It is Opening Day in Major League Baseball. The 2024 MLB season technically began in Seoul, South Korea, where the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres split a dramatic two-game series last week. Nevertheless, all 30 teams will have played at least one regular-season contest by tomorrow night.
Several prospects, notably Wyatt Langford and Jackson Chourio, will make their Major League debuts later today. Like New York Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe last year, both will get to sport a small patch on the side of their jersey indicating they are playing in their first Big League game. 25-year-old right-handed pitcher Ben Casparius is one individual who could also don that patch this season.
Casparius, Perfect Game’s No. 1 player in the state of Connecticut in 2017, began his collegiate career at the University of North Carolina. The 2017 Connecticut Gatorade Player of the Year went 1-0 with a 1.69 ERA and a save in 10 games as a freshman. His sophomore slump in 2019 resulted in a 4.41 ERA in 16.1 innings.
Part of the expectation when Casparius transferred to UConn was that he would be a two-way player for the program. That never occurred, but the Westport native emerged as the Huskies’ ace in 2021 after sitting out the COVID-19-shortened 2020 campaign due to NCAA transfer rules.
Casparius had five starts with 10+ strikeouts and pitched into the fifth inning all but once that season and four where he fired at least seven shutout frames. Notably, the Westport native silenced the Creighton Bluejays in the Big East Tournament semifinals on May 29 and picked up his first win with eight scoreless frames on March 5. Casparius’ 127 strikeouts were the second most in one season at the time behind Colin McLaughlin, who had 138 in 1979 (Austin Peterson broke the record with 147 in 2022).
Los Angeles selected the All-Big East Second Team member with the 162nd pick in the fifth round of the 2021 MLB draft. Casparius started seven games for the Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes in 2022, striking out at least seven batters in his last three outings. By June 1, he was starting games for the High-A Great Lakes Loons. The 2021 fifth-round pick split the rest of the 2022 season either starting the game or coming out of the bullpen. Despite his 1-4 record in Midland, Mich., he struck out 67 hitters in 60 innings while allowing 32 walks.
Casparius had just one quality start for the Loons in 2023, striking out five in six shutout innings against the Dayton Dragons on April 14. The Westport native struck out at least three hitters in his eight starts, earning a promotion to the Double-A Tulsa Drillers of the Texas League on May 25. Although he had his ups and downs — he went 2-7 in 18 games — Casparius struck out 76 batters in 70.2 innings.
No two-game stretch shows a higher potential for the 2021 First Team Northeast All-Region selection than his consecutive starts against the Northwest Arkansas Naturals. Between those two starts, Casparius struck out 10 batters in 10.2 innings while allowing just one unearned run. He earned the win in both of those starts.
The 6-foot-2 righty will likely begin his fourth Minor League season in Tulsa next week. A promotion to the Oklahoma City Baseball Club might not be far away.
There is a slight catch: MLB.com does not list Casparius in the Dodgers’ current top 30 prospect rankings. Eight right-handed pitchers and four southpaws are listed in that poll. Some of the notable arms ahead of the Westport native include Gavin Stone, Kyle Hurt, Los Angeles’ No. 2 prospect Nick Frasso, Landon Knack and River Ryan.
Both Hurt and Stone have pitched a combined 10 career games (and made four total starts) in the big leagues. Frasso had offseason shoulder surgery in November that could sideline him for most of this year. Ryan possesses three quality pitches that opposing batters can have difficulty attacking. Knack, meanwhile, displays remarkable composure and was one of five players who made 10+ starts for Oklahoma City last season. The rest are either not with the organization anymore or will likely spend most of this year in the big leagues.
Even though the Pacific Coast League champions had several other starting arms, including Emmet Sheehan and Ryan Pepiot, they will need some consistent members for this year’s rotation. When the time comes, perhaps soon, Casparius taking one of those regular spots should not come as a surprise.
Should the 2021 Big East All-Tournament Team pitcher handle most Triple-A hitters he faces, there is a chance he could get called up to the Major Leagues at some point this season.
Part of the reason that could happen is because of Los Angeles’ current pitching depth, something that plagued them in last year’s National League Division Series. The Dodgers addressed it during the offseason with notable acquisitions Yoshinobu Yamamoto, James Paxton and Tyler Glasnow, but there are several other arms out of action with injuries. Sheehan is dealing with forearm inflammation; two are recovering from Tommy John surgery; Clayton Kershaw and Dustin May are coming off other surgeries.
With how loaded the Dodgers’ rotation is, even amidst their injury woes, the 25-year-old righty will get reps in the bullpen should he get promoted. Given his devastating slider and varied success as a starter in the minor leagues, Casparius will probably be a middle reliever.
Los Angeles has a handful of arms that will begin the year on the injured list but return and make an impact as the season progresses. That might cause a logjam for several minor league pitchers hoping to fulfill their dreams. If Casparius maintains a strong start to the year through the summer and further develops his fastball, one of those 13 big-league pitching spots could belong to him.