In addition to teams beginning the 2020 regular season with an expanded roster of 30 players for the first two weeks, Major League Baseball has arranged for each club to assemble a player pool.
It can consist of a maximum of 60 players, and initial lists are due by 1 p.m. PT on Sunday. Only those included in the player pool are eligible to play during the 2020 season.
Teams of course will have their own approaches to setting the player pool, and Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said the organization was still sorting through its options and decisions.
According to Emily Waldon of The Athletic, the Dodgers’ player pool will include pitching prospect Marshall Kasowski:
Source: #Dodgers Marshall Kasowski to be included in taxi squad.
— emilycwaldon (@EmilyCWaldon) June 27, 2020
The Dodgers selected Kasowski out of West Texas A&M University in the 13th round of the 2017 MLB Draft. The right-hander made his professional debut the following year with Rookie-level Arizona League Dodgers.
Kasowski finished the 2017 season with Low-A Great Lakes, and over the past two years has also pitched for High-A Rancho Cucamonga, Double-A Tulsa, returned to the AZL and also participated in the Arizona Fall League.
That the 25-year-old is in position to pitch is somewhat of a miracle. In December 2015 he was involved in a serious accident, first rear-ended and then t-boned. Miraculously, Kasowski was only diagnosed with a concussion, though weeks later doctors discovered his gall bladder was leaking and needed to be removed.
Kasowski has made a full recovery and earned praise for his deceptive pitching. He took a significant leap forward in 2018, averaging 15.4 strikeouts per nine innings. That dipped a bit last season, though still sat at an impressive 14.5.
Kasowski was among the players to receive a non-roster invite to Spring Training from the Dodgers this year.
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