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It’s not just opening week for the majors this week. Minor league baseball gets its start this week as well. The bulk of the teams start Friday, including both Dodgers’ Class-A affiliates and Double-A Tulsa. But the Pacific Coast League — yes, the proper league name is back — begins on Tuesday night, giving the Oklahoma City Dodgers the stage first.
Oklahoma City unveiled its preliminary roster on Monday. It includes Miguel Vargas, one of the Dodgers’ top prospects, but it’s unclear if he will be with the Triple-A team on Tuesday as he played in the major league Freeway Series exhibition at Dodger Stadium.
OKC starts its season at home against the Albuquerque Isotopes, with Tuesday night’s 5:05 p.m. PT start the first of a six-game series against the Rockies affiliate. Six-game series are the norm throughout minor league baseball. Monday is the standard weekly off day for Triple-A. For Oklahoma City, the two exceptions are July 4, when the home series against Las Vegas was moved up a day to play on the holiday (followed by two off days in a row on July 10-11), and September 26, with a three-game series against Las Vegas to close out the 150-game regular season schedule.
The most comprehensive way to follow the minors is through MILB.tv, a paid subscription service which has streaming video of most games, including every game for Oklahoma City.
You can also listen live to every minor league game for free through Gameday Audio.
In addition to watching or listening to OKC games, there are a few folks on Twitter worth following for information about the team:
- Alex Freedman (@azfreedman) is the team’s play-by-play broadcaster
- Lisa Johnson (@lcolonnojohnson) is the communications manager for OKC
- Jacob Unruh (@jacobunruh) is a sportswriter at The Oklahoman who covers the team in addition to many other sports. Here is his overview of the team and upcoming season from Monday.
- The Oklahoma City Dodgers team account is @okc_dodgers.
In December, the OKC Dodgers were sold to Diamond Baseball Holdings, a subsidiary of Endeavor, who purchased several minor league teams this offseason. That ended the seven-year run of the Triple-A team being owned by a partnership comprised of half Dodgers ownership and half Mandalay Bay Properties, the latter which itself was headed by Dodgers co-owner Peter Guber.
Oklahoma City has a 10-year affiliate agreement with the Dodgers that runs through 2030.
Travis Barbary has managed Oklahoma City since 2019, and his staff in 2022 includes returnees Manny Burriss (hitting coach) and Justin DeFratus (bullpen coach). Pitching coach Dave Borkowski joins OKC after four years with Double-A Tulsa, and Paul Fornier joined the organization as performance coach for Oklahoma City, along with a new training staff. Former minor league catcher Juan Apodaca, who played in the Dodgers organization from 2005-2007, retired as a player, joining OKC as bench coach.
Oklahoma City is in the East Division of the Pacific Coast League, which also includes Albuquerque, the Sugar Land Skeeters (Astros), Round Rock Express (Rangers), and El Paso Chihuahuas (Padres). Since becoming a Dodgers affiliate, Oklahoma City has reached the playoffs in 2015, 2016, and 2018, including advanced to the PCL Finals in 2016.
Ryan Pepiot, who ended last season in Triple-A, starts opening day for Oklahoma City on Tuesday night. Here is the full opening day roster.
In addition to listening to OKC games using MiLB Gameday Audio, their games are streamed live on 1340 The Game.
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