Diego Cartaya was ranked the top Los Angeles Dodgers prospect for the 2022 season by Baseball America. Cartaya supplants Keibert Ruiz, who held the honor last year before being traded to the Washington Nationals in the blockbuster that netted Max Scherzer and Trea Turner.
After Cartaya, the Dodgers’ list of top-10 prospects is rounded out by Bobby Miller, Miguel Vargas, Michael Busch, Ryan Pepiot, Andy Pages, Landon Knack, Eddys Leonard, Andre Jackson and Wilman Diaz.
Cartaya enjoyed an excellent, albeit injury-shortened 2021 season with Low-A Rancho Cucamonga in which he hit .298/.409/.614 with 10 home runs and a 157 wRC+ in 31 games.
Miller went 2-2 with a 1.91 ERA over 14 games (11 starts) for High-A Great Lakes, then struggled a bit with Double-A Tulsa as he pitched to a 4.82 ERA in three starts.
Vargas, who was named the organization’s 2021 Branch Rickey Minor League Player of the Year, batted .314/.366/.532 with 11 doubles, one triple, seven home runs and 16 RBI over 47 games with High-A Great Lakes.
Busch, in his second professional season in the Dodgers organization, hit .267/.386/.484 with 27 doubles, 20 home runs and 67 RBI over 107 games with the Drillers.
Pepiot posted a 3-4 record with a 2.87 ERA in 15 games (13 starts) with the Drillers before earning a promotion to Triple-A Oklahoma City. That came with a bit of a learning curve as he went 2-5 with a 7.13 ERA and 1.80 WHIP in 11 appearances (nine starts).
Pages, who is considered one of the Dodgers’ top power bats in the Minors, hit .265/.394/.539 with 25 doubles, 31 home runs and 88 RBI in 120 games with the Loons.
Knack compiled a 7-1 record, 3.18 ERA and 0.93 WHIP over 62.1 innings in 16 combined appearances (11 starts) between the Loons and Drillers.
Leonard batted a combined .296/.390/.539 with 29 doubles and 22 home runs for the Quakes and Loons. He’s played second base, third base, shortstop and center field thus far in the Minors.
Jackson began his 2021 campaign with the Drillers and excelled to the tune of a 3-2 record with a 3.27 ERA over 15 games en route to making an appearance in the annual Futures Game. He later earned a promotion to the Dodgers’ top affiliate and even saw time at the Major League level.
Diaz, who was part of the Dodgers’ 2020-21 international signing period haul, hit .235/.309/.353 with seven extra-base hits and nine RBI in 24 games with the organization’s Dominican Republic Summer League affiliate.
Miller, Vargas among Dodgers prospects teaching in annual youth winter camp series
The Dodgers are hosting their annual youth winter camp series at Dodger Stadium throughout the month of January, with several of the organization’s prospects and staff members from the team’s Training Academy participating.
Instruction will be provided by the Dodgers Training Academy, plus 22 Dodgers prospects, including Miller, Vargas, Busch and Knack, among others.
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