Los Angeles Dodgers: One Foot in Today, One in Tomorrow
Minor League System
Baseball America’s John Manuel mentioned that the Dodgers were going to once again rank among the elite farm systems of the game. Last offseason, the Dodgers were considered the #1 or #2 system in the entire game.
To do that while graduating the level of prospects that the Dodgers did in two top-10 overall prospects in Seager and Urias is impressive to say the least, but to do it while the big league club continues to produce elite teams is an incredible thing.
One of the things that does tie the big league club and the minor league system together is the tremendous amount of financial resources that the Dodgers are working with. They can afford to make a mistake on a guy in the Latin market with significant money because they have the finances to continue to go after the next guy, whereas most teams would be crippled by making a mistake on a big-money guy.
Let’s take a look at what continues to make their farm system so good…
Elite Prospects – The Dodgers have six prospects who made the top 100 list of one or all of the Baseball America, MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus top prospect lists for 2017.
More from Call to the Pen
- Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
- Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
- Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
- Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
- 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals
Cody Bellinger and Yadier Alvarez are the two elite guys in the system. Bellinger’s father Clay Bellinger was a utility man that ended up on three World Series Yankees teams from 1999-2001. He’s an elite hitter and elite defender at first base.
Alvarez is a Cuban defector that had his first full season in 2016. That first season has led him to be ranked in the top 50 in all three publications mentioned above after an incredible performance that finished in low-A.
Other elite prospects that have been ranked in the top 100 list include outfielder Alex Verdugo, infielder Willie Calhoun, pitcher Walker Buehler and outfielder Yusniel Diaz.
Depth Prospects – The Dodgers have been able to do excellent work in the Latin market and in the draft recently, including in 2016, when they had three early picks and a significant amount of draft pool funds.
Those funds have led to solid players that could be big time players down the road. Keibert Ruiz is an up-and-coming catcher out of Venezuela that was signed in 2014. Gavin Lux was considered the top high school shortstop in the 2016 draft out of Wisconsin and hit .296 in his pro debut. This to say nothing of catcher Will Smith, whose defense is incredibly elite.
The Dodgers also saw a guy like Grant Dayton impact the team’s bullpen, and they have similar elite arms that could impact the bullpen like Josh Sborz and Imani Abdullah.
Next: What to Expect from Peraza in 2017?
One of the big things the Dodgers seem to continually get is great scouting that finds elite guys late in the draft or in unknown places. De Leon was a late-round pick while Urias was virtually unknown coming out of Mexico.
In the last two drafts, the Dodgers may have snagged two such guys in the fourth and sixth rounds in outfielder D.J. Peters from Western Nevada Community College in the fourth round of the 2016 draft and corner infielder Edwin Rios from Florida International in the sixth round of the 2015 draft.
As long as they can find these under-the-radar guys as well as having their big-money guys hit on a decent rate, they’ll continue to have both the elite prospects and elite major league team to continue a run for quite some time.