Another oddball outfield collision has hit the Dodgers’ minor league pipeline, and this one came with a mascot, a scooter and a whole lot of bad luck.
Alek Thomas, who’s currently with Triple-A Oklahoma City, was jogging out of the dugout on Saturday before the club’s game against the Sacramento River Cats when the River Cats’ mascot rolled around the field on a scooter and ran into him.
Thomas came away fine from the collision, then went 0-for-4 in Saturday’s game. He did not play on Sunday.
It’s the second strange accident involving a Dodgers minor league outfielder this season. In May, Kendall George, one of the organization’s top prospects, got hurt while trying to avoid a bat dog after scoring a run and heading back toward the dugout.
The Double-A Tulsa Drillers outfielder wound up with a knee injury and missed more than a month with the patellar tendon issue. George returned earlier this month after healing faster than expected.
Thomas’ path to Oklahoma City has been a recent one. The 26-year-old was acquired by the Dodgers in mid-May in a trade with the division-rival Arizona Diamondbacks. Arizona had drafted him in the second round in 2018, and he spent his entire career there before the deal.
He reached the majors in 2022 and played in 448 games over parts of five seasons with the Diamondbacks, hitting .230 with 31 home runs, 143 RBIs and an OPS of .634. His reputation was built more on defense, but the Dodgers believed there was more offense to coax out of his bat.
“A lot of the swing components have looked the same for a long, extended period of time, and we feel like there are some levers in there to partner with [Thomas] and potentially unlock a little bit more,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told the Los Angeles Times in May. “But even as is, we feel like he’s a good extra outfielder, with the upside for even more than that.”
So far at Triple-A Oklahoma City, Thomas has hit .263 with five home runs, 21 RBIs and an OPS of .766 across 35 games. He has struck out 23 times and walked 15 times.
A big league call-up doesn’t appear close unless injuries hit the Dodgers’ roster, and even then the club may choose to lean on some of its younger outfield prospects instead. For now, Thomas keeps grinding in Oklahoma City, where any offensive progress could also make him a possible trade piece if another team sees something worth chasing.
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