Predicting the Oklahoma City Dodgers roster.

Oklahoma City baseball fieldHere’s an unconventional thought exercise for a Wednesday morning: What will the Opening Day roster at Triple-A Oklahoma City look like?

This isn’t as sexy as trying to guess the major league Opening Day roster. Still, it’s a more intriguing question than it’s been in years past. For one thing, the Dodgers’ major-league roster is mostly set outside of the bullpen, so this is actually a feasible exercise. Two, as you go down this list you’ll find few journeymen minor leaguers. Most seem just short of reaching (or just past) their full potential as major leaguers. It might represent the “B” squad in this camp, but this hypothetical roster actually doesn’t make you cringe.

Triple-A rosters are even more fluid than major-league rosters. There’s almost no such thing as an “everyday lineup” in the minor leagues. But if you had to ask me roughly three weeks into spring training who might be in OKC on Opening Day, this is an honest stab:

Lineup:

Darnell Sweeney CF
Kike Hernandez 2B
Scott Schebler RF
O’Koyea Dickson 1B
Kyle Jensen LF
Matt Carson DH
Austin Barnes C
Erisbel Arruebarrena SS
Buck Britton 3B

Rotation:

Erik Bedard LHP
Joe Wieland RHP
Mike Bolsinger RHP
Zach Lee RHP
David Huff LHP

Bullpen:

Ryan Buchter LHP
Daniel Coulombe LHP
Chad Gaudin RHP
Yimi Garcia RHP
Jeremy Horst LHP
Josh Ravin RHP
Ben Rowen RHP
Chin-Hui Tsao RHP

Triple-A rosters are always fluid, particularly the bench and bullpen, which makes this a fool’s errand if you try to take it any farther.

Guys like David Aardsma, Mike Adams, Carlos Frias, Dustin McGowan, Paco Rodriguez, Sergio Santos, Adam Liberatore, Andre Ethier, Alex Guerrero, Darwin Barney and Chris Heisey — major leaguers on merit for a lot of clubs — don’t necessarily have a job locked down in Los Angeles but might not be ideally suited for minor league work, either. Brandon Beachy and Chris Withrow are bona fide major-league pitchers once they’re healthy, but are currently working their way back from Tommy John surgery. They’ll touch down in Triple-A at some point. Corey Seager ought to be in Triple-A soon enough. Maybe Julio Urias or Joc Pederson (for opposite reasons) will too.

The point of this exercise isn’t to predict who won’t make the final cut for the major-league club. The point is to identify who is ticketed for Triple-A under almost every circumstance — a non-specific yet realistic scenario where we ignore the number of healthy bodies in camp, any restrictive contract clauses, and a few other variables. Come to think of it, several things would have to go very wrong for this to be the OKC Dodgers’ Opening Day roster. And it’s still far from terrible.

When we try to measure the Dodgers’ roster depth, this is a good place to start.

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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.