Dodgers @ Cardinals July 20, 2014: Joc Pederson And The 25 Man Roster

As the Dodgers struggle and as their untenable center field situation marches on, Joc Pederson‘s name gets mentioned a lot, and rightfully so. It’s not a guarantee that he will immediately help the Dodgers, but it’s starting to look like a pretty good bet. But is there actually room for him on the roster?

	Dodgers			Cardinals
	5:05 p.m. PT			St. Louis, Mo.
2B	Gordon		3B	Carpenter
SS	Ramirez		CF	Bourjos
1B	Gonzalez		LF	Holliday
LF	Kemp		SS	Peralta
RF	Ethier		1B	Adams
CF	Van Slyke		RF	Craig
3B	Uribe		2B	Ellis
C	Ellis		C	Cruz
P	Kershaw (L)		P	Martinez (R)

The Dodgers have 25 spots to work with. Here are the immediate slots which get filled:

• 8 starting position players
• 5 starting pitchers
• 7 relievers
• 1 backup catcher

That’s 21 spots , so four remaining. The way the roster is currently constructed, there are two reserve outfielders, which leaves two reserve infielders (currently, Justin Turner and Miguel Rojas).

If the Dodgers call up Pederson right now without doing something with another outfielder, that bumps the number of reserve outfielders to three, and the number of reserve infielders to one. That’s probably Justin Turner, since Rojas has options. There’s a pretty significant issue with that: Hanley Ramirez‘ health. There have been a few extended periods with Ramirez on the bench but not on the disabled list this season, and if the team carries one reserve infielder that would be an extreme issue. If a situation comes up like what happened before the all-star break, there would be nobody who could back up second, short, or third in case of another injury. That doesn’t work.

If the Dodgers reduce the bullpen down to six pitchers, it would allow the team to continue carrying two reserve infielders while calling up Pederson. The bullpen currently has eight relievers, but will likely be shrunk to seven once Josh Beckett returns. In order to get the bullpen down to six pitchers the Dodgers would need to make two moves. The first theoretical transaction is easy: parting ways with Chris Perez. The second transaction should probably be doing the same with Paul Maholm, but the Dodgers will probably hold onto him because it sounds like Beckett’s hip issues aren’t going away fully this season. Maholm is a replacement-level pitcher at this point, and so is Red Patterson, so the injury shouldn’t stop them from DFAing Maholm. But it will, and the team would probably just option Paco Rodriguez if they shrink the bullpen to six pitchers. They’ll probably do that before touching Chris Perez, unfortunately. Mike has been calling for a reduction to six relievers for a long time, and I agree with him, but I just don’t expect Ned Colletti to actually do it.

Since the Dodgers aren’t going to reduce the bullpen size, that leaves us with a reduction in the total number of outfielders. That probably happens in a trade, but it won’t happen overnight. The other scenario is for an injury to cause another outfielder to be placed on the disabled list, which leads us to tonight’s lineup. Yasiel Puig is on the bench after being hit on the hand yesterday. X-Rays were negative, but he’s sitting since his hand is swollen and sore. At this point, Puig’s health and Pederson’s roster spot are tied directly together. With Puig out, the Dodgers have put Scott Van Slyke in center field, with Andre Ethier in right field and Matt Kemp in left. Spin the wheel, I guess.

At least there’s Clayton Kershaw.

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