Dodgers Team News

Dodgers News: Two Rookies Will Piggyback Game One of Doubleheader

The Dodgers and Diamondbacks play a scheduled day/night doubleheader on Tuesday, a result of having the first week of the season rescheduled due to the owners’ lockout that delayed the start of the season.

When teams are scheduled for a doubleheader, each team is allowed to add an extra player to the roster for the day. The Dodgers announced on Monday that their extra player will be Ryan Pepiot, who has made eight appearances (seven starts) for Los Angeles this year but spent most of the year in Triple-A Oklahoma City.



Michael Grove will be the starter in game one of the doubleheader, with Pepiot set to follow him. It will be Grove’s fourth start for the Dodgers this year, and he and Pepiot each average less than five innings per start in the big leagues. The hope is likely that the two can combine for seven or eight innings to alleviate some of the bullpen burden of the doubleheader.

Pepiot has been optioned to the minors five times this year, which maxes him out according to the limits set in the new CBA agreed to by the owners and the players this spring. That means Pepiot can’t be optioned again this year, but the doubleheader provides a loophole around that rule. A player called up to be the extra player in a doubleheader isn’t technically “recalled,” and he doesn’t technically have to be “optioned” afterwards. So the Dodgers will be allowed to “return” Pepiot to the minors after his appearance on Tuesday.

This is actually the second time the Dodgers have used this loophole with Pepiot this year. If ever a team was going to find a legal way to send a guy to the minors seven times in the very first year it’s limited to five, it was going to be the Dodgers.

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Jeff Snider

Jeff was born into a Dodgers family in Southern California and is now raising a Dodgers family of his own in Utah. During his previous career as an executive at a technology company, he began writing about baseball in his spare time. After leaving corporate America in 2014, he started doing it professionally. Jeff wrote and edited for Baseball Essential for years before joining Dodgers Nation. He's also the co-host of the Locked On Dodgers podcast, a daily podcast that brings the smart fan's perspective on our Boys in Blue. Jeff has a degree in English from Brigham Young University. Favorite Player: Clayton Kershaw Favorite Moment: Kirk Gibson's homer will always have a place, but Kershaw's homer on Opening Day 2013 might be the winner.

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