Dodgers Team News

Dodgers: The Plan Was Not Originally to Draft Almost All Pitchers

The MLB draft went back to 20 rounds this year and the Dodgers took advantage of every pick. A team that relies so heavily on their prospect pipeline, Los Angeles obviously puts a lot of work into every single pick. 

Funny enough, the Dodgers ended up taking 17 pitchers of their 19 total picks. They lost their second-round pick as part of signing Trevor Bauer over the offseason. But no one could have predicted that they would go almost all pitchers in the draft. 



As it turns out, even Dodgers director of amateur scouting Billy Gasparino didn’t see them going in this direction. He spoke with the OC Register this week following the draft and revealed that picking all arms wasn’t part of the initial plan. 

It really surprised us here a little bit. There definitely wasn’t any intent. It just kind of kept happening and happening and happening and you look up at the total and you’re like, ‘Oh my god we took all pitchers.’ It does show you just how talent-focused we are. The position and need just don’t really factor at all.

The Dodgers started things off by drafting 14 consecutive pitchers before taking a shortstop in the 16th round. In total, they drafted 6 left-handed arms and 11 right-handed. It was all done through a combination of High School, Junior College, and College picks. 

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While it was happening, there was some speculation that the Dodgers could be gearing up to trade away some high-level arms with the deadline looming. But Gasparino seemed to dismiss that idea given that they were only going after the top talent available and not looking to fill a specific need.  

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2 Comments

  1. Dodgers drafted 17 pitchers. So? Did you know, Angels drafted all 20 picks for pitchers, Cleveland drafted 19 pitchers, and Giants drafted a whole bunch of pitchers. Everybody knew this draft was heavy in pitchers, especially in the college sector. Hope the Dodgers got their share of the best. We’ll see what happens in the next few years…..very interesting.

  2. This was foolish in my opinion. But look what we have now. All are loses were to crappy pitching from the bullpen. If we don’t have a 10 point lead forget about it. We may have 1 year left of hitters if they don’t get hit. I know now why the Dodgers don’t steal or bunt.

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