Dodgers invite Eliezer Alfonzo, Ramon Castro to spring training

The Dodgers have signed a few more players to minor league contracts with invitations to spring training as non-roster invitees to major league camp.

The catchers that will join Wilkin Castillo in competition with Tim Federowicz for the backup backstop job are Eliezer Alfonzo and Ramon Castro. Alfonzo, who turns 34 in February, hit .361/.390/.736 with 15 home runs in 39 games for the Diablos Rojos in the Mexican League in 2011. His last major league action came in 2011 with the Rockies, with whom he hit .267/.304/.320 in 25 games.

Alfonzo was suspended for 100 games for a positive drug test at the end of the 2011 season, but upon appeal had the suspension dropped after he had served 48 games.

Castro, who turns 37 in March, hit .235/.307/.436 in 23 games with the White Sox in 2011.

Matt Palmer, who turns 34 in March, looks like a candidate for the starting rotation in Triple-A Albuquerque. The right-hander was 6-9 with a 5.66 ERA in 21 games, including 20 starts for Triple-A Tucson in 2012, with 64 strikeouts and 42 walks in 98⅔ innings. He also pitched three games in relief for the Padres in May, and allowed two runs in two innings.

Third baseman Brian Barden rounds out the list. Barden, who turns 32 in April, played for the Hiroshima Carp for the last two years and has mostly played third base. He last played in the majors in 2010 with the Marlins, and hit .179/.281/.179 (5-for-28) in 35 games.

The list of non-roster invitees has been updated.