The Casparius Chronicles: A 2024 Review of a…

Ben Casparius started the season with a Double-A start in Springdale, Arkansas, and ended it on the mound at Yankee Stadium, pitching in a World Series game. That’s one hell of a ride in 2024 for the right-hander.

The Dodgers drafted Casparius in the fifth round in 2021 out of UConn, and he worked his way through the minors for the next three years. He finished 2023 in Double-A Tulsa, but took his lumps in his first go around in the Texas League with a 6.62 ERA in 70⅔ innings and 15 home runs allowed.

His rocket to the majors accelerated this year by limiting the long balls, permitting only six all year long between Tulsa, Triple-A Oklahoma City, and the Dodgers, totaling 103⅓ innings including the postseason. The major league postseason.

Dodgers pitching injuries piled up through the year, necessitating roster churn, and it created opportunities at the upper levels of the minors. It took just five starts with Tulsa, with a 3.32 ERA and 36-percent strikeout rate, for Casparius to get promoted to Oklahoma City, and he had a 3.36 ERA there too.

Just about the only setback for Casparius came in the form of an oblique injury that sidelined him from mid-June to mid-July. He returned strong from that missed time with four of his next six outings scoreless.

Casparius first got called up to the Dodgers on August 18 for potential coverage, but wasn’t used in he three days on the active roster. He was back two weeks later and made his major league debut on August 31 against the Diamondbacks, who led the majors in runs scored this season. This was a particular crazy game and series at Chase Field in Phoenix, and Casparius was tasked with pitching the bottom of the eighth inning in a 6-6 game.

He retired all three batters faced on balls to the outfield, then earned the win when the Dodgers rallied for two runs in the top of the ninth.

In all, Casparius had four stints on the active roster over the final six weeks and he got into three games, with a 2.16 ERA and 12 strikeouts in his 8⅓ innings. He got the win in two of them.

Casparius was pitching well enough that he earned a spot on the roster for both the NLCS and World Series. He even got the start in Game 4 of the Fall Classic, though he was more of a first pitcher of a planned bullpen game. He walked three but kept New York to one run over his two innings. It was just the seventh major league game for Casparius, and his first major league start.

In all, it was an impressive run for Casparius, making his mark in the majors after starting in Double-A.

2024 particulars

Age: 25

Stats: 7 games in regular season and postseason, 3-0 1.84 ERA, 14⅔ IP, 17 K, 9 BB

Salary: $63,656 in the majors (the $740,000 minimum salary, pro-rated for his 16 days of service time); Casparius is one of a few Dodgers for whom the postseason share will far outpace his total regular season pay.

Game of the year

With no Alex Vesia during the NLCS with an oblique injury, the Dodgers didn’t have as full a complement of higher-leverage relievers as they did in their masterful NLDS Game 4 bullpen game triumph in San Diego. That meant an opportunity for Casparius, who was the second of seven Dodgers pitchers in the Game 6 bullpen game against the Mets.

Casparius worked around a two-out single and walk to pitch a scoreless second, then got another out in the third inning with nothing charged to his ledger.

Casparius was credited with the win in the pennant-clinching game, joining a select list of Dodgers to win a pennant-winning playoff game — Don Sutton (1974), Tommy John (1977), Terry Forster (1978), Fernando Valenzuela (1981), Orel Hershiser (1988), Clayton Kershaw (2017), Ryan Madson (2018), and Julio Urías (2020).

Roster status

Casparius has 16 days of major league service time and two option years remaining. One would imagine he’ll be in the mix to start some games for the Dodgers in 2025.