The First Five Seasons, Vol. 1 — By the Numbers
This is the first installment of a series that will look back at the first five seasons of affiliation between Oklahoma City and the Los Angeles Dodgers
On Sept. 17, 2014, the Los Angeles Dodgers announced they had reached an agreement to purchase a stake of the Oklahoma City RedHawks franchise and subsequently move their Triple-A affiliate to OKC. Less than three months later, the team was rebranded as the Oklahoma City Dodgers.
In the five seasons that have ensued, the team has produced a myriad of wins and budding superstars at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. While we wait for the 2020 season to begin, we’ll take a look back at the first five years of the Dodgers’ affiliation in Oklahoma City, reliving some of the most memorable games, players, moments and more. We start the series by highlighting some notable numbers accumulated over the five seasons.
1 — Future National League MVP
Cody Bellinger joined the OKC Dodgers near the end of the 2016 regular season and helped the team advance to the PCL Championship Series.
He opened the 2017 season with OKC as well, but in late April he turned what was supposed to be a temporary assignment with the Los Angeles Dodgers due to injuries into a permanent role en route to winning National League Rookie of the Year. This past season Bellinger was named National League MVP, becoming the first former OKC player to win an MVP award since Juan González in 1998 with the Texas Rangers.
2 — Future National League Rookies of the Year
In addition to Bellinger, Corey Seager captured the honor the year prior. OKC’s Triple-A era began in 1962, and between then and 2015, only one player went on to win a MLB Rookie of the Year Award — Neftali Feliz in 2010 with the Texas Rangers. So after 53 years during which just one former OKC player went on to win that award, it then happened in back-to-back seasons. Naturally.
2 — World Series appearances by the Los Angeles Dodgers
In similar fashion to the note above, there was a notable accomplishment by OKC’s parent club that had previously rarely happened throughout the team’s Triple-A history. Between 1962–2015, the OKC parent club advanced to the World Series just twice: The Philadelphia Phillies in 1980 and the Texas Rangers in 2010. The Los Angeles Dodgers doubled the amount of appearances in the Fall Classic with trips in 2017 and 2018.
(Quick aside: By comparison, the Fresno Grizzlies’ parent club has not only advanced, but won the World Series five times in the last 11 seasons! Thrice by the San Francisco Giants (2010, 2012, 2014) and once each by the Houston Astros (2017) and Washington Nationals (2019).)
3 — PCL Division Titles
The OKC Dodgers won the American Northern Division three times in four seasons, advancing to the playoffs in 2015, 2016 and 2018. Each instance was notable for its own reasons: The 2015 club set a record with 86 wins during the regular season, the 2016 team won a thrilling American Conference playoff series against Nashville and the 2018 squad won four games over two days to end the regular season and steal the title from Colorado Springs.
The three division titles over the past five seasons are second-most in the PCL (El Paso has four) and the most among American Conference teams.
4 — No. 1 ranked Dodgers prospects to play for OKC (per Baseball America)
This is the maximum amount since Corey Seager was ranked atop the list in both 2015 and 2016. The others are Cody Bellinger (2017), Walker Buehler (2018) and Keibert Ruiz (2019).
5 — PCL Post-Season All-Stars
In what is a theme of this piece, the Dodgers era in OKC has nearly equaled, met or exceeded several club benchmarks over just five seasons. During the team’s first 18 seasons in the PCL, only seven players received Post-Season All-Star recognition. Those who nabbed the honors are Austin Barnes (2015), Rob Segedin (2016), Wilmer Font (2017), Manny Bañuelos (2018) and Alex Verdugo (2018).
Additionally, there were two standouts who won individual awards, with Damon Berryhill named PCL Manager of the Year in 2015 and Font named PCL Pitcher of the Year in 2017.
How many times did the team have a PCL Manager of the Year and PCL Pitcher of the Year between 1998–2014? Once each.
29 — MLB debuts with the Los Angeles Dodgers
This only counts players who had not previously played in the Majors before playing for OKC and made their ML debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers directly from the OKC Dodgers. Thus, names like Max Muncy and Ross Stripling are not included.
These 29 guys were recently highlighted during the OKIE811 Call to the Big Leagues Bracket, eventually won by Cody Bellinger.
43 — Current Major League players
Defined as those who are currently on a Major League 40-man roster and has previously appeared in the Majors. The majority come to mind easily, but some do not, like the case of the Rangers’ Luke Farrell, who started one game for OKC in 2017.
376 — Wins
This is the fourth-most among the PCL’s 16 teams and only five behind Memphis for the most among the eight teams in the American Conference.
733 — Home Runs
This includes a team-record 203 that were hit last season, shattering the previous mark of 171 set in 2005. The highest individual total during that time is 55, hit by O’Koyea Dickson between 2015–17.
6,067 — Strikeouts
Three times in the last four seasons the OKC Dodgers have not only established a new single-season team record for strikeouts, but also set the league record in that category as well (2016, 2017, 2019). Brock Stewart was part of each of those pitching staffs and has the highest individual total with 226.
Hope you enjoyed this first trip down memory lane. We’ll have much more to share over the coming weeks.
