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PHOENIX –– The final days of spring training mean final roster cuts are here for the Dodgers.
And on Wednesday, in two of their more difficult decisions before Opening Day next week, the club announced that a couple young camp standouts had failed to make the team.
Last year, River Ryan and Kyle Hurt missed the entirety of the season, recovering from Tommy John surgeries that derailed each of their debut MLB campaigns in 2024.
This spring, however, both impressed in their return to action –– easily looking the part of productive big-league arms.
Ryan, 27, bulked up during his year-and-a-half rehab, adding 30 pounds to his frame and a couple ticks of velocity to his fastball. In Cactus League play, it resulted in a sterling stat line, with the right-hander posting a 1.86 ERA with 12 strikeouts in 9 ⅔ innings.
Hurt, 27, also opened eyes with his performance in camp, transitioning to a multi-inning relief role in which he struck out 12 batters over just 7 ⅓ innings of three-run ball.
At various points in recent weeks, manager Dave Roberts raved about the progress of both pitchers –– who were two of the organization’s top prospects before getting hurt two years ago.
Yet, on Wednesday, the Dodgers optioned them both to the minor leagues to begin the season.
In a spring with little roster intrigue, the cuts qualified as two of the biggest surprises.
The reasons for the moves, however, were rooted in similar thinking. Because both pitchers were out all of last year, the Dodgers want to be cautious with their workloads in 2026, preferring to ease them into this new season and save the limited number of innings they’ll be able to pitch for later in the campaign.
Eventually, they are expected to contribute at the MLB level. But for now, they’ll have to bide their time in the minors a little longer.
“We realize how talented he is,” Roberts said Wednesday of Hurt, whose demotion was announced first. “But to get him to get a foundation this year –– to be able to go back-to-back, pitch two innings in a night then see how he is on the third day to go out and pitch and see how he responds –– those are things that, [we need to] just kind of get some wear on his tires, as an analogy. That’s what he needs to do.
“When you get with us [in the majors], we’ve got to push guys because we’ve got to win baseball games,” Roberts added. “That’s the next part of his development. And he completely understood.”
Same thing goes for Ryan, whose roster move wasn’t announced until later in the day.
“It’s hard, because as a competitor, he wants to go wire-to-wire,” Roberts said of him earlier this spring. “He’s put in the work. He looks great. But you look at the history of guys that have had those types of injuries, to think he’s gonna take down 30 starts [in his return this year] is unrealistic … So for us, speaking for the organization, it’s letting him continue to build up and see where that takes us.”
The knock-on effects of the news, of course, are the players who will earn Opening Day spots in each pitcher’s place.
In the bullpen, Hurt’s cut likely clears the way for Edgardo Henriquez to make the team, despite a spring performance that included an 8.53 ERA and as many walks and hit batters (six total) as strikeouts in his seven Cactus League appearances.
In the starting rotation, Ryan’s demotion effectively cements Roki Sasaki’s spot on the Opening Day roster, even after a camp that raised renewed questions about his ability to be an MLB-caliber starter.
The Japanese phenom scuffled in eight MLB starts as a rookie last year before going down with a shoulder injury, then returning to the mound late in the season to become the Dodgers’ surprise playoff closer.
His shift back to starting duties this year has not begun well, with Sasaki suffering a 13.50 ERA in three Cactus League outings that were marred by a lack of fastball command and pitch efficiency.
“He’s going to be one of our starters,” Roberts confirmed of Sasaki on Wednesday. “I think I’ve been very consistent in the sense of, we don’t solely evaluate spring training in its entirety alone. So with that, he’s obviously got things to prove — consistency of getting guys out, consistency of strike throwing. But he’s going to get that opportunity to start the season, and we’ll see where we go from there.”
When asked if Sasaki is one of the Dodgers’ 13 best pitchers now, Roberts demurred.
“He is going to start the season in the rotation,” he answered –– not exactly a ringing endorsement of Sasaki’s form ahead of the season.
Alas, this is the approach the Dodgers have telegraphed all spring, taking the long view with two of their more promising young arms even if it means giving Opening Day opportunities to two bigger question marks.
Eventually, Ryan and Hurt should return to the majors. If all goes well, they could be key parts of the pitching staff come the stretch run of the season.
But for now, they’ll have to wait. In the end, workload calculations outweighed preseason performance.
