Welcome to the Blue, Edwin Ríos!

The fruits of their labor is coming to fruition.

As you surely know, the Dodgers have been calling up one prospect after another. There was Matt Beaty... Then Kyle Garlick... Followed by Will Smith... Somewhere along the way Josh Sborz joined the club ... And there was Tony Gonsolin on Wednesday. Today, we learn (via a posting by Ron Cervenka at Think Blue LA) that high-flying prospect Edwin Ríos is here. Per a Dodger press release:

The Los Angeles Dodgers today recalled infielder Edwin Ríos and selected the contract of left-handed pitcher Zac Rosscup. To make room on the 25-man roster, the Dodgers optioned pitchers Tony Gonsolin and Caleb Ferguson, while transferring A.J. Pollock to the 60-day injured list to make room on the 40-man roster. 

Ríos, 25, earns his first assignment with the Dodgers and his next game will be his Major League debut. In 70 games with Oklahoma City, he slashed .249/.308/.475 with 14 homers and 48 RBI. In five minor league seasons, he has hit .293 (452-for-1542) with 78 homers and 283 RBI. The Puerto Rican native was originally drafted in the fifth round of the 2015 First Year Player Draft out of Florida International.

You can follow Edwin on twitter here: @Edwin_Rios30. For those of you who follow Dodger prospects closely, Edwin Ríos should be a name you know. Since being drafted he has wowed the scouts. Ríos has legitimate power that should translate to the Majors. Heck, he was more spoken about than Cody Bellinger and Alex Verdugo. Today, he gets his first taste of Major League play.

As for scouting reports, he is currently ranked the Dodgers 12th best at MLB Prospect report:

Scouting grades: Hit: 50 | Power: 55 | Run: 20 | Arm: 55 | Field: 40 | Overall: 50
Rios surged from two homers as a Florida International sophomore to 18 (fourth in NCAA Division I) as a junior in 2015, spurring the Dodgers to select him in the sixth round. He has been one of the system's most productive hitters ever since, slamming 61 homers in his first three full seasons despite missing two months in 2018 with an oblique injury. He stood out with a huge spring in big league camp in 2018, but that still couldn't change the fact that he's blocked in Los Angeles with Max Muncy and Justin Turner at his two best positions. 

Thanks to his strength and solid bat speed, Rios provides left-handed power to all fields and does damage against both southpaws and right-handers. Though he's extremely aggressive and his strikeout rate rose from 21 percent in 2017 to 32 percent last year when he tried to do too much to make up for lost time, his hand-eye coordination generally allows him to make repeated hard contact. He never has walked much but is capable of batting .275 with 25 homers if he gets regular at-bats in the big leagues. 

Though Rios works hard to maintain his conditioning, his lack of speed and quickness limit his value on the bases and in the field. He has spent the majority of his pro career at third base and has enough arm strength for the position, but he has limited range and has been prone to errors there. His best position is first base and he can play an adequate left field but doesn't cover much ground.

In celebration of Edwin joining the Dodgers I made two custom fantasy Baseball cads of him. Check those out at the very top.

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