The Dodgers just cannot help themselves from signing everybody this offseason!
When you sign seemingly every dominant pitcher on the open market, you need a whole lot of guys to catch their bullpens during spring training — and they just added back one of those players.
\Chris Okey last played in the majors for the Los Angeles Angels in 2023, and for the second straight year has signed a minor league contract for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The catcher was a second round draft choice by the Cincinnati Reds back in 2016, was released by them mid-season in 2022, picked up with the Angels for a year, and will now work with some of the best pitchers in the world during LAD’s spring training.
In 63 games with the Salt Lake Bees, Okey turned in the best offensive statistics of his career. Granted, the majority of his production at the plate came at the hitter-friendly confines of Smith’s Ballpark in SLC, as his road splits that year were pretty in-line with the rest of his career.
Former Angels Update: The Dodgers have re-signed Catcher Chris Okey to a minor league deal with an invitation to Spring Training. Okey, played for the Angels in 2023. pic.twitter.com/5PKN7gTJCd
— Angels News (@AngelsNews27) January 25, 2025
Okey is a great guy to have in a clubhouse and works well with his pitching staffs. He will spend spring training catching the Dodgers’ endless list of top-tier pitchers alongside 40-man catchers Will Smith, Austin Barnes, Hunter Feduccia, as well as the Dodgers’ top position player prospect — Dalton Rushing. LAD signed another catcher named Griffin Lockwood-Powell too.
Not you, Diego Cartaya. Whether he makes it to AAA Oklahoma City will remain to be seen, he slashed an unimpressive .236/.282/.327/.609 in OKC last season.
The Dodgers have to add insult to injury by flaunting Angels legend, Chris Okey, in front of our faces while they are en route to another dominant season! Who among us could possibly forget his two games played with the Halos in 2023? Those two strikeouts in his only two Angels plate appearances were as memorable as they come.
So first they steal Shohei Ohtani, and now Okey? Wow.
Ohtani and Okey must have made quite the connection as battery mates during Okey’s Angels debut on May 9th, 2023 (Ohtani did ball out that game en route to a 3-1 loss to Houston).
The only way for an attempt at retribution is for the Angels to sign Jack Flaherty or take Ryan Brasier off their hands.
As if the Dodgers don’t have enough! Acquiring Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, Teoscar Hernández Tommy Edman, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Michael Conforto, Hyeseong Kim, Roki Sasaki, Tanner Scott, and Kirby Yates in a little over a year’s span wasn’t enough?
