The Los Angeles Dodgers, amid a thinning catcher position group, made two moves to adjust their organizational depth.
The Dodgers signed catcher Hayden Gilliland to a minor league contract and assigned him to Double-A Tulsa, while also promoting Griffin Lockwood-Powell to the Oklahoma City Comets from Tulsa.
Gilliland has been cutting his teeth with the Toronto Blue Jays organization until he was released by the Canadian baseball team this year.
He was hitting .228/.374/.380 in the High-A level before he was released at the age of 24. With so much baseball in front of him, there is still a good chance that he can make enough of an impression to climb at least to OKC for the Dodgers and serve as an emergency back-up.
Lockwood, on the other hand, is an undrafted free agent who signed on back in 2022 and has been a career minor leaguer at this point.
He has been in Double-A for three years, but this year, he is having the best year of his career. He is hitting .321/.438/.557 and has a 164 wRC+.
With Will Smith moving to the 10-day IL and Chuckie Robinson, who was in Triple-A, being called up, there is a spot that opened up in Triple-A, and Lockwood is filling it.
Lockwood is stepping up for Robinson, and then Gilliland is getting his shot as well.
How is Will Smith’s injury looking?
Smith and manager Dave Roberts have downplayed it since the outset, believing it was nothing serious, and the skipper originally thought he would avoid the IL.
However, things have not progressed as expected.
“It happened in Arizona,” Smith said. “I played on it a couple days, played on it at home, and then the third or fourth day I kind of felt it just getting a lot worse.
“It’s one of those things you thought was going to get a little bit better in a couple days. It just takes a little bit longer. I just woke up and it was tight. That happens every now and then. Goes away in a day or two. It just didn’t this time.”
Smith is expected to need only the minimum time on the injured list before he returns, which could be as soon as June 19th, but it could be even longer.
2 Responses
I think we should reacquire Ben Rortvedt
I just want to tell Will Smith that I hope he gets well soon. It’s not the same without him!