Dodgers demote Matt Palmer, Steven Ames, Matt Magill.

Matt Palmer

Matt Palmer will have surgery tomorrow in Arizona to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee. The team originally announced that he would miss six to eight weeks, but Palmer gave a more optimistic, more detailed timetable Monday.

“They say I can throw in two weeks, throw off a mound in three-and-a-half to four,” he said. “I could be back (in a game) by six weeks.”

Unfortunately for Palmer that won’t come in a major-league game. He was reassigned to the Dodgers’ minor-league camp, and Matt Magill and Steve Ames were optioned. All three pitchers will switch to the minor-league side, but the difference in assignments is key. Palmer isn’t on the Dodgers’ 40-man roster. Ames and Magill are, so they have now used up one of their three “option years” allotted under the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Ames was touched for five hits and two runs in 2 2/3 innings. He walked none and struck out two. Magill’s first spring training on a 40-man roster could not have gone much better. The Simi Valley product did not allow an earned run in four innings, walked one and struck out eight.

The Dodgers now have 51 players in big league camp following the five previous reassignments earlier this spring (Kelvin De La Cruz, Nick Evans, Gregory Infante, Ozzie Martinez and Dallas McPherson).

This entry was posted in JP on the Dodgers, On The Farm, Spring Training and tagged , , , by J.P. Hoornstra. Bookmark the permalink.

About J.P. Hoornstra

J.P. Hoornstra covers the Dodgers, Angels and Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register, Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Torrance Daily Breeze, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News, San Bernardino Sun, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Whittier Daily News and Redlands Daily Facts. Before taking the beat in 2012, J.P. covered the NHL for four years. UCLA gave him a degree once upon a time; when he graduated on schedule, he missed getting Arnold Schwarzenegger's autograph on his diploma by five months.