No team in franchise history had used 40 pitchers in a single season, until last year’s Dodgers that claimed the title. They committed more than half a billion dollars in the offseason ahead of 2024 and had a World Series game started by Ben Casparius, a pitcher manager Dave Roberts said he hadn’t heard of before that spring.
You never know who might be needed.
The Dodgers will have 41 pitchers in spring training camp this year. Not all of them will see the majors this year, but a lot of them will.
Here’s a breakdown of each in camp.
(An asterisk denotes a non-roster invitee to big-league camp.)
Anthony Banda, LHRP: His story of rediscovering his joy was among the better ones of last year’s World Series run, and now the fan-favorite will be one of three lefties slated to be part of a seven-man Opening Day bullpen.
Sam Carlson*, RHRP: You can include this former Mariners second-round pick among those who have sought outside expertise from private pitching labs. Carlson, who spent last season at Double A with the Brewers organization, has worked out at Tread Athletics this winter.
Ben Casparius, RHP: Started what could have been a World Series-clinching game for the Dodgers in October. Now, is he a starter? Is he a swingman? How will the Dodgers best deploy him?
Brusdar Graterol will be out for half the season but has a knack for rising to the occasion during the postseason. (Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
Jack Dreyer, LHP: He went undrafted out of college because he needed Tommy John surgery. He signed with the Dodgers in August 2021 and after just two full seasons above the complex level earned his way onto the Dodgers’ 40-man roster this winter. The Dodgers have some left-handed relief depth, but Dreyer is firmly on the radar.
Carlos Duran, RHP*: He may not be the tallest person in Dodgers camp — that would be Tyler Glasnow, at 6-foot-8 — but the 6-foot-7 Duran certainly is imposing. Duran spent most of his time in Tulsa last year and remains viewed as a starter. The swing-and-miss is there, as he struck out 12.3 batters per nine innings. He isn’t at the top of the immediate starting depth options right now, but it’s an encouraging sign he’s in big-league camp.
Julian Fernández, RHRP*: Hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2021 and hasn’t pitched in affiliated ball since 2023. Walks have been his issue, but velocity hasn’t. (He hit 102.8 mph during his last big-league stint.) Fernández is coming off a successful stint in the Mexican league and has the ingredients that are more difficult to teach.
Jackson Ferris*, LHP: It seems as if the Dodgers have gotten some value from trading Michael Busch and Yency Almonte to the Cubs a year ago. They got a consensus top-100 prospect in Zyhir Hope and also landed Ferris, who wound up as the Dodgers’ minor-league pitcher of the year. It’s big stuff, big enough that he barely missed Keith Law’s top 100 list at The Athletic.
Nick Frasso, RHP: Frasso didn’t pitch in 2024 after labrum surgery, derailing a trajectory that likely would’ve led to his big-league debut. He’s still part of the depth chart and appears to be recovering well, but it’s a much different-looking group than it was a year ago.
Giovanny Gallegos*, RHRP: Gallegos’ velocity has trended in the wrong direction, as have his results. In 2022, his average four-seam fastball was 94.3 mph (and he had a 3.05 ERA). In 2023, it was 93.7 mph (his ERA was 4.42). Last year, it was 92.2 mph (his ERA was 6.53, and he was designated for assignment). It’ll be interesting to see if the 33-year-old is able to recapture some of that velocity while away from the St. Louis Cardinals’ infrastructure.
Tyler Glasnow, RHP: He’s coming off a career-high in innings (134) and starts (22) … and watched from the dugout in October as he dealt with elbow trouble. The Dodgers don’t have to push Glasnow, but can they ramp him up so he’s healthy and pitching his best in the postseason? That’s what they’re paying for.
Tony Gonsolin, RHP: He pitched through an elbow he knew would require Tommy John surgery for two months in 2023, and had a 6.79 ERA in those starts before going under the knife. Before that stretch, in 67 career appearances (313 1/3 innings), he had a 2.47 ERA and 3.58 FIP. Gonsolin will have some question marks coming off surgery, but that’s a heck of a level of production to have in the back half of a rotation.
Brusdar Graterol, RHRP: Shoulder trouble hampered him all of 2024 and will cost him at least the first half of 2025 after shoulder surgery. But come October, he’s always been one of the Dodgers’ most reliable arms.
Michael Grove, RHRP: The Dodgers have continued to ratchet up his slider usage as he moved to a permanent relief role, and for good reason — opponents hit .185 with a 32.1 percent whiff rate against it. The team ramped up his sinker usage last year, too. But the underlying numbers have to yield more consistent results.
Edgardo Henriquez, RHRP: In Dodgers franchise history, only the following pitchers have appeared in a postseason game while younger than Henriquez was last year (22 years, 104 days): Julio Urías, Don Drysdale, Clayton Kershaw, Fernando Valenzuela, Johnny Podres, Erv Palica, Ralph Branca, Bob Welch, Dustin May, Brusdar Graterol, Ismael Valdéz, Tom Niedenfuer, Chad Billingsley and Caleb Ferguson. He still needs polish, but he had the best average fastball velocity (99.7 mph) the Dodgers had in the minors last year.
Jose E. Hernandez*, LHRP: The Pirates took Hernandez out of the Dodgers’ system in the Rule 5 draft ahead of the 2023 season, and he managed to make it the whole year in their big-league bullpen. The Dodgers got him back via a waiver claim last summer, and the lefty is at least some organizational bullpen depth. Stuff+ models aren’t high on his fastball (72, where 100 is average), but they love his slider (135).
Kyle Hurt, RHP: He made a strong early impression in the big leagues and was an exciting reliever last year before his elbow started to bark. Tommy John surgery will cost him at least all of 2025 — will he come back as a starter or a reliever?
Joe Jacques, LHRP*: The soft-tossing, sidearm lefty in camp. A former college walk-on turned 33rd-rounder turned minor-league Rule 5 pick who made his way up to the big leagues the last couple of years for cups of coffee with the Red Sox and Diamondbacks.
Justin Jarvis*, RHRP: Jarvis was the Mets’ return for Mark Canha at the 2023 trade deadline and essentially spent 2024 as a swingman in the upper minors with New York. Scouts have always liked the characteristics of his fastball, but it remains to be seen what changes, if any, the Dodgers’ pitching apparatus will make here.
Jared Karros*, RHP: Karros and his father, Dodgers stalwart Eric Karros, fueled one of the most heartwarming stories of last spring training with the elder Karros on the call. But Jared has actually performed and made a name for himself, including a 2.79 ERA in 15 starts last year between High A and Double A.
Clayton Kershaw, LHP: Technically, he hasn’t signed yet, but he will. He won’t be back until around midseason after toe and knee surgeries, and the longtime franchise ace will remain a part of Dodgers trivia for the foreseeable future: He’s the last player the Dodgers have selected with a top-10 pick. Safe to say they hit on it.
Landon Knack, RHP: Was pressed into duty in October but has largely done his job in terms of run suppression in the big leagues. It’s a stacked depth group, but Knack will be back up in the majors at some point in 2025.
Michael Kopech, RHRP: Only one pitcher in baseball — Angels reliever José Quijada — threw four-seam fastballs more often than Kopech (78.4 percent) did last year. The Dodgers found different ways to make that more effective last year than the White Sox did, and it’s still a really, really good fastball.
Jack Little*, RHRP: Despite his name, Little is listed at 6-foot-4. The Dodgers selected him in the fifth round out of Stanford in 2019, and after missing the 2022 season due to Tommy John surgery he’s made it as far as Triple-A Oklahoma City. If he makes the majors, he’ll be the first big leaguer named Jack Little in 113 years.
Dustin May, RHP: The stuff is electric, but May has never made more than 10 starts or thrown more than 56 innings in a major-league season. He’s coming off his second major elbow procedure. What will he look like?
Bobby Miller, RHP: Two years ago, he was starting Game 2 of a postseason series for the Dodgers with a real case for being the Game 1 starter. Now, it’s not even a certainty he will be the Opening Day starter for Oklahoma City. Miller still has mesmerizing talent, but he’ll need to tap into that to answer whatever questions pop up for the Dodgers’ pitching staff.
Shohei Ohtani, TWP: What will he look like, coming off a second major elbow ligament reconstruction? His bat obviously didn’t miss a beat, but will Ohtani defy the conventional wisdom of a second surgery being even tougher to come back from? The Dodgers won’t rush Ohtani back to pitching in big-league games, but the answer could give the Dodgers more room for error.
Evan Phillips, RHRP: Here’s a tribute to Evan Phillips’ run over the past three years: Since 2022, he’s one of just five relievers to make 180 or more appearances with an ERA of 2.50 or lower (2.21), along with Emmanuel Clase, Jason Adam, Bryan Abreu and Raisel Iglesias.
Jose Rodriguez*, RHRP: He’s bounced between starting and relieving in his career, but the Mexican right-hander topped out at High A a year ago. He still only has 115 1/3 innings stateside, so there’s room for growth.
River Ryan, RHP: Still very talented but not expected to be part of the Dodgers’ picture in 2025 after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
Roki Sasaki*, RHP: There are so many questions ahead, but here’s one that might determine how immediately Sasaki can find big-league success: What’s his third pitch? It’s largely been his slider, but finding an ideal shape for that pitch might be some low-hanging fruit for the Dodgers to work with.
Matt Sauer*, RHRP: Sauer is one of multiple former Rule 5 picks on this year’s group of non-roster invites, with the Royals plucking him from the Yankees’ system last year and inserting the former top pitching prospect into their bullpen. By the end of May (after 14 appearances), he was once again a Yankees prospect. His strikeout rate was much lower last year than in the lower minors, and he’s had issues with walks. But the draft pedigree is still there.
Tanner Scott, LHRP: There might not have been a more imposing reliever in the 2024 postseason, which partly explains why the Dodgers made the out-of-character decision to give Scott a four-year deal. He won’t be the set closer, but will often get the most critical outs along with Blake Treinen.
Emmet Sheehan, RHP: There’s a chance that Sheehan’s back sometime in the middle of the season from his Tommy John surgery. He said he’s expecting to be in rehab games in May or June. But given the bodies the Dodgers have on the pitching front, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them take things slow.
Blake Snell, LHP: Remove the context of per-inning stats, and the two-time Cy Young Award winner has still gotten more total swings-and-misses than all but seven pitchers in baseball since the start of 2023: Dylan Cease, Zack Wheeler, Freddy Peralta, Pablo López, Luis Castillo, Logan Gilbert and Corbin Burnes.
Gavin Stone, RHP: His 2025 ended before it even began after shoulder surgery in October.
Blake Treinen, RHRP: His fastball velocity has dropped 4 mph from his last full season in 2021 (97.7 mph) to last year (94.3 mph). Yet, his ERA (1.93) and FIP (2.99) last year were nearly identical (1.99 ERA, 2.88 FIP). It was never all about velocity with him, but watching him adjust last year was remarkable.
Alex Vesia, LHRP: Only one lefty reliever in baseball (min. 50 appearances) had a lower ERA than Vesia’s 1.76 mark last year: his new teammate, Tanner Scott, at 1.75.
Justin Wrobleski, LHP: Arrived in the big leagues out of necessity last year, and while he still has promise, needs to find a secondary pitch that doesn’t get walloped like all of them did in an small sample last year.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, RHP: Health aside, it’s hard not to come away extremely encouraged with Yamamoto’s rookie season in 2024. He learned to lean on the slider when it mattered, which will be interesting to monitor again this season. The upside is massive.
Kirby Yates, RHRP: The Dodgers have seemingly cornered the market on splitters between Yates, Yamamoto, Sasaki, Ohtani and others. But Yates’ was particularly lethal last year, allowing opponents to hit just .114 against it with a 31.1 percent whiff rate.
(Top photo of Roki Sasaki: Brian Rothmuller / Icon Sportswire via Associated Press)
