Cody Snavely
TEMPE, Ariz. – Believe it or not, the Los Angeles Dodgers are less than two weeks away from the conclusion of Cactus League play before heading to Tokyo, Japan, for their short two-game series against the Chicago Cubs. That said, we are now getting more clarity on the Dodgers’ potential 31-man roster, and Ben Casparius will likely be along for the ride.
Like last season, when the Dodgers kicked off the 2024 Major League Baseball regular season in Seoul, South Korea, against their National League West foe, the San Diego Padres, the roster will carry taxi squad players, thirty-one to be exact.
After multiple injuries to a slew of bullpen arms, such as Evan Phillips suffering soreness from a strained rotator cuff, Michael Kopech is just now throwing his first bullpen of the spring due to reported forearm tightness, and the Dodgers are going with a traditional five-man rotation to start the year the Opening Day bullpen was taking auditions this spring.
One name that has outshined the competition is 26-year-old Ben Casparius, who has put up a 3.86 ERA in 4.2 innings this spring, but there is more to like than just his ERA.
Our own Jacob Brownson, co-host of the Bleed Los Podcast, posted a deep dive on Ben Casparius in late February, and so far, we’ve seen the improvements from 2024 to early 2025.
Most notably, according to tjStuff+ from Thomas Nestico, Casparius’s velocity has increased across the board, and all of his pitches are above league average.
- 4-Seam: 112
- Slider: 115
- Cutter: 111
- Curveball: 109
However, after his 1.1 innings of work today, where the righty continued to show improvement, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts alluded that Casparius would be with the team on Opening Day as a long-inning relief option out of the bullpen.
Earlier today, Roberts also confirmed that Phillips would be out until the start of April but would face hitters while the team traveled across the Pacific Ocean. Kopech, who just now began showing off the mound, likely won’t rejoin the team anytime soon either, giving Casparius prime running room to start the season.
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