Dodgers trade Howie Kendrick to Philadelphia Phillies.

Howie Kendrick

Howie Kendrick was the Dodgers’ primary left fielder in 2016. (Keith Birmingham/Staff photographer)

Howie Kendrick was an unsung hero for much of 2016, calling left field his primary position in a season where Andre Ethier, Trayce Thompson and Scott Van Slyke missed most of the year with injuries.

Now, Kendrick is gone. The Dodgers traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies for outfielder/first baseman Darin Ruf and minor league infielder Darnell Sweeney on Friday.

Kendrick, 33, batted a career-low .255 in 146 games for the Dodgers, who also played him at second base, first base and third base at times. But he saw fewer plate appearances per game in 2016 compared to any of his 11 major league seasons. Kendrick was reportedly so upset about his diminished playing time that he requested a trade.

Ruf, 30, has done most of his damage against left-handed pitchers, posting a .299/.379/.542 career slashline over parts of five major league seasons. He’s appeared in 139 games (92 starts) at first base, one game at third base, 76 games (64 starts) at left field and 29 games (27 starts) at right field.

Sweeney, 25, advanced to the Triple-A level in the Dodgers’ organization before he was traded to Philadelphia for Chase Utley in 2015. He spent all of this year with the Phillies’ Triple-A affiliate, batting .233.

Since Sweeney wasn’t on the Phillies’ 40-man roster, the Dodgers still carry 37 men on theirs. The Dodgers also gained some financial wiggle room: Philadelphia will pick up the final year of Kendrick’s two-year contract, which pays him $10 million next season.

Dodgers acquire Chase Utley from Philadelphia Phillies for two minor leaguers.


OAKLAND — The Dodgers officially acquired second baseman Chase Utley from the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday night, sending Triple-A utilityman Darnell Sweeney and Single-A pitcher John Richy in the two-for-one swap.
Continue reading “Dodgers acquire Chase Utley from Philadelphia Phillies for two minor leaguers.” »

Don Mattingly on Corey Seager: ‘I don’t expect to see him on an everyday basis.’

I remember the time when the Dodgers sent out Trent Oeltjen a couple years back and Don Mattingly, then in his second year as manager, predicted Oeltjen could be a fourth outfielder somewhere in the major leagues. Maybe that wasn’t factually incorrect. Still, no team ever gave Oeltjen that chance. He spent a year in the minors, went back to his native Australia for a while, then retired.

So take this quote with a grain of salt:

Mattingly said that after I asked him to reflect on Corey Seager‘s camp. Here’s the full quote:

“It’s hard to look at Corey without looking at all those kids: (Scott) Schebler, (O’Koyea) Dickson, (Darnell) Sweeney, all those kids. I think every player we sent out yesterday plays in the big leagues — Britton, both catchers. … I don’t know what Andrew and the guys are thinking, about September call-ups. I think if we’re fairly healthy, I don’t expect to see him with us on an everyday basis.”

Corey Seager tops list of top 10 Dodgers prospects (DodgersDigest.com).

We’ve read enough prospect-ranking lists lately to declare late January/early February its own “season.”

Prospect ranking season.

This might be the end of prospect ranking season. At the very least, we’re close.

DodgersDigest.com released its list of the organization’s top 10 prospects. Click on over for the details; here’s the list of 10:

10. Darnell Sweeney
9. Scott Schebler
8. Zach Lee
7. Alex Verdugo
6. Jose De Leon
5. Chris Anderson
4. Grant Holmes
3. Joc Pederson
2. Julio Urias
1. Corey Seager

Update: 27 Dodgers prospects will participate in winter development camp.

Jarret Martin

Twenty-seven prospects will invade Dodger Stadium this week for the club’s annual winter development camp. (Associated Press photo)

Eighteen-year-old pitching prospect Julio Urias, who was invited to his first major league spring training last week, will take part in the Dodgers’ winter development camp for prospects this week at Dodger Stadium.

Urias is one of 27 prospects who will take part in this year’s camp, up from 15 a year ago. Earlier today we posted a partial list of four prospects who will take part in the eighth annual camp (Grant Holmes, Jose De Leon, Cody Bellinger, Ryan Scott).

The other 23 participants include pitcher Zach Lee, who also took part in last year’s camp and spent all season at Triple-A. Pitchers Carlos Frias and Daniel Coulombe, who earned their first major league call-ups last September, have also been invited. Another pitcher of note is Ross Stripling, who underwent Tommy John surgery in spring training of last year.

Catcher Austin Barnes, who was acquired in the trade that sent Dee Gordon and Dan Haren to the Miami Marlins, will take part in the camp. So will outfielders Scott Schebler and Darnell Sweeney, who will be in the Dodgers’ major league spring training camp.

Urias isn’t even the youngest invitee. That would be Michael Medina, an outfielder from the Dominican Republic who is 12 days younger than Urias. He finished last season with the Rookie-league AZL Dodgers.

Shortstop prospect Corey Seager, 20, was invited to spring training but was not invited to the camp.

Here’s the full list, via DodgerInsider.com:
Continue reading “Update: 27 Dodgers prospects will participate in winter development camp.” »