On Friday afternoon, the Dodgers made a few changes to their 40-man roster but, not in the way many fans were hoping to see during this hot stove time. The fate of the top five free agents in the Dodger organization still looms so making a little room on the roster and trimming some pay, should be expected. These moves, however, appear to set up this upcoming offseason, and possibly even more so, to create some room on the roster to protect against the Rule 5 Draft.
As reported in a tweet from the Dodgers Insider magazine, among others, left-handed reliever Scott Alexander, righty reliever Jimmie Sherfy, and infielder Andy Burns are all off the roster after being outrighted.
The roster as it now stands consists of 37 players.
Alexander battled through yet another season of ailments and injuries. The reliever has played in just 132 games during his four seasons with the Dodgers holding onto a somewhat respectable 3.49 ERA. Given that he was due for another pay raise, the move just makes sense.
Unfortunately, Sherfy made just four relief appearances before elbow inflammation ended his 2021 season in July.
Andy Burns only suited up for nine games in the regular season with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was DFA'd and then went back to AAA before being unexpectedly reinstated to the team after a season-ending injury to Justin Turner in the playoffs. Burns went 0 for 2 with two strikeouts over two games in the NLCS.
No word yet if any of these players will be kept within the team, but it's doubtful that occurs. Nonetheless, each is still under team control. Alexander, in particular, may be let go because he was due a raise from his $1 million salary in 2021.
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