Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports
Thursday afternoon, Los Angeles Times beat writer Jorge Castillo reported to Twitter that the Los Angeles Dodgers had announced their non-40 man roster invitees to this coming season’s spring training.
The Dodgers announced their non-roster invites for spring training. There are 21. They include Josiah Gray, Jeter Downs, Jeren Kendall, and Jordan Sheffield. pic.twitter.com/TvWvThubnz
— Jorge Castillo (@jorgecastillo) January 23, 2020
Some of the Dodgers’ most promising young players are included on this list. In Baseball America’s most recent update to Major League Baseball’s top 100 prospects, the Dodgers have seven players listed. Of those seven, Josiah Gray and Jeter Downs were invited to Spring Training in Glendale, Arizona with this announcement.
Last season, Gray recorded a 2.14 ERA in 67.1 innings pitched with the Advanced-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. After being promoted to AA Tulsa, Gray pitched in 39.1 innings, recording a 2.75 ERA.
As for Downs, he recorded 479 plate appearances in Rancho Cucamonga during 2019, hitting 19 home runs on his way to a 134 wRC+. Like Gray, Downs was also promoted to Double-A last season. In Downs’ 56 plate appearances with the Tulsa Drillers, he recorded a red-hot 207 wRC+. Although the sample size was small, Downs proved that he could handle Double-A pitchers.