An eighth-round selection by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2019 MLB Draft, Ryan Ward was placed on the 40-man roster this offseason after an excellent 2025 season with Triple-A Oklahoma City.
The 28-year-old left-hander hit .290/.380/.557 with 31 doubles, six triples, 36 home runs and 122 RBI over 143 games. He was set to be a Minor League free agent if the Dodgers didn’t add him to the 40-man roster, which would have allowed him to likely earn an MLB opportunity with another franchise.
The reigning Pacific Coast League MVP and Minor League home run champion said it has been a frustrating experience not to be given an opportunity the past two seasons, but it also allowed him to become a better ballplayer, according to Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“I mean, it’s frustrating for sure,” Ward said, in major-league camp with the Dodgers this spring. “But I just used those two years to get better. If you look at 2024 to 2025, I made a lot of changes. I was able to become a more well-rounded hitter, especially. Strikeouts went down. Walks went up. Got on base more. Tried stealing some more bases. Just continuing to try and get better every day and using all that time down there to continue playing and getting better.”
Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said the team considered promoting Ward, but that never came to fruition. Ward still did his best to focus on what he could control, but it was impossible to completely ignore being passed over for a promotion:
“I was obviously hoping,” Ward said. “But I try not to think about it too much because then I’m putting too much pressure on myself and negative thoughts start to creep in. And last year was a good group too. I had a lot of really good friends on that team so it was easy to kind of forget about it and just enjoy playing and have fun and focus on where we were.
“That’s kind of my mentality on it – to leave all that out. Obviously it’s going to creep in. I can’t help it. But I tried to get it out of there as fast as I can.”
The good news for Ward is that he has been given a long runway in Spring Training this season, appearing in eight of 12 games so far. The bad news is that the results have not been great, and he was optioned on Sunday.
He is currently behind Alex Call on the depth chart, who projects as the team’s fourth outfielder.
Ryan Ward’s 2026 Spring Training results
In 22 at-bats, Ward is hitting .136/.136/.182 with seven strikeouts and zero walks. His power stroke has also yet to make an appearance, with just one extra-base hit thus far.
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