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PHOENIX — The Dodgers made a quartet of roster movers after Monday’s win over the Athletics at Camelback Ranch, sending four players to the minor league side.
Pitchers a Adam Liberatore and Dylan Baker were optioned, and non-roster infielders Jake Peter and Donovan Solano were reassigned to minor league camp.
This leaves the Dodgers with 34 players in major league camp, though with injuries to Julio Urias, Tom Koehler and now Justin Turner the number is effectively 31. In other words, just six roster moves left to go to get to the opening day roster.
The injury to Justin Turner didn’t affect the decision to send Peter down.
“I don’t think Justin’s injury changed anything,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We wanted Jake to go down and get consistent playing time, but do we see Jake potentially helping us this year? Absolutely. But right now we just don’t have him active, with or without Justin on the roster.”
Liberatore allowed three home runs in Cactus League play but has been healthy after he was limited to just 17 innings between the majors and minors in 2017 with an elbow strain.
“I feel a lot better now. I was able to go through a full, normal offseason where I got to get some good throwing in. The year before I was coming off of an elbow cleanup at the end of the season and I just tried to get ready for spring training but obviously I wasn’t,” Liberatore said earlier in camp. “I got a lot more down this offseason and I’m feeling good. The ball is coming out a lot better right now.”
Baker missed a few weeks with lat tightness but has been working with pitching coach Rick Honeycutt and Mark Prior to refine his mechanics. Baker was limited by injuries to just 74 total minor league innings over the last four seasons.
“It definitely sucks with all the injuries that I’ve had. But I can get through it like I have before. I want to pitch more and I want to been healthy and not feel anything every day,” Baker said last week. “That’s kind of been the thing for me the last few years. I think I’m on the right track, I’m not really worried about it.”