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Roki fights command, Espinal stars, first cuts, relievers excel, WBC, Stone avoids the worst, depth gambit finally works, more – Dodgers Digest

by sports••0
Roki fights command, Espinal stars, first cuts, relievers excel, WBC, Stone avoids the worst, depth gambit finally works, more – Dodgers Digest

The Dodgers actually made first cuts a while ago, but it wasn’t really anything newsworthy. Really this is mostly about updates on the Spring Training battles and the prospects excelling, because there’s been a lot of cool highlights. Also, some could-be-worse injury news and their depth gambit finally working.

Shohei Ohtani doing Shohei Ohtani things.

Hyeseong Kim also making noise in the WBC as he looks to stake his claim to a roster spot while abroad.

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The Dodgers made their first cuts to the roster for the season, so let’s start there, as they recently shaved off 11 players: pitchers Patrick Copen, Luke Fox, Jerming Rosario, Adam Serwinowski, Nick Frasso, and Jose Rodriguez, catchers Nelson Quiroz and Chuckie Robinson, infielders Keston Hiura and Matt Gorski, and outfielder Chris Newell. No, this does not mean they can’t play in Spring Training games, it’s mainly just procedural.

All 11 were non-roster invitees and none were expected to make the team. That leaves the Dodgers with 35 pitchers and 30 position players in big-league camp for a total of 65, so only 39 cuts to go.

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As far as the games went, Roki Sasaki had another disaster start in which he began the game by going walk, single, walk, and homer before Dave Roberts had to come and get him. Roki was consistently missing arm-side with everything and it was a bit hard to watch, though he did come back out for another inning to get a 1-2-3 frame with two strikeouts.

I’ve said it would take a lot for Roki to lose his rotation spot in Spring Training, but having to field questions about the potential of just that already is less than ideal.

Speaking of rotation competition, River Ryan continued to ramp up and looked promising doing so, striking out three over two scoreless innings.

The command is still making its way back to him, but the stuff is all there right now. While Justin Wrobleski is probably ahead of him at the moment, with Gavin Stone going down (more on that later) and Roki struggling, it’s possible River could sneak into the rotation.

There were also a bunch of other notable performances, some with roster competition implications.

  • Santiago Espinal is simply making this team. Dude has a hilarious 1.761 OPS this Spring.
  • Will Klein and Kyle Hurt are pitching well enough to make the team, and so is Antoine Kelly, even though his path is certainly more of a long shot. All are missing a ton of bats while staying in the zone.
  • One of the more worrying performances last year given his pedigree was from Dalton Rushing, but it does feel like he’s more comfortable this year. ST stats don’t necessarily show it due to one of his biggest games being in a WBC scrimmage (that was probably more serious than ST games).
  • James Tibbs III (1.086 OPS) and Zach Ehrhard (.975 OPS) are a pair of outfield prospects that have continued to impress over the past week as well.
  • One of the more surprising guys hammering the ball so far is Noah Miller, who has made his name to this point by being a defensive-first shortstop. He finished 2025 at AAA and is still just 23, and he’s 9-for-23, posting a 1.107 OPS with a 2/5 K/BB ratio.
  • On the other end of the spectrum, one who is notably not impressing is Ryan Ward, who now has a .291 OPS in 27 at-bats.

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In you-can-never-have-enough-pitching news, Gavin Stone suffered a setback in his surgically repaired right shoulder, though imaging has showed he avoided the worst-case scenario.

Speaking of shoulder injuries, Bobby Miller has only just started throwing on flat ground.

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In other transaction news, an update on the status of Jack Suwinski: he was outrighted to the minors. That means he’s off the 40-man, so the Dodgers currently have 39 there.

MLB dot com transaction log says the Dodgers sent outfielder Jack Suwinski outright to the minors, and off the 40-man roster, 9 days after they claimed him off waivers

— Eric Stephen (@ericstephen.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 1:17 PM

It also means the gambit that failed twice with Ben Rortvedt and once with Andy Ibanez has now worked for once, and the Dodgers finally get their minor-league depth with major-league experience.

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Let’s close this one with Dodgers strength coach Travis Smith doing his usual thing, but for Team USA now.

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