Los Angeles Dodgers Top 10 Prospects for 2022 Fantasy Baseball

The Dodgers are the type of team you need to track all the way down the chain in dynasty leagues. An early foot in the door on the next pop-up infielder leads to a quick value return that leads to an earlier foot the next time around. I’ve long thought you might do best in dynasty leagues to basically ignore half the teams and zero in on the best ones. You cannot have too many Dodgers or Rays in your minors. 

Format: Position Player | Age on 4/1/2022 | Highest level played | ETA

1. C Diego Cartaya | 20 | A | 2023

I’m pretty down on catching prospects in general, and I’m not unique in that, but Cartaya is an exception to the rule. He’s also an example that kinda proves the rule in that he was probably pretty cheap until the moment before he popped, a little like Gabriel Moreno in early 2021. Cartaya is as much a DH prospect as anything, and that’s not a knock on his defensive skills but a hope that the team will open a path that lets his bat race to the big leagues with the hope that the catching can, umm, catch up later. In 31 A ball games, Cartaya smoked 10 home runs and slashed .298/.409/.614. If I have any worries, they’re about his 6’3” 219 lb build handling a full workload behind the plate, but he wouldn’t be the first big catcher to make it work, and being on deep Dodger teams with the DH option should help sustain him.

2. 3B Miguel Vargas | 22 | AA | 2022 

I’ve been trying to trade for Vargas in several of my leagues for a long time, and I’m not giving up now. In 83 AA games, the 6’3” 205 lb Vargas slashed .321/.386/.523 with 16 HR and 7 SB. Math isn’t my first language, but that would prorate out to an acceptable fantasy campaign, I think. His best trait is a double-plus hit tool that lets his solid power play up.

3. SS Eddys Leonard | 21 | A+ | 2023

I’m probably a little high on Leonard–not in the psilocybin sense but in the sense that I might be siphoning some profit for readers by putting the cart (value) before the horse (time), particularly on August 8 in Prospect News: If I Were Eddys Leonard, Would You Like Me Any Better?

Here comes me quoting me: 

“Los Angeles (NL) SS Eddys Leonard is enjoying a season as smooth as slow-churned Rocky Road. Recently promoted to High A, Leonard’s full season slash line is .292/.398/.540 with 15 HR and 7 SB, most of that as a 20-year-old in Low A. If he performs well over this final month in High A, he could open next year as a 21-year-old in AA. You probably can’t add Toronto heat wave Orelvis Martinez, but Leonard is having a similar season at a similar age and could be had for a minimum bid in most dynasty leagues. He’s already inside my Top 100 and would leap up the list with a hot August.”

Over that final month 41 games in High-A, Leonard slashed .299/.375/.530 with 8 HR and 3 SB. This ain’t Clark’s cousin Eddie, but he might become the gift that keeps on giving the whole year. 

4. OF Andy Pages | 21 | A+ | 2023

Razzball readers helped me get a better read on Pages, who I had bucketed as a fairly standard swing-and-miss corner type coming into 2021, when Pages flipped the script by cutting his K rate from 28.3% to 24.5% and increasing his walk rate from 9.3% to 14.3%. These improved swing decisions manifested in 31 HR and a .394 OBP in 120 games. A leap like this makes sense: Pages has always been young for his level, and his power has always come easily. Could be a monster if his approach continues to improve.

5. OF Jose Ramos | 21 | A | 2024

Ramos embodies the strong-org strategy in dynasty baseball, as he popped early enough to be added in just about any sized league, but you had to be zeroing in on the Dodgers to some extent to notice it in time to add him because you won’t be alone in the strong-org strategy. Some teams’ prospects don’t rise in the ranks like others, and that’s just the media side that’s been well earned on the field in most cases. Ramos is a rare dude who has a chance to be 60 hit, 60 power, 60 run at peak. Invest accordingly.

6. SS Wilman Diaz | 18 | DSL | 2025

Diaz took a minute to get settled in, so I’m not sure we caught a glimpse of what he can be, but he did hit .295 over his final seven games, so at least we saw some uptick for the top international bat from from the 2021 amateur class who slashed .235/.309/.353 across 24 games. If that tiny stretch created any kind of buying opportunity in your dynasty league, I’d spin the wheel. Diaz stole eight bases even while struggling against older players. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the last time we see him over-matched.

7. 2B Michael Busch | 24 | AA | 2022

Busch looked a little tipsy early in 2021 but sobered up by the second half and slashed .300/.401/.558 with 14 over his final 62 games and .339/.415/.620 over his final 30. A 6’1” 210 lb lefty hitter who’s right handed in the field, Busch was drafted 31st overall for his bat in 2019. He’s been playing mostly at 2B, where he would be a boon for our purposes if he can handle the keystone at the fastest level.

8. 2B Jorbit Vivas | 21 | A+ | 2023

In 23 games at High-A to close the season, Vivas slashed .318/.422/.424 on the strength of a 12.7%/12.7% K/BB rate, which was just a continuation of his work in Low A, when the 5’11” 171 lb middle infielder slashed .311/.389/.515 with 13 HR and 5 SB in 83 games. Vivas features excellent hands in the box that should help him make the most of his time with one of the best development staffs in the business.

9. RHP Bobby Miller | 22 | AA | 2022

Miller has a 9.90 ERA in five outings in the Arizona Fall League, but that’s not enough to knock him off this list, partly because he represents the top of this tier. In a system this deep, we could always find another couple bats to fill the back end, but when a pitcher breaks through for the Dodgers, they become must-adds in just about every fantasy league. Miller has great stuff and spin that got him selected 29th overall in 2020. Home runs have been an issue against the best competition he’s faced, but he’ll likely manage that better as he gets comfortable. If not, he’ll join the post-Kenley closer circle.

10. OF Luis Rodriguez | 19 | CPX | 2025

Rodriguez and Wilman Diaz should give us an interesting window into the power of this development team. Diaz has innate contact abilities and mostly just needs to add strength and make better swing decisions. Rodriguez swings in two parts, a little like Leonel Valera, a prospect I like quite a bit. The base-then-hands approach kept me a little chilly on Andy Pages, and I hope to avoid that mistake with Rodriguez. All the same, I’d like to see him prove it on the field. His approach sort of devolved in 2021, as he found himself missing a lot so stopped swinging so hard and wound up with an empty second month as a pro, slashing .200/.304/.269 with 1 HR over his final 26 games after slashing .226/.349/.453 with 7 HR in his first 28 contests. Sample-size caveats aplenty here, but we will need to see better contact from Rodriguez moving forward if he’s going to swallow up a roster spot in just about every dynasty thanks to his pedigree on signing day.

Thanks for reading!

I’m @theprospectitch on Twitter.