Zach Lee, Chris Reed, Scott Schebler added to Dodgers' 40-man roster

LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers on Thursday added three players to the 40-man roster before the deadline to protect players from December's Rule 5 draft. Pitchers Zach Lee and Chris Reed, and outfielder Scott Schebler were promoted.

Players eligible to be picked in the Rule 5 draft — held on Dec. 11 at the Winter Meetings in San Diego — are minor league players not on the 40-man roster who were 18 or younger on June 5 of their draft/acquisition year in their fifth Rule 5 draft, or 19 or older when drafted/signed and in their fourth Rule 5 draft. Essentially, those newly eligible this year are high school draft picks from 2010 and college picks from 2011.

Lee was drafted in the first round by the Dodgers in 2010, and with the leverage of a scholarship to play quarterback at LSU was signed to a club-record $5.25-million bonus. The right-hander, who turned 23 in September, had a rough year in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League in 2014, at 7-13 with a 5.38 ERA in 28 games, including 27 starts. After setting a career high with a 22.8-percent strikeout rate in Double-A Chattanooga in 2013, Lee saw that number plummet to 14.5 percent in 2014, the worst of his career.

But it wasn't just the moon-like elevation of Albuquerque that caused Lee to suffer in 2014. His road ERA was 6.25 in 14 starts in the Pacific Coast League, and he allowed opposing batters to hit .304/.377/.422 away from home.

Reed, another first-round pick - in 2011 out of Stanford - was 4-11 with a 4.26 ERA in 28 starts between Double-A Chattanooga and Triple-A Albuquerque in 2014, with 134 strikeouts and 66 walks in 158⅓ innings. It looked like Reed was making a home in Tennessee, with the better parts of three seasons and 64 games, including 59 starts, in Double-A, but he finally got the call to Triple-A to end 2014, making five starts for the Isotopes in August.

Whether Reed's major league future is as a starter or reliever, the southpaw has done well against left-handed batters in his career, holding them to .220/.318/.319 in four minor league seasons with a 25-percent strikeout rate. Reed, like Lee, was in big league camp with the Dodgers in 2014 as a non-roster invitee to spring training.

Schebler was drafted in 2010, but in the 26th round, and in the last two years has been a hitting machine. He won the Branch Rickey Minor League Player of the Year award as the top hitter in the Dodgers minor league system in 2013 - Lee won pitching honors that season - and continued that progress at the plate into 2014.

Schebler in 2014 hit .280/.365/.556 with Double-A Chattanooga, with 28 home runs, 23 doubles and 14 triples in 135 games, leading the Southern League in home runs, triples and slugging percentage while finishing second in OPS (.921).

Schebler increased his walk rate each year from 5.3 percent in 2012 with Class-A Great Lakes to 8.0 percent in 2014 in Double-A, and decreased his strikeout rate from 26.2 percent in Class-A Rancho Cucamonga in 2013 to 19.6 percent in 2014.

With the additions, the Dodgers' 40-man roster now has 39 players, including 19 pitchers and 20 position players:

^Guerrero can't be sent to the minors without his consent.