Elbert, Frias Make Dodgers NLDS Roster

It wouldn’t be the Dodgers if they didn’t inexplicably drag out the playoff roster until the last possible second — last year, it took more than 30 minutes after the deadline for the roster to come out — but finally, we have it. Your 25-man roster to face the Cardinals in the NLDS is…

Hitters (13)

C: A.J. Ellis, Drew Butera
IF: Adrian Gonzalez, Dee Gordon, Hanley Ramirez, Juan Uribe, Justin Turner, Miguel Rojas
OF: Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig, Carl Crawford, Andre Ethier, Scott Van Slyke

Pitchers (12)

SP: Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Hyun-jin Ryu, Dan Haren
RP: Kenley Jansen, J.P. Howell, Brian Wilson, Brandon League, Pedro Baez, Jamey Wright, Carlos Frias, Scott Elbert

So! This is interesting. As my first prediction suggested, they took 12 pitchers. However, that Elbert made it over Paco Rodriguez is indeed a surprise, and makes me wonder if there’s something wrong with Rodriguez that we don’t know about. Elbert was fine in his brief return to the bigs, but never dominating. It’s a fun story after his last two years, of course. It’s just more than a little surprising.

A milder surprise is that Darwin Barney didn’t make it, because over the final few days of the season, he sure seemed like he was impressing people. No, there was never a case to take him over Rojas; if you want to say Barney is a “better” hitter, fine, but that doesn’t make him “good,” and Rojas is clearly the superior shortstop option. Personally, I find Frias overrated, but he’s a decent long man option should the Dodgers need one, especially with Ryu at least a bit of a question mark.

The most important part, obviously, is that Chris Perez, Roberto Hernandez, and Kevin Correia are nowhere to be found. Not that they were expected to be, of course; it’s still nice to see it. No Joc Pederson, either, though that was never likely.

Should the Dodgers move on to the NLCS, they can make changes between series. (This happened last year, when Edinson Volquez (!) and Carlos Marmol (!!) made the NLCS roster after not having been on the NLDS roster.) If a player is injured during a series, he can be replaced immediately, but he’s then ineligible to play in the next series, making it a risky maneuver for anything that’s not a severe injury.

We’ll do a quick predictions post in a bit. Then, hey: let’s baseball.