfield Alignment
The Dodgers started Hyeseong Kim in center field tonight against San Diego right-hander Stephen Kolek. Kim was flanked in the corners by Andy Pages and Teoscar Hernández, leaving Michael Conforto out of the lineup. Manager Dave Roberts said pregame that he’s unsure whether the lefty-hitting Conforto will get a start against rookie righty Ryan Bergert in tomorrow’s series finale (relayed by Sonja Chen of MLB.com).
Roberts didn’t frame it as a benching, saying he envisions Conforto “playing a lot still.” At the same time, the veteran skipper acknowledged that Kim has earned the opportunity for regular playing time. Kim is a natural middle infielder, but the Dodgers have Mookie Betts and Tommy Edman playing at those spots. That leaves center field as the clearest position for Kim to get consistent at-bats.
Signed to a three-year offseason deal out of Korea, the 26-year-old Kim began his Dodger tenure on optional assignment. Los Angeles called him up in early May. Kim was expected to work as a multi-positional player off the bench. He has thrived in his first look at MLB pitching, running a .382/.425/.544 batting line through his first 30 big league contests. He’s obviously not going to continue hitting that well, but he’s putting the ball in play at an above-average rate and has gone 6-6 on stolen base attempts.
Pages is playing at an All-Star level, while Hernández remains a middle-of-the-order bat. Getting Kim regular outfield work will come at the expense of Conforto, who is hitting .168/.305/.277 in his first season as a Dodger. He has hit below the Mendoza line in each month. Kim’s ability to play up the middle also allows the Dodgers to use Pages in left field. He’d otherwise need to play center when Conforto is in left.
It’s clearly not what the Dodgers envisioned when they signed Conforto to a surprising $17MM free agent deal. It was a fairly sizable bet on his strong finish to the 2024 campaign while with the Giants. He’d been up-and-down through the season’s first couple months before posting an OPS above .840 in both August and September. An injury to any of L.A.’s outfielders or a slump from Kim could reopen everyday work for Conforto, but he may lose some playing time in the short term as they ride the hot hand.
Roberts: Andy Pages To Continue Seeing Regular Playing Time
The Dodgers activated veteran outfielder Teoscar Hernandez from the injured list yesterday and optioned James Outman to Triple-A Oklahoma City. Hernandez’s return won’t cut into the playing time of hot-hitting 24-year-old Andy Pages, it seems. Manager Dave Roberts told the Dodgers beat last night that Pages is “an everyday player” who’ll see only occasional off-days (including last night).
It would indeed be hard to cut into Pages’ playing time based on his performance of late. The former top prospect posted a league-average .248/.305/.407 slash (100 wRC+) as a rookie but has raked at a .280/.333/.494 clip with nine home runs in just 177 plate appearances in 2025. He and Hernandez have been far and away the team’s two most productive outfielders this year.
There are some reasons to take Pages’ breakout with a grain of salt. He hasn’t made substantial changes to an approach at the plate that still seems like it could use work. Pages fanned in 24.4% of his plate appearances as a rookie and walked at just a 6.5% clip. Both marks were worse than league average. In 2025, he’s slightly pared back the strikeouts (23.2%) but has seen his walk rate dip as well (5.6%). The league-average strikeout rate is 22%; for walks, it’s 8.7%.
Pages is making more contact on pitches within the strike zone, jumping from a slightly below-average 84.8% last year to a healthier 88.2% in 2025. (League-average hovers between 85% and 85.5%.) However, he’s also chasing off the plate more frequently this season and swinging more often in general. Of the 165 qualified hitters in Major League Baseball, only 15 have swung more often than Pages, who’s offered at just under 54% of the pitches he sees. Hitters can certainly succeed with an aggressive approach — Pete Crow-Armstrong swings more often than any hitter in the National League — but Pages has well below-average quality of contact.
None of this is to say Pages can’t or won’t be a solid hitter — but continuing on at a pace that’s about 30% better than average seems unlikely without some refinement to his approach or an uptick in hard contact. Even if he’s “only” around 10% better than average at the plate for the rest of the season, he’s a clear everyday player, given his glovework in center field and his plus speed.
With Pages locked into regular or near-regular reps in center field and Hernandez back to his post in right field, the Dodgers will look to a combination of Michael Conforto and Tommy Edman in left field. Edman figures to be out there on days that Hyeseong Kim gets the nod at second base, although Kim has also played some center field and pushed Pages to left field. Broadly speaking, left field will be handled in more piecemeal fashion.
The 32-year-old Conforto, signed to a one-year deal worth $17MM this offseason, has struggled immensely thus far but still seems like he’ll get the lion’s share of playing time for now. Both that contract and some positive traits that run counter to his bleak .168/.304/.273 slash through 171 plate appearances should net him a bit more leash. Conforto is walking at a huge 13.5% clip, and he’s averaging 91 mph off the bat while putting 47% of his batted balls in play at 95 mph or greater. He’s not expanding the zone all that often, and his contact rate within the zone is nearly 86%.
At some point, the results will need to be there for him to continue getting chances, but it’s understandable right now if the Dodgers are convinced better days are ahead. Conforto mashed at a .273/.329/.529 pace in a near identical playing time sample of 173 plate appearances following the 2024 trade deadline, which helped him secure that contract in the first place.
Dodgers Recall Hyeseong Kim
3:00pm: The Dodgers have now made it official. Kim has been recalled with Edman placed on the 10-day IL, retroactive to April 30, due to right ankle inflammation.
11:25am: The Dodgers are recalling infielder Hyeseong Kim, reports Dodgers Daily. Kim will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game. He is already on the 40-man roster but a corresponding move will be needed to get him onto the active roster.
Kim, 26, was a notable free agent this winter. He had hit .304/.364/.403 over eight season in the KBO while bouncing around to multiple positions, mostly the middle infield. There wasn’t a ton of power there, but he seemed like an intriguing contact-based utility guy.
The Dodgers somewhat surprisingly won the bidding with a three-year, $12.5MM deal. At the time of the signing, they already had a middle infield group consisting of Mookie Betts, Gavin Lux, Tommy Edman and Miguel Rojas, which made it a somewhat curious fit. However, Lux was quickly traded to the Reds, which widened Kim’s path to playing time.
But Kim was optioned to the minors on March 11th, a few days before the Dodgers were travelling to Japan for the Tokyo Series. The middle infield playing time has largely gone to Betts and Edman, with Rojas and Enrique Hernández chipping in occasionally.
Kim has been getting regular playing time at Triple-A, having stepped to the plate 131 times over 28 games. His 7.6% walk rate and 24.4% strikeout rate are both a bit worse than par but he has five home runs, leading to a .252/.328/.470 line and 105 wRC+. He has also stolen 13 bases without getting caught while splitting his time between second base, shortstop and center field.
His promotion might not be entirely about his own Triple-A performance. Edman has missed the club’s last two games due to right ankle discomfort. He has not yet been placed on the injured list but perhaps Kim’s promotion indicates that the Dodgers will make that move today. Edman hasn’t played since Tuesday, so an IL stint could be backdated by three days, the maximum allowed. That means he could return in a week if he heals up in that time.
If that’s the case, the Dodgers would have Kim, Rojas and Hernandez as options to cover the second base spot. It’s unclear how the playing time would be distributed in that scenario but Kim should have a chance to make his major league debut at some point this week.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Dodgers Option Hyeseong Kim
The Dodgers optioned infielder Hyeseong Kim and right-hander Bobby Miller this evening. They also reassigned non-roster invitees Giovanny Gallegos, Eddie Rosario, David Bote, Michael Chavis and top prospect Dalton Rushing to minor league camp.
Additionally, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports that Dustin May will open the season as the fifth starter as Tony Gonsolin is ticketed for an injured list stint. Manager Dave Roberts told Dodgers Territory yesterday that was likely to be the case, as Gonsolin recently tweaked his back while lifting weights.
Kim entered camp as the favorite for the second base job. The Dodgers signed the lefty-hitting infielder to a three-year deal that guaranteed $12.5MM. While that’s a relatively modest investment, L.A. traded Gavin Lux to Cincinnati a few days later. That seemingly opened the path for Kim to step in at the keystone, but the Dodgers evidently have some concerns about how his bat will translate to open the season.
Offensive impact has been the question dating back to Kim’s time in Korea. Evaluators credit him as a good baserunner and plus defender. He hit .304 over eight KBO seasons but was never much of a power threat. Last season’s 11 home runs represented a career high. The 26-year-old infielder struck out 10 times in 31 plate appearances during his first MLB camp. He hit .222 with one homer in 14 spring games.
Starting Kim in the minors provides Roberts some flexibility at second base. The Dodgers could turn to any of Miguel Rojas, Enrique Hernández or Chris Taylor — all of whom would otherwise play utility roles. Alternatively, they could bring Tommy Edman back in from center field to play second. That’d open center field for Andy Pages or James Outman, but neither of them have had especially impressive Spring Trainings.
The Gonsolin injury resolves L.A.’s biggest camp battle: the fifth starter competition between him and May. Both pitchers missed all of last season rehabbing surgeries. Gonsolin underwent a 2023 Tommy John procedure. May required a flexor repair in ’23 and needed to undergo emergency esophageal surgery last summer after suffering a life-threatening throat tear while eating. His season debut will be his first major league appearance in nearly two years.
May rounds out what will be a five-man rotation for the time being. Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki and Blake Snell will hold the top four rotation spots. Yamamoto and Sasaki are respectively tabbed for Games 1 and 2 during next week’s Tokyo Series matchup against the Cubs.
Dodgers Notes: Kim, Ohtani, Miller
Hyeseong Kim figures to have a clear path to a role as the Dodgers’ regular second baseman after the club traded Gavin Lux to the Reds earlier this winter. Even so, L.A. is keeping their options open with the longtime KBO infielder. According to Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register, the Dodgers are planning to try Kim in center field this spring.
Kim, 26, has played second base for the vast majority of his career but also has significant experience at shortstop alongside fairly brief cameos in the outfield corners and at third base. Kim is already being utilized at both middle infield positions, but now the club appears poised to give Kim opportunities in center as well in the hope that he can provide them with a left-handed option at the position. Switch-hitter Tommy Edman figures to be the club’s starting option at the position this year, but he’s been a far better hitter against left-handed pitching throughout his career to this point. Other alternatives to Edman like Enrique Hernandez, Chris Taylor, and Andy Pages are all right-handed, while lefty center fielder James Outman appears to have fallen several places down the club’s depth chart at this point.
That creates an opportunity for Kim, who is coming off a .326/.383/.458 season for the KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes. If Kim struggles offensively in his first taste of big league action as his countryman Ha-Seong Kim did during his debut 2021 campaign with the Padres, it’s at least theoretically possible that the Dodgers could eventually opt to utilize veteran infielder Miguel Rojas or even Edman as their regular second baseman, relegating Kim to more of a utility role. If that were to come to pass, Kim having the versatility to handle center field against right-handed pitching would be a major asset for the Dodgers given their heavily right-handed bench and center field options.
Elsewhere on the roster, two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani continues to work towards his return to the mound after missing the 2024 season due to elbow surgery. Plunkett notes that manager David Roberts relayed to reporters that Ohtani touched 95 mph on his heater during today’s bullpen session. That’s a noteworthy development after he oscillated between 92 and 94 mph during last week’s session. Roberts also added that Ohtani incorporated his cutter into the bullpen session today, a change which he described as a “big step.”
The star’s projected timeline for a return to the mound has not changed, as he’s expected to first begin pitching in games sometime in May. Even so, it’s surely encouraging for Dodgers fans that their superstar remains on the right track and is making good progress as he navigates a tricky rehab process that will require him to balance rehabbing his arm as a pitcher and preparing for the regular season as a hitter.
Plunkett also relayed an update on right-hander Bobby Miller, who was struck in the head with a 106mph comebacker during the first Spring Training game between the Dodgers and Cubs on Thursday. Miller appears to have suffered mild symptoms as a result of the incident, previously telling reporters he was only dealing with “headaches and drowsiness.” Even so, Miller won’t be back in games for the Dodgers for a while yet. He relayed to Plunkett that he’s “got to pass some steps” before being cleared to resume baseball activities, and the first box that needs to be checked is for Miller to be completely symptom-free before he resumes workouts and eventually returns to games. Miller is in the mix for the fifth starter job to open the season, but both Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May appeared to be more likely candidates for the job entering Spring Training.