The Los Angeles Dodgers pitching staff has been depleted in recent weeks, with four of the teams top five starters in Clayton Kershaw, Rich Hill, Kenta Maeda and Hyun-Jin Ryu all currently on the disabled list.
While the Dodgers have more depth than perhaps any other organization in all of baseball, no one could have predicted that it would be put to the test this much, this early. Ross Stripling and Walker Buehler have stepped up in big ways as replacements, and top prospect Dennis Santana is following suit.
He will make his first career start on Thursday against the Pittsburgh Pirates, less than one week removed from his MLB debut in which the right-hander entered out of the bullpen to face the Colorado Rockies.
The Dodgers are still looking for a starter for Wednesday’s game in Pittsburgh though and the most obvious candidate, Brock Stewart, pitched out of the bullpen on Sunday so he is no longer available.
It appears the club will again turn to their farm system for that game, as according to Ron Cervenka of ThinkBlueLA, left-hander Caleb Ferguson will be called up from Triple-A Oklahoma City:
ThinkBlueLA has learned from a reliable source that 22-year-old left-hander Caleb Ferguson has been called up to the Dodgers, presumably to start (or ‘Romo-start’) Wednesday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park.
Ferguson was a 38th round draft pick of the Dodgers in 2014 out of West Jefferson High School in Ohio. He made eight starts for Double-A Tulsa this season, going 3-0 with a 1.38 ERA and 1.05 WHIP while striking out 40 compared to 10 walks in 39 innings.
In two starts since being called up to Oklahoma City, he has posted a 2.25 ERA in eight innings. For Santana’s Major League debut, the Dodgers tested the ‘opener’ strategy by starting reliever Scott Alexander for 1.1 innings and then bringing in Santana for 3.2 innings after him.
It will be interesting to see if they decide to do the same thing for Ferguson or if they just let him start.
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