With Opening Day of the 2018 season all but here, the Los Angeles Dodgers front office is currently in the process of making final roster decision(s).
That isn’t just at the Major League level though, as with all the players that were optioned or reassigned to Minor League camp in recent weeks, there were some decisions to make in regards to who to keep in the organization and who to let go.
There’s already been movement on that front, as according to Baseball America, the Dodgers have decided to release 12 Minor Leaguers from the organization, with the most notable being Cuban right-handed pitcher Pablo Fernandez:
RHP Logan Crouse, RHP Malcom Culver, RHP Patrick Duester, RHP Pablo Fernandez, RHP Alex Hermeling, RHP Santos Mateo, RHP Andrew Robinson, RHP Scott Shuman, RHP Miguel Urena, 2B Samuel Ortiz, OF Blake Gailen
The Dodgers signed Fernandez out of Cuba in March of 2015, awarding him an $8 million signing bonus. They never really got to see how that signing played out, however, as Fernandez was forced to undergo Tommy John surgery in 2016.
He returned and threw 12 innings for the Dodgers’ rookie-level affiliate towards the end of the 2017 season, yielding a 13.50 ERA.
A couple of other names of note among the Minor Leaguers that were released are Malcom Culver and Andrew Robinson. Culver saw some time in big league camp this spring, and Robinson was just signed to a Minor League deal this past offseason.
In four Cactus League appearances (5.2 innings), Culver gave up five hits and four runs (6.35 ERA) while striking out eight and walking two.
Robinson was a 12th-round pick by the Astros out of Georgia Tech in 2010. In eight Minor League seasons, he has gone 38-29 with a 3.88 ERA and 1.25 WHIP in 309 games (29 starts).
