The Los Angeles Dodgers have perhaps the most loaded pitching depth chart in Major League Baseball, but they also know how quickly that depth can erode.
In each of their past two seasons, the Dodgers have weathered all sorts of pitching injuries, and in both cases, they managed to navigate their way to World Series championships. Stars like Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Blake Snell were vital to those playoff runs, but in both cases, unlikely heroes played pivotal roles down the stretch.
It’s far too early to project who those heroes will be, but every pitcher the Dodgers add on a minor-league contract at this time of year could wind up becoming important by the end of the season. On Thursday, Ryder Ryan became a candidate to eventually earn that distinction.
According to a report from Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic, Ryan and the Dodgers agreed to a minor-league contract that will pay $800,000 if the right-hander makes the major league roster.
Ryan, 30, is the older brother of Dodgers top prospect River Ryan, who had a stellar four-game debut in the majors in 2024 before undergoing Tommy John surgery. Both Ryans should be ready to compete for spots on the Opening Day roster in spring training.
The elder Ryan, who spent the last two seasons in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, has just 16 games of major league experience under his belt. With the Pirates in 2024 and the Seattle Mariners in 2023, he posted a 5.40 ERA with 19 strikeouts in 21 2/3 innings.
Los Angeles is one of the top pitching labs in the sport, so Ryan’s past struggles to break through at the major league level might not matter if the organization discovers the right tweak to his pitch mix. But it’s also a long shot to break through as a minor-league hurler on a team full of superstars.
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