A healthy season for Henriquez began in Rancho Cucamonga and ended pitching in the postseason for a World Series winner. An eventful age-22 season.
After missing all of 2023 after Tommy John surgery, Edgardo Henriquez took a tour up the ladder of the Dodgers minor league system in 2024, and ended the year pitching in the major league postseason.
The 22-year-old was blowing away hitters in both Class-A levels, combining to strike out 49 percent of his batters faced between Rancho Cucamonga and Great Lakes. He made it to Double-A Tulsa in June and to Triple-A Oklahoma City by early August, and held his own with a 31.8-percent strikeout rate across those two levels and a 2.97 ERA.
After playing at four different levels in 2024, Henriquez got to add a fifth when he was called up to the Dodgers for the final six games of the regular season. It was a trial run for potential inclusion on the postseason roster.
“It’s a variance play to get him in here, get him in the big leagues, see how he responds, and go from there,” manager Dave Roberts said on September 24. “I think there’s a lot of guys under consideration, and we’ll see if we can get him into a game and see how he looks. But certainly the arm talent, you can’t debate that.”
The arm talent was evident, as Henriquez routinely hit triple digits in the minors, and averaged 98.7 mph on his four-seam fastball during his three games in the majors in that season’s final week.
Henriquez did well in his brief trial run, striking out five of his 14 batters faced against the Padres and Rockies, and he was added to the postseason rosters for both the NLDS and NLCS, an incredible achievement for someone who didn’t pitch in 2023 and started 2024 in Rancho Cucamonga.
His three playoff appearances were all mop-up duty, finishing off lopsided games. He allowed a pair of home runs late to the Padres in Game 2 of the NLDS, matching Henriquez’s total for the entire regular season in 56⅓ innings. But he recovered from that to allow just one run in four innings in two October appearances against the Mets.
As a piece of trivia, Henriquez was the 40th Dodgers pitcher used in 2024, the final tally to a franchise record. The future is bright for the young fireballer.
2024 particulars
Age: 22
Stats: 3 G, 3⅓ IP, 1 R, 2 BB, 5 K, 1 save
Salary: pro-rated minimum of $740,000 in majors (roughly $23,871); Henriquez had a tremendous gap between his season salary and the relative windfall of a postseason share, whether he received a full share of $477,441 or a partial share.
Game of the year
On the final day of the regular season, with playoff positioning secured, the Dodgers turned to Henriquez with a one-run lead in the ninth inning on September 29 against the Rockies. He pitched a scoreless inning with two strikeouts to finish off the team’s 98th win.
Henriquez was the 14th different Dodgers pitcher to record a save this year, tying the 2021 Rays for most ever by one team in a season.
Roster status
Henriquez has six days of major league service time, and three option years remaining.