{"id":122981,"date":"2026-05-28T15:42:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T19:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=122981"},"modified":"2026-05-28T15:42:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T19:42:01","slug":"dodgers-calling-up-top-prospect-to-replace-veteran-outfielder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/05\/28\/dodgers-calling-up-top-prospect-to-replace-veteran-outfielder\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers Calling Up Top Prospect to Replace Veteran Outfielder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Dodgers are calling up outfielder <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=ward--009rya,wardry01,ward--010rya&amp;search=Ryan+Ward&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ryan Ward<\/a>, according to Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. Ward will replace <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hernate01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Teoscar Hernandez<\/a> on the roster. Hernandez strained his hamstring last night against the Colorado Rockies and is going on the Injured List. Ward is already a member of the 40-man roster, so no further move has to be made.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Dodgers will recall Ryan Ward with Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez going on the IL with his hamstring strain, a source tells The Athletic.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FabianArdaya\/status\/2060029733795160462?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 28, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Dodgers Calling Up Top Prospect to Replace Veteran Outfielder<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/ef6b61d\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5605x3737+0+0\/resize\/1200x800!\/quality\/75\/?url=https:%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F3c%2F59%2F50e2ef9b44dda224cd183c4884a7%2Fdodgers-diamondbacks-spring-baseball-25766.jpg\" alt=\"Why prospect Ryan Ward continues to wait his turn with the Dodgers ...\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This is <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/05\/27\/dodgers-injury-bug-hernandez\/\" target=\"_self\">another blow<\/a> to the Dodgers, who just lost Kike Hernandez to an oblique tear, which could sideline the utility man for months.<\/p>\n<h3>A Second Cup of Coffee<\/h3>\n<p>Ryan Ward has <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/03\/25\/two-dodger-position-prospects\/\" target=\"_self\">been tearing<\/a> it up in Triple-A Oklahoma City for a while now. He was the Pacific Coast League Player of the Year in 2o25. He hit for a batting average of .290 with 36 home runs and 122 runs batted in. In the minors this year, the rookie is hitting .254 with six home runs and 31 R.B.I.&#8217;s. Ward made his major-league debut this year. He had a total of six at-bats with two hits during his abbreviated time with the Dodgers.<\/p>\n<h3>A Question of Depth?<\/h3>\n<p>There have been questions about Ward&#8217;s defense in the past. However, his offensive numbers have been so impressive that he would already be in the majors had he been in another organization. The Dodgers have tremendous depth and a plethora of options at the outfield position. For now, the left-hand hitter will platoon with <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/callal02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alex Call<\/a> and play left field.<\/p>\n<h3>The Butter and Egg Man<\/h3>\n<p>Teoscar Hernandez appeared to have found a version of his &#8220;old&#8221; self recently, after struggling <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/06\/dodgers-teoscar-hernandez-james-outman\/\" target=\"_self\">with injuries<\/a> and other things in 2025. \u00a0The left fielder was hitting .276 with seven homers and had recently driven in six runs in a game, tying a career high. Hernandez is set for more evaluation today, but manager <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=roberda07,roberda05,roberda06,roberda03&amp;search=Dave+Roberts&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dave Roberts<\/a> said it will be a couple of weeks &#8220;at a minimum.&#8221; The veteran was not only swinging a hot bat, he was also showing improved defense in the field.<\/p>\n<p>It seemed, at least for the moment, that the Dodgers were getting healthy. Now they have to deal with a double dose of injuries. It&#8217;s just par for the course in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: <span>Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Dodgers are calling up outfielder Ryan Ward, according to Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. Ward will replace Teoscar Hernandez on the roster. Hernandez strained his hamstring last night against the Colorado Rockies and is going on the Injured List. Ward is already a member of the 40-man roster, so no further move [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5226,"featured_media":123006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,1071],"tags":[28688,2915,29169,1198],"class_list":["post-122981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dodgers","category-mlb","tag-alex-call","tag-kike-hernandez","tag-ryan-ward","tag-teoscar-hernandez"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122981"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123008,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122981\/revisions\/123008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}