The Dodgers are facing an interesting situation heading into the 2013 season — at least, the Albuquerque Isotopes and Chattanooga Lookouts are.

Following a Twitter exchange with Chris Jackson (@TopesWriter) and Evan Chavez (@newmexicofan), it occurred to me: The Isotopes and Lookouts are going to have some awfully crowded outfields — especially the ‘Topes.

The following outfielders are, at this point, slated to begin the 2013 season in Albuquerque:

Alex Castellanos: Could play second or third base.
Brian Cavazos-Galvez: Left fielder with some experience at first base.
Scott Van Slyke: Corner outfielder who the Dodgers don’t view as a 1B anymore (h/t to Jackson).
Kyle Russell: Corner outfielder who could fill in at center field in a pinch.
Blake Smith: Same as Russell, but better defensively.

Those guys are all but certain to be ‘Topes in 2013. Castellanos and Van Slyke have a chance to be on the Dodgers bench, but I’ll believe that when I see it. Nick Buss, who spent the entire 2012 season in Chattanooga, is another guy, and if things fall his way he could actually be the Isotopes starting center fielder. Of the guys listed above, Buss is the only true center fielder.

Then there are the players who aren’t even members of the Dodgers yet. Perennially, those are the likes of Trent Oeltjen and Matt Angle. Hell, Tony Gywnn Jr. is still under contract and could find himself back in New Mexico as well.

Bottom line is, the Isotopes are going to be jam-packed in the outfield.

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Including all of the guys above doesn’t even take into account players who could be promoted during the season based on performance — mainly, Bobby Coyle, Joc Pederson, and Yasiel Puig.

Coyle was a late-season call-up to Chattanooga and I think he’d have the best chance of playing in Albuquerque in 2013. Pederson is only 20 and should be with the Lookouts for the entire season (save perhaps a playoff call-up, as he was this past season for Chattanooga).

The wild card though is Puig. There’s no telling where he’ll begin, but it won’t be any lower than High-A Rancho Cucamonga. If he makes it to Double-A and flourishes, I could see him don an Isotopes uniform before the conclusion of the 2013 season.

Any of the trio being promoted quickly would make for even more of a mess than it already appears to be.

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Heading into last season, the Dodgers minor-league depth came in the form of right-handed pitchers and outfielders. They’ve already traded away a lot of the RHP depth and now it looks like the OF surplus could be next.

Too much of one position isn’t usually a bad thing, but the concern is that it could stunt the development of a few players, so it’ll be interesting to monitor the situation and see how it plays out.

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Dustin Nosler is the founder of the site Feelin’ Kinda Blue. He also co-hosts the weekly podcast Dugout Blues. Follow him on Twitter @FeelinKindaBlue or like his site on Facebook.

The Dodgers lost their best player on Monday night as Matt Kemp was placed on the disabled list with a left hamstring strain. The news was pretty much expected since before the game, when manager Don Mattingly, Kemp, and the training staff had a lengthy meeting with Dr. Neal ElAttrache about Kemp’s MRI results, which confirmed a left hamstring strain.

“It’s a mild strain, but the doctor said if you do it again, it can go from a grade one to a grade two, and then you’re talking four weeks,” Mattingly said. “Now he has a chance to get healthy, and make sure he doesn’t have any long-term effects from this thing.”

While this is a blow, I think most can agree it’s better for him to get healthy now than to risk wrecking himself, as he admitted that it was affecting his play.

He admitted he’s been playing at half-speed since injuring the leg last Saturday in Chicago. He reinjured it trying to leg out a ground ball Sunday and was removed from the game.

“I’ve been a little scared to do certain things,” he said. “I felt it in there a little bit. I just wanted to help my team any way possible, but I was babying it a little. I came to that realization.”

Perhaps the best part about all of this is that Andre Ethier may see time in center field.

Gwynn will be the primary center fielder with Kemp on the shelf, which Mattingly doesn’t think will be more than 15 days. But Mattingly also wants to make sure Gwynn doesn’t get overused, and said he would use Andre Ethier in center field for “two or three games” with Kemp out.

Yikes.

As an alternative though, why can’t Jerry Sands and Scott Van Slyke play first base? The defense is a downgrade, but James Loney still isn’t hitting.

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In other injury news, Juan Uribe is out.

The sudden wave of Dodgers injuries continued Monday when they had to put third baseman Juan Uribe on the 15-day disabled list with recurring left wrist soreness.

The Dodgers replaced him by purchasing the contract of Triple-A Albuquerque utility man Elian Herrera and designating outfielder Trent Oeltjen for assignment.

I’m not sure why Elian Herrera has vaulted over Trent Oeltjen all of a sudden, but it’s probably inconsequential.

The last position spot on the Dodgers roster has come down to infielders Justin Sellers, Josh Fields and Luis Cruz. After hot starts for each, if you pick by what they’ve done lately offensively, “other” would win the election.

Sellers is in a 2-for-14 spell, his average dropping from .385 to .300. Fields is 1-for-16 lately (with seven strikeouts), his average falling from .379 to .261. Cruz is 3-for-15 in recent games, dropping his average from .350 to .286.

It’s almost as if … they all aren’t good hitters or something.

While Spring Training statistics mean little to me, they do mean something when they only reason said players are still in consideration for the roster are their Spring Training statistics.

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In other roster news, Trent Oeltjen was optioned.

The Dodgers optioned Trent Oeltjen to Minor League camp after Saturday’s 9-3 win over the D-backs, in which Oeltjen went 1-for-2 with two runs scored to raise his average to .289.

Oeltjen had almost no chance to make the team as a fifth outfielder after the signing of utility man Jerry Hairston, who can play the infield and outfield.

One more down…

As I mentioned earlier, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed right-handed relief pitcher Todd Coffey to a one-year dear that will carry a team option for 2013.

Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times reports that Coffey’s 2012 salary will be $1 million and will come with a $300k buyout clause on the 2013 team option. If the team option is exercised, it will be worth $2.5 million.

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Fat jokes aside, he’s a middling relief pitcher who carries a 4.08 career ERA and a 4.17 career FIP, both of which represent his skill level, past and present. His strikeout rate is average (~17%-18%) and his walk rate is average (~7%-8%), basically everything is around average or below average.

So why sign him? Probably to eat innings (har har) and because his career platoon split looks like this:

Coffey has 2.0 career WAR, so it’s not exactly a stretch that he’ll end up in the 0.2-0.4 WAR range in 2012 when looking at his season-by-season numbers.

Little reason to get excited, little reason to criticize.

It’s about a neutral move, which is all too appropriate for Coffey.

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As Mike Petriello points out though, it will cost the Dodgers somebody off the 40-man roster, and we all seem to agree that it’ll probably be Trent Oeltjen.