Citing a lack of playing time, the Dodgers have decided to option Blake DeWitt to Triple-A and call up veteran infielder Juan Castro. The move is designed solely to give DeWitt more action on the field rather than playing sporadically with the big club.
In order to make room on the roster, outfielder Delwyn Young has been designated for assignment. That means the Dodgers will have 10 days to trade, release, or waive him. There's been some talk that the Indians, Pirates, and Phillies have interest. He's capable of being a pretty good hitters, but injuries to his oblique and elbow last year have obviously affected him.
Back to DeWitt, and he's only made 1 start this season in 8 games, gathering 6 at-bats total. 6 AB's in 8 games isn't exactly making a young player better, so it's the right move. I speculated a few days ago that with Eric Stults up, perhaps DeWitt would be a candidate to be sent down. Stults' emergence isn't the reason, but I'm not surprised it did happen.
What's interesting to note is that he will not be playing an shortstop in Las Vegas. Rather, he will focus on 2nd base, since he already can play 3rd base. Joe Torre said that if anything happens to Rafael Furcal (like the last 2 seasons), Chin-lung Hu will be his replacement.
As for Castro, he's in his 11th year and was a Dodger way back in 1999. It makes more sense for a veteran like him to sit the bench and make occasional spot starts than DeWitt, mostly because Raffy and Orlando Hudson have shown no signs of slowing down after injury-plagued 2008 seasons. Hopefully it stays that way.
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