Dodgers To Select Eliezer Alfonzo Jr.

The Dodgers are set to select the contract of catcher Eliezer Alfonzo Jr. from Triple-A, according to reporter Georgeny Perez and El Extrabase’s Daniel Alvarez-Montes.  Los Angeles already has an open space for Alfonzo on its 40-man roster, and The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya reports that catcher Chuckie Robinson is being optioned to Triple-A to make room on the 26-man roster.

Alfonzo will be making his MLB debut whenever he appears in a game.  The 26-year-old is a veteran of nine minor league seasons, all in the Tigers farm system before he joined the Dodgers as a minor league free agent this past winter.  The catcher will continue his family’s baseball history, as his father Eliezer Sr. was a big league backstop with four different clubs from 2006-11.

Over 190 plate appearances with Triple-A Oklahoma City, Alfonzo has hit .313/.392/.422 with one home run.  This is an improvement over his prior career numbers in the minors, and it could be that the move to the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League has helped Alfonzo to some extent, though he has delivered some solid batting averages and on-base number in the past.

Will Smith‘s neck problems have led the Dodgers to dig deeper than expected into the team’s catching depth chart.  Robinson’s contract was selected a few weeks ago when Smith was first placed on the 10-day injured list, and Robinson has appeared in only eight games (and received 26 PA) while Dalton Rushing has gotten the bulk of the catching work.  Rushing should continue to operate as the starter now that Alfonzo is up, and Smith has started throwing and hitting in the batting cages, as Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told the California Post’s Jack Harris and other reporters yesterday.