ESPN Gives High Marks to Dodgers’ Farm System After Draft, Trade Deadline

Before the 2024 season began, ESPN ranked all 30 Major League Baseball farm systems. Then, the Los Angeles Dodgers were ranked No. 8.

Since then, only Andy Pages has graduated from being considered a prospect while pitcher River Ryan and Justin Wrobleski have earned innings with the big league club because of injuries and underperformance.

With the trade deadline and first-year player draft behind them, the Dodgers have managed to maintain their status as one of the best player development pipelines in baseball, according to ESPN’s newest rankings.

“The dollar amounts for each farm system come from projecting what each is expected to do, using historical examples,” writes Kiley McDaniel. “With that, it’s pretty easy to project how much they’ll be paid in their six-plus cost-controlled years for that projected performance, adjust for time value of money/performance, apply the price teams pay per win on the free agent market for how much that performance is worth and poof: each player has a dollar value. Then, you simply add up the values for each prospect and have the surplus value of the whole farm system.”

Taking the draft and trade deadline into account, the Dodgers emerged at No. 3.

Right fielder Josue De Paula is currently considered the club’s top prospect and catcher-turned-left-fielder Dalton Rushing is flying through the minor league system behind him.

Rushing was drafted as a catcher but since he arrived in Oklahoma City, the Triple-A club is playing exclusively in left field. He was selected in the second round of the 2022 draft.

Pages is no longer considered a prospect because he was called up on April 16 and hasn’t been optioned since. Entering Wednesday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers, Pages has played in 96 games at the major league level. He is batting .248 with 21 doubles, one triple, nine home runs, and 35 runs batted in.

Ryan and Wrobleski both contributed tremendously to the pitching staff when they made their big league debuts.

Unfortunately, Ryan joined that list of injuries on Saturday when he exited his start in the fifth inning with forearm tightness. It was announced on Monday that he would be undergoing Tommy John surgery for a UCL sprain.

Wrobleski was only charged with one decision in his four starts and it happened to be a loss. He has a 4.05 ERA and struck out 15 batters across 20 innings.

Photo Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

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