3 Exciting Prospects That the Los Angeles Dodgers Could Promote in September

Excitement abounds in Dodgertown, as the team has won 42 of its last 52 and holds a comfortable 7.5-game lead in the NL West.  As we look ahead to September, there will be more cause for excitement when rosters expand and much-hyped prospects get their first run in the major leagues.

The Dodger farm system lacks depth—after the top three or four, it’s low-impact arms or teenaged bats—but the September call-ups will showcase much of the best the Dodgers have to offer.

Honorable Mention: Matt Magill, Chris Reed

Magill is an intriguing arm that we’ve already seen a few times this season, to less-than-spectacular returns.  But he’s still just 23, and his stuff might play up enough in relief to make him an option down the stretch.

Reed is a left-handed pitcher from Stanford who the Dodgers nabbed in the first round of the 2011 draft.  He’s spent the entire year with Double-A Charleston and has put up mixed results—a 3.89 ERA with a 1.7 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

The other exciting players—Corey Seager, Julio Urias, Chris Anderson—are way too young to even be considered for September.

3. Onelki Garcia, LHP

Garcia isn’t an elite prospect, as he’s already just a bullpen arm.  But he’s a potentially high-impact one that Baseball Prospectus’s Jason Parks described as having a “bat-missing profile.”

In 28 games over two levels this season, Garcia has a 2.80 ERA and is striking out over a batter per inning.  He still walks too many, as his walk rate for the season is 5.4 per nine innings, but he’s been better recently and since moving to the bullpen.

His potential as a dominating lefty will get him some looks in September, and it makes him an intriguing arm to keep an eye on.

2. Zach Lee, RHP

We’ve been hearing about Lee for years, but he’s still just 21 and is finally on the cusp of the big leagues.  There were whispers that he might be the one to debut earlier this year instead of Magill, but obviously that didn’t happen.

Now, though, he has a few more months of seasoning, and he’s in the midst of a solid year—3.19 ERA with a 3.9 strikeout-to-walk ratio in Double-A.

Jason Cole of Baseball Prospectus recently said that he was hearing “good things” about Lee, which bodes well for the young righty’s future.  Add that to the fact that teams like to have as much pitching as possible when rosters expand, and there’s a decent chance we'll see Lee with the big club in September.

1. Joc Pederson, OF

Pederson, like Lee, has had a good year—an .869 OPS in Double-A Chattanooga.  In Monday’s Minor League Update at Baseball Prospectus (subscription required), Zach Mortimer stated that he thinks Pederson will be an “everyday player.”

And while the Dodgers have an outfield logjam right now that limits Pederson from getting any run in the big leagues, September’s roster expansion means that he can at least get a taste and the Dodgers can get an opportunity to see how he reacts to being a big leaguer.

If Pederson’s impressive showing at the Futures Game was any indication, Dodger fans are in for a treat.