The Los Angeles Dodgers selected the contract of Ben Casparius and designated Brent Honeywell for assignment in order to make room on their active and 40-man rosters.
Casparius was scheduled to start for Triple-A Oklahoma City on Saturday but was scratched in preparation for joining the Dodgers roster. It was the second such instance for the OKC Baseball Club in recent days as Bobby Miller didn’t start for the team as planned last Thursday.
Miller wound up being added to the Dodgers’ roster on Saturday to start in place of the injured Tyler Glasnow.
Although Casparius is a starter, his first experience at the Major League level comes in a potential bullpen role.
Casparius is ranked as the Dodgers No. 39 prospect by FanGraphs, but has pitched well in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.
Casparius began the 2024 Minor League season with Double-A Tulsa before earning a promotion to OKC. He threw just 21.2 innings for the Drillers while posting a 3.32 ERA, 3.15 FIP, 35.8% strikeout rate and walking 11.6% of batters faced.
With Oklahoma City, the right-hander has a 3.54 ERA and 25.7% strikeout rate over 13 starts.
The 25-year-old has been plagued by walk issues throughout his Minor League career but is benefitting this season from an increase in velocity that pairs well with a highly-rated slider.
Casparius’ fastball now reaches the upper 90s and topped out at 98 mph this season.
Casparius has the potential to join Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Ricky Vanasco, Andy Pages, Landon Knack, Michael Petersen, Eduardo Salazar, Justin Wrobleski, River Ryan and Hunter Feduccia in making his MLB debut with the Dodgers during the 2024 season.
Dodgers DFA Brent Honeywell
The Dodgers already faced a roster crunch even without factoring Casparius into their plans, and Honeywell was a likely DFA candidate once more players were ready to return from the 60-day injured list.
That’s not an indictment on Honeywell, who has found success since being claimed off waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Honeywell went 0-1 with a 2.21 ERA and 1.18 WHIP in 10 appearances for the Dodgers.
He pitched two innings and allowed a solo home run to Nolan Arenado during their loss on Saturday.
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