Dodgers: Dave Roberts Impressed With Josiah Gray But Unsure of His Role in 2021

The Dodgers love what they have seen out of top prospect Josiah Gray. The right-handed pitcher demonstrated Major League-ready pitches during Summer Camp of 2020, and it’s only a matter of time before he’s permanently up with the big league squad. 

Gray just happens to play on a team with one of the deepest pitching staffs in all of MLB. The Dodgers are stacked with talent, as demonstrated by Dustin May. May hit 101 mph on his fastball in the first 2 weeks of Spring Training and he’s not even a lock to crack the Opening Day roster. 

But Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has loved what he has seen out of Gray early on. When asked about his throwing progress, Roberts had beaming reviews in his media call on Wednesay. 

He’s really good. Josiah, obviously the fastball is real. He synced up some really good breaking balls and his change-up is a plus pitch as well. So I thought today facing hitters, really good. 

Despite that praise from Doc, there is so much uncertainty around arms in the Dodgers system at the moment. Doc noted that he does think he will be up in the big league fairly soon, but sounded unsure of a potential role in the 2021 season. 

I don’t know how it’s going to play out. But certainly, we think a lot of him and he just needs to continue to get repetitions, continue to develop, I think Spring Training facing Major League hitters. But he’s coming pretty quickly. 

Gray would be a welcomed addition to almost every pitching staff in the league. But the Dodgers adding in top-tier talent like Trevor Bauer in free agency complicates his chances of making an impact in 2021. 

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While the years ahead look much more clear for him, this year remains muddled. With the season going back to the full grind of 162 games, there is every reason to believe that he can be a part of the Dodgers’ plans, but likely for short periods of time. 

But who knows, it wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen a Dodgers top prospect force his way into playing time. 

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