PHOENIX — When Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Ben Casparius reported to spring training last year, his own manager did not know his name. After a $1.4 billion offseason spending spree, there was little reason for Dave Roberts to recognize him. Casparius was not invited to big-league camp. He did not expect to earn a big-league promotion in 2024. He could never have predicted how the season would unfold, as he rose from Double-A Tulsa to Triple-A Oklahoma City to a place on the injury-ravaged big-league roster, throwing meaningful innings and even starting a World Series game for the eventual champions.
A year later, here was Casparius’ reward after his make-believe October: A return ticket to the minors. After another $450 million splurge this winter, he will be waiting in the wings for a franchise that signed free-agent pitchers Blake Snell, Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates, landed Japanese sensation Roki Sasaki, brought back future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw and continued to prepare for Shohei Ohtani’s return to the mound. Even with Ohtani on the shelf, Casparius resides somewhere around 10th on the organizational depth chart for starters.
Such is what Casparius called “a blessing and a curse” of being a young Dodger. As Opening Day approaches, no team has more available talent and less available playing time. The players bound for the minors in 2025 after tasting major-league success in 2024 know this best.
“We’re all pulling for each other, but at the same time, we’re competing for very limited spots,” Casparius said. “So it’s an interesting concept. Honestly, I think it pushes us to a level that we might not be able to get to if we weren’t in an organization like this.”
Roberts likes to refer to situations like this, which only befall organizations overflowing with talent like the Dodgers, as “high-class problems.” He has stressed to players the importance of fixating on individual improvement rather than one’s place within the organizational hierarchy. To do the latter, both players and Dodgers officials agree, might send someone into a spiral.
“When you have a roster that’s arguably the most talented roster in history, one through 40, playing time is hard,” Roberts said. “All guys want to play, should want to play. But it takes some buy-in to their teammates and the organization.”
Landon Knack understands how Casparius feels. He posted a 3.65 ERA in 12 starts last season. He figures to spend April with Casparius in the Pacific Coast League. The OKC center fielder could be Andy Pages, who hit 13 homers with a .712 OPS last season for Los Angeles, only to get squeezed by the team reuniting with utility man Kiké Hernández and outfielder Teoscar Hernández while acquiring outfielder Michael Conforto and infielder Hyeseong Kim. Joining Pages in the Triple-A outfield will probably be James Outman, who finished third in the National League Rookie of the Year voting in 2023 before losing his roster foothold last summer.
“On any other major-league roster,” Roberts said about Outman and Pages, “they would have a job.”
The competition for the fifth starter spot, the one being kept warm as Kershaw recovers from offseason surgeries and Ohtani increases his workload, features Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May and Bobby Miller. Gonsolin was an All-Star in 2022. May was once the team’s finest pitching prospect. Miller started a postseason game in 2023. The players understand that big-league opportunities will emerge through injuries and attrition. They also understand those opportunities may not last very long.
“Being a young guy, you can’t help but want to be able to break in and be able to stick and be able to have your service time and get your money,” Knack said. “But at the same time, you also have the blessing of being around a ton of Hall of Famers who you can learn from and then take that experience for the rest of your career. And having the chances to win championships — a blessing and a curse is a great way to describe it, but still, this is a great place to be.”
An overstuffed 40-man roster is not new for the Dodgers. The club has prioritized its depth since president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman arrived in the fall of 2014. The players on the margins could always sense the congestion. In the spring of 2019, pitchers Brock Stewart and Ross Stripling donned wigs and entertained the clubhouse with a song that parodied “Kryptonite” by 3 Doors Down:
I watched the world float to the dark side of the moon,
I can’t wait to watch [Cody] Bellinger get platooned,
I really don’t mind what happens now and then,
As long as I don’t spend the whole year in the ‘pen.
If I throw seven [shutout innings], will I get sent to Triple-A?
And how much time is left until my job’s taken by Dustin May?
Back then, the pressure came from within the organization, as the Dodgers rolled players off a minor-league pipeline. That has changed in recent years as some of the organization’s highest-touted prospects fizzled. Diego Cartaya, a catcher rated baseball’s No. 18 prospect heading into 2023 by Baseball America, was recently designated for assignment amid ongoing back problems. A slew of injuries demolished the team’s pitching depth last season, with talented youngsters like River Ryan, Gavin Stone, Emmitt Sheehan and Kyle Hurt all requiring surgery.
Dustin May has been both the young upstart coming to take a job and the player on the fringe of the roster trying to hold down a spot. (Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
The onslaught created openings for players like Casparius and Knack. “Our depth, from what our minor leagues have done to plug holes for us over the last few years, has been exceptional,” pitching coach Mark Prior said. But the ailments also reinforced to Friedman the importance of bolstering the roster during the winter.
A receipt for the World Series appeared in the form of injuries to relievers Evan Phillips, Michael Kopech and Brusdar Graterol. Rather than rely upon the minor-league system, the Dodgers inked Scott to a four-year, $72 million contract and signed Yates on a $13 million deal. To explain the spending, Friedman has cited both the organization’s commitment to its fanbase and his distaste for making moves at the trade deadline.
“We feel really good about the talent we have under this roof right now,” Friedman said last week. He added that he was “really excited not just about the talent but the depth and how these guys are wired.”
For pitchers like Casparius, Knack and Justin Wrobleski, that means not feeling deflated when starting a new season back “in the bushes,” as Knack called it. “If you fall too far into that, you’re likely to never bring yourself back out,” Knack said. Added Casparius, “Take care of what you can on the field. Opportunities are going to be present.”
The rotation is loaded with stars, but all come with concerns. Yoshinobu Yamamoto hurt his shoulder last summer and Tyler Glasnow missed the postseason with elbow problems. Ohtani is returning from a second major elbow surgery. Sasaki has never pitched in the majors. Even Snell has averaged only 135 innings across the past four seasons. The youngsters on the doorstep do not know when the door will open. But they figure it will.
On Monday afternoon, Roberts stood in between Yamamoto and Wrobleski as they threw bullpen sessions. Wrobleski, a 24-year-old left-hander, spent most of 2024 shuttling between Oklahoma City and the majors. He learned to tweak his routine on the fly and prepare for the unexpected. He understood he needed to prepare for something similar in 2025.
“As far as trying to chart where I’m going to be in two years, five years — I’m just trying to make sure I throw the ball well tomorrow,” Wrobleski said. “That’s what you have to do, especially when you go out and get guys like Snell and all these guys who are really, really good. As a young guy, you’ve just got to roll with it. Trust that if you throw the ball well, you’re going to be in the big leagues, at some point.”
(Photo of Knack: Brandon Sloter / Getty Images)
