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Dodgers’ top prospect Josiah Gray will make his major league debut on Tuesday against the Giants, replacing an exhausted starting rotation. The right-hander was at Dodger Stadium on Monday, pitching onto the field ahead of the series opener.
His role on Tuesday remains to be determined, even if he is expected to throw loose innings.
“The plan is for it to be activated tomorrow. As tonight comes out, we’ll find out more about his role for tomorrow’s game, ”manager Dave Roberts said on Monday. “As for the role – start, get in behind an opener – we’re still going to talk about that.”
Gray is said to have made his debut earlier this year, following Dustin May’s Tommy John surgery in May. But Gray himself had a conflict in his right shoulder that sidelined him for two months.
Since returning to Oklahoma City’s AAA rotation on July 4, Gray, 23, has recorded 12 strikeouts and no walks in 10 ” in three games, allowing three runs on five hits. In his last game on Thursday, Gray threw 68 shots and struck out seven strikes in 4 struck innings, just short of the five innings Roberts described as the ground before Gray was called back.
The first two of those comeback outings for Gray were starts, and his final game on Thursday came after left-hander Justin Bruihl pitched the first inning.
Gray helps fill a void with Clayton Kershaw and his forearm inflammation sidelined until August, exhausting a Dodgers rotation that is also without Trevor Bauer for the foreseeable future as Bauer is the subject an assault investigation by Major League Baseball and the Pasadena Police Department.
With 11 days to go before the trade deadline, the Dodgers’ rotation, even with Gray, includes Tony Gonsolin, who missed two months with an inflamed shoulder and only pitched more than four innings once on seven starts this season, and David Price, who has pitched mostly in relief all year and is yet to go past four innings.
During the season, the Dodgers starters lead the majors in strikeout rate (28.8 percent) and ERA (2.97), are second in walk rate (6.5 percent) and third in FIP (3.49). They also rank third in innings pitched (5.45 per start), but in July they used four games scheduled in the reliever box in 14 games, not counting Price’s three-inning start. That’s not sustainable for a long time, especially for a taxed reliever pen that has already used 17 relief pitchers this month.
The Dodgers acquired Gray with shortstop Jeter Downs from the Reds in December 2018, a prospect for Los Angeles in an otherwise predominantly financial deal that saw the salaries of Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig, Alex Wood swapped for Homer Bailey. Downs was part of the February 2020 trade with Boston to get Mookie Betts.
Wood starts Tuesday for the Giants.
Prior to this season, Gray was among the Top 70 Consensus Prospects on various national rosters. The lowest of those rankings was 68th by Baseball America, which elevated it to No.54 in their mid-season rankings update, noting: “The converted infielder flourished on the mound and stands out as a pitcher’s best hope in a great system. “
“It would be difficult to say [prospect rankings] doesn’t interest me every now and then, but I really try not to pay attention to it, ”Gray said in May. “These things, I try not to get too caught up. You can be number one in all of baseball, but if you don’t go out there every night and flaunt the numbers and help your team win, then that stuff doesn’t mean much. .
Gray was the Dodgers Minor Leagues Pitcher of the Year in 2019 and spent 2020 at the USC alternative training site. Since joining the organization, the right-hander has a 2.35 ERA in 145 innings over four levels, with 169 strikeouts and 33 walks. This season he has a 38.6% strikeout rate in Triple-A.
If Gray starts Tuesday at 23 and 211 days Tuesday, he would be the 12th Dodgers pitcher 24 or under to make his major league debut in this century.
The Dodgers will need to make the corresponding move (s) to add Gray to both the active roster and that of 40 players.
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