The Los Angeles Dodgers announced their 25-man roster for the 2018 National League Championship Series against the Milwaukee Brewers, and there was one change from the Division Series.
The change was a bit surprising as Julio Urias replaced fellow left-hander Scott Alexander on the roster.
Urias only pitched four innings in the big leagues this season and 11.2 in the Minors after returning from shoulder surgery. He has not pitched since Sept. 30, but did look good in his small sample size of work, giving up just one hit while striking out seven. All of those appearances were in low-leverage situations.
Alexander, on the other hand, led the Dodgers in appearances with 73, yielding a 3.68 ERA, 3.57 FIP and 1.27 WHIP while striking out 56 and walking 27 in 66 innings. He appeared in one game in the NLDS, tossing a scoreless inning.
There was some talk about potentially adding Ross Stripling onto the roster to provide the bullpen with some length given that it is a seven-game series instead of five, but ultimately the Dodgers decided to leave him off.
All of the pitchers on the Dodgers roster appeared against the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS, but no one was overused so they are all coming into the series fresh and ready to go.
With the Brewers starting left-handed pitchers, Gio Gonzalez and Wade Miley, in Games 1 and 2 of the series, right-handed infielder Brian Dozier kept his spot on the roster. Both Alex Verdugo and Andrew Toles, among others, have been at the team’s Spring Training facility in Arizona in case they are needed at some point in the postseason.
A complete breakdown of the Dodgers’ NLCS roster included below. Players are listed alphabetically in each position group.
Starting pitchers (4): Walker Buehler, Rich Hill, Clayton Kershaw, Hyun-Jin Ryu
Relief pitchers (8): Pedro Baez, Caleb Ferguson, Dylan Floro, Kenley Jansen, Ryan Madson, Kenta Maeda, Julio Urias, Alex Wood
Catchers (2): Austin Barnes, Yasmani Grandal
Infielders (6): Brian Dozier, David Freese, Kiké Hernandez, Manny Machado, Max Muncy, Justin Turner
Outfielders (5): Cody Bellinger, Matt Kemp, Joc Pederson, Yasiel Puig, Chris Taylor
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