Julio Urias, Chris Anderson among first camp cuts

The Dodgers on Saturday reassigned Chris Anderson, Ryan Buchter, Josh Ravin and Julio Urias to minor-league camp. The four were not on the 40-man roster and had almost not shot of making the club out of spring training.

With minor-leaguers having just reported, they’ll join them on the back fields and play intrasquad games and games against other MLB teams’ minor-leaguers.

Urias, 18, had folks buzzing last year in his one start, and expectations were really high — unfairly, really. But he struggled in his outing on Wednesday against the Cubs (1/3 inning, 3 hits, 1 run). That likely influenced the Dodgers’ decision to send him back to minor-league camp, but it was inevitable. He was throwing his fastball a lot, but not locating it well. Fastball command is the “weakest” part of his game. Once he gets that down, he’ll be golden.

Anderson appeared in two games (3 innings) and held his own. He had a strong close to his 2014 season in Rancho Cucamonga and will head to the Tulsa rotation. This is a big season for the 2013 1st-round draft pick.

Buchter, despite battling control issues throughout his minor-league career (6.1 walks per nine innings in his career), did not issue a walk in his three spring innings. Unless he is released or has an opt-out, the left-hander should find himself in the Oklahoma City bullpen.

Ravin caught some folks off guard when he touched 100 MPH late in 2014. But a big fastball alone isn’t enough to stick around. He’s similar to Buchter as he battled control/command issues in his MiLB career. He was perfect in 2 2/3 innings (4 strikeouts), so his reassignment was a little surprising. I didn’t think he’d beat out guys like Sergio Santos or David Huff, but I thought he might hang around a little longer.

#tonying

Josh Ravin is literally going to be the Seth Rosin of last year, all the way down to the jersey number, but minus the Rule 5-ness.

— Dustin Nosler (@DustinNosler) March 8, 2015

Seems I was a little premature — and a lot wrong — on that prediction.

These guys will probably see at least one or two more spring training games later in the month, as teams bring up guys from the minor-league side to make sure there are enough players (it’s how Urias made his Cactus League debut last year).