This is part of a 30-article series looking at each team’s depth chart headed into spring training. Los Angeles Dodgers Rotation 1. Hiroki Kuroda 2. Clayton Kershaw 3. Chad Billingsley 4. Vicente Padilla 5. James McDonald 6. Eric Stults 7. Scott Elbert 8. Russ Ortiz 9. Charlie Haeger 9. Josh Lindblom 10. Josh Towers 11. John Ely 12. Chris Withrow 13. James Adkins It was a certainty that the Dodgers would add a fourth starter, and they got that done by re-signing Padilla. Now it just remains to be seen whether they’ll also pick up a No. 5. I think McDonald would be just fine in that role, but he could be as valuable while spending another year in the pen. The alternatives are plentiful, but there aren’t really any standouts. I prefer Elbert in the pen. Bullpen 1. Jonathan Broxton 2. George Sherrill 3. Ramon Troncoso 4. Hong-Chih Kuo 5. Ronald Belisario 6. James McDonald 7. Scott Elbert 8. Cory Wade 9. Justin Miller 10. Eric Stults 11. Brent Leach 12. Luis Ayala 13. Scott Dohmann 14. Carlos Monaterios 15. Josh Lindblom 16. Juan Perez 17. Travis Schlichting 18. Javy Guerra 19. Armando Zerpa 20. Kenley Jansen The bullpen will be deep regardless, but extremely so if the Dodgers do ink a fifth starter and let McDonald and Elbert battle it out for relief spots. Broxton, Sherrill, Troncoso, Kuo, Belisario and McDonald all had ERAs of 3.00 or better last year (McDonald was at 4.00 overall, but he came in at 2.72 in his 49 2/3 innings out of the pen).
Catcher 1. Russell Martin 2. A.J. Ellis 3. Lucas May First base 1. James Loney 2. Casey Blake 3. Doug Mientkiewicz 4. John Lindsey Second base 1. Blake DeWitt 2. Jamey Carroll 3. Nick Green 4. Argenis Reyes Third base 1. Casey Blake 2. Blake DeWitt 3. Jamey Carroll 4. Nick Green 5. Angel Berroa Shortstop 1. Rafael Furcal 2. Ivan DeJesus 3. Nick Green 4. Chin-Lung Hu DeWitt is supposed to get a chance to be the full-time second baseman, but it’d make sense to have Carroll start over him against lefties. Green will probably have the edge on the other utility slot, given that the Dodgers don’t seem to be as high on Hu as they once were. DeJesus won’t be a candidate for a utility role, but he just might take over as the starting shortstop if anything happens to Furcal. Left field 1. Manny Ramirez 2. Xavier Paul 3. Jason Repko 4. Michael Restovich Center field 1. Matt Kemp 2. Jason Repko 3. Xavier Paul 4. Brian Barton Right field 1. Andre Ethier 2. Xavier Paul 3. Jason Repko 4. Michael Restovich If the Dodgers add another bat, it will probably be a veteran fourth outfielder. They’d be OK with Repko and Paul in reserve, but odds are that someone will fall into their price range. That’d set it up so that Repko and Paul would battle for one spot. Paul is the fantasy sleeper of the two, but the Dodgers won’t want to keep him in the majors unless they know they’ll be able to find him at-bats.
