Roger Arrieta
We almost have the full picture of what our squad will look like this year. The Dodgers made more moves on Monday, trimming the active roster to 43 and trading the recently DFA’d Matt Beaty.
The deal with San Diego that sent Beaty down south brought back the intriguing River Ryan, a 2-way player in college who played the infield in a handful of appearances for San Diego but who the Dodgers plan to use as a pitcher.
Ryan sported solid figures at the dish and on the mound in his four seasons for UNC Pembroke.
Spending most of his time at second — he played 92 of his 138 games there, along with 33 at short, and one apiece at each corner — Ryan showed a little bit of versatility. But the Dodgers don’t really have a hole up the middle they need him to fill.
Over his four seasons from 2017 to 2021 Ryan slashed an impressive .343/.417/.509 with a .907 OPS. Those figures look good, but they were a little empty. Ryan didn’t show much pop, hitting just 12 home runs in 616 plate appearances, and he swiped just 13 bags in 20 attempts. His scoring figures were better, driving in 119 batters and scoring 144 runs himself.
The Dodgers haven’t found themself the next Shohei Ohtani, but Ryan isn’t a slouch on the mound.
Ryan appeared in 35 games for the Bravehawks, starting 7, and hurled 93 innings. The bulk of his work on the mound came last year. Ryan locked up 5 saves in 13 appearances, striking out 68 and walking just 18 over 51 innings of work.
Like his work on defense, Ryan appeared to be comfortable working any situation on the mound. His respectable 3.66 ERA was backed up by a strong 1.103 WHIP and 11.8 K/9 last year.
We’re unlikely to see the 22-year-old in the majors this year as he hasn’t had any exposure to even minor league hitting. His 12 appearances in the Arizona Complex League last year were limited to playing offense.
It isn’t very fair to judge a rookie on 43 plate appearances over 12 games. Ryan didn’t have time to get settled at the plate where he continued to boast a batting average over .300 but saw his plate discipline decline (13 Ks and 3 walks).
The Dodgers obviously felt the system needed another arm and figured Beaty was more useful as a trade chip than an MLB-proven player sent to mire away in the minors.
We wish the best of luck to Beaty — at least when he isn’t facing us — and look forward to seeing the development of an intriguing prospect.
Welcome to Los Angeles River, just make sure you don’t go swimming in that other Los Angeles River.
