Hyeseong Kim, Bobby Miller optioned as Dodgers reassign players to minor league camp
- Share via
PHOENIX — The Dodgers will board their charter flight for Japan early Wednesday but as of Tuesday night, they hadn’t released a list of the 31 players who will be on that plane.
Manager Dave Roberts wouldn’t even say if he was taking 16 pitchers and 15 field players or whether it was the other way around.
“It’s one of those two combinations,” he said.
But the team did release a list of players who won’t be going after sending seven players to the team’s minor league camp.
The Dodgers reached the end of Cactus League play Tuesday, with Roki Sasaki posting four scoreless innings before the team headed to Japan to open the season next week.
The two biggest names on the list were right-hander Bobby Miller, who had been expected to fight for the fifth spot in the starting rotation, and infielder/outfielder Hyeseong Kim, who entered the spring among the favorites for the starting job at second base. Both were optioned.
Miller didn’t appear in a game after being hit by a line drive 11 pitches into his first appearance. Kim played in 15 games but hit .207 in 29 at-bats, striking out 11 times. Only four players had more at-bats than Kim, who appeared at second base, shortstop and center field.
“He’s going to stay here. He’s going to continue to log at-bats,” Roberts said of Kim, who will begin the season at triple A. “The last four games have been really good for him. He looks much more comfortable at bat. The defense has been really good, and it was good to see him in center field.
“We feel that it’s most important for him to stay here, take at-bats, playing games to help him get ready for the season.”
The five non-roster invitees the Dodgers reassigned to minor league camp were right-hander Giovanny Gallegos, catcher Dalton Rushing, infielders David Bote and Michael Chavis and outfielder Eddie Rosario.
