How the Dodgers Stole Pitching Prospect River Ryan From the Padres in Lopsided Trade

Dodgers minor league pitcher River Ryan made another list this month, this time Baseball America’s “12 MLB Rookie Pitchers With Breakout Potential in 2024.” In February, he was chosen as a top-50 prospect by both FanGraphs and The Athletic. Ryan hasn’t pitched in spring training because of some early shoulder fatigue, but he’s on a short list of hurlers in line to make their major league debuts for the Dodgers in 2024.

A.J. Preller isn’t bitter. At least, if the Padres’ general manager who traded Ryan to the Dodgers for utility player Matt Beaty two years ago does harbor any sour grapes, he’s an incredible actor.

“River Ryan’s a good story,” Preller told Dodgers Nation. “Jake Koenig, our area scout in the Carolinas … he stayed on (Ryan) and did a great job. He’s done well with the Dodgers, which is not a surprise. Probably one of those guys that you wish we had stayed a little longer with honestly because he’s done really well.”

As the Dodgers and San Diego Padres prepare to begin the 2024 season in Seoul, the narrative around the matchup has focused on the teams’ Asian stars. Korean-born infielder Ha-Seong Kim and pitcher Woo-Suk Go give the Padres a natural rooting interest for neutral fans at the Gocheok Sky Dome. Padres pitcher Yu Darvish, and the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, have crossed the cultural barrier from Japan.

The teams weren’t chosen to play in Asia because of a years-long bitter rivalry. There have been sparks of hatred between the two sides — the Padres’ first-round playoff victory over the Dodgers in 2022, the constant invasion of Dodgers fans at Petco Park — but not enough substantial beef to fan the flames.

Somewhere in the embers sits Ryan, a rising prospect who the Padres gave to the Dodgers essentially for free. Beaty played 20 games for the Padres, hit .090, and was cut later in the 2022 season.

Preller, for his part, stands by his decision to make the trade.

“From our standpoint, it’s a good scouting job by them, it’s a good scouting job by us in terms of (Ryan) lining up in both cases,” Preller said. “When you’re making deals you hope they work out for both clubs. From our standpoint we were looking for a left-hand bat. Obviously Matt Beaty didn’t swing the bat like he’s capable of for us. Had some injury stuff as well. And River’s doing great.”

Ryan never pitched a competitive inning for the Padres after he was chosen in the 11th round of the 2021 draft out of UNC-Pembroke. So how did Koenig, the Padres’ scout, identify a future top-50 pitching talent who was primarily an infielder in college? And how did the Dodgers turn around and get Ryan despite never seeing him pitch professionally?

The answer in both cases is a classic case of baseball imitating life: It’s all about who you know.

Koenig knew River Ryan’s older brother, Ryder, now a pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates. When Koenig was an assistant coach at Spartanburg (S.C.) Methodist College, the elder brother visited as a prospective transfer student. Young River tagged along with Ryder and the boys’ father, Sean, who played four seasons in the Philadelphia Phillies’ organization. 

By the time Koenig was scouting for the Padres, he knew something about the Ryan family personally, beyond their athletic bloodlines. Years later, River Ryan was closing for UNC-Pembroke while doubling as an infielder. 

As a pitcher, Ryan paired impressive command with a fastball that topped out at 95 mph. Koenig remembered Ryan’s college pitching coach, Jeff Jefferson, predicting that his two-way star could throw 100 someday. The scout was hooked.

“The athleticism. The arm strength. The fluid delivery. It was almost pretty, and so athletic,” Koenig said.

Yet other scouts were more intrigued by Ryan as a hitter. In 44 games as a redshirt senior, Ryan hit nine home runs, drove in 51, and slashed .349/.419/.566. For his part, Ryan wanted to pursue a two-way path after being drafted. The Padres were willing to let him try, at least to a point.

But because they preferred his potential as a pitcher, Ryan was limited to hitting duties at the Arizona Complex League. In 12 games, Ryan went 12-for-39 (.308) with a home run and four stolen bases. On paper, it looked like Ryan had talked the team into letting him hit. In reality, the Padres were preserving Ryan’s innings after a college season in which he threw 51.2 innings — more than the previous four years combined.

Few outside of the organization knew this, however. So how did the Dodgers have a pulse on Ryan’s potential as a pitcher?

In one of the more lightly reported transactions of the 2021-22 offseason, the Padres cut ties with pitching development director Steve Lyons. The Dodgers scooped him up, hiring him to their pro scouting department. It was Lyons who tipped off the Dodgers to the latent pitching talent the Padres were sitting on, which ultimately led them to ask for Ryan in the Beaty trade.

“Lyno did a great job flagging someone before they were totally on the radar elsewhere,” Dodgers player development director Will Rhymes said. “What a great pickup. We’re really excited to have River, and just to see him get better.”

In Aug. 2016, when the Dodgers were exploring the trade market for relief pitchers in advance of a deep playoff run, they lined up with the Houston Astros to acquire relief pitcher Josh Fields. The Astros’ ask was an intriguing one: teenage slugger Yordan Alvarez, who had yet to play a competitive game after the Dodgers signed him as an amateur and sent him to train at their complex in the Dominican Republic.

The trade eventually became the stuff of legend. The Astros had been scouting Alvarez as an amateur too and were keenly aware of his potential, but couldn’t compete with the Dodgers’ signing bonus. After the trade, Alvarez blossomed into one of the best hitters in the American League.

The River Ryan trade doesn’t rank among the most lopsided swaps in baseball history yet. But if the 25-year-old right-hander comes close to fulfilling his potential, it could become the substance of a real rivalry between the Dodgers and Padres.

Photo Credit: Tim Rogers

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