Frankie Montas begins rehab assignment

Frankie Montas at Spring Training in February, post-surgery. (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)

By Jon Weisman

Frankie Montas, the fireballing right-hander acquired with Trayce Thompson and Micah Johnson from the White Sox, has been a mostly forgotten man since he had rib resection surgery February 12.

But Montas threw two innings Thursday in an extended Spring Training game Thursday at Camelback Ranch, the Dodgers said, and is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment Saturday with Double-A Tulsa.

A potential starter or reliever, the 23-year-old struck out 108 in 112 innings with a 2.97 ERA for Double-A Birmingham, before striking out 20 in a 15-inning trial with the White Sox. In his last appearance of 2015, he struck out seven in four innings of one-run ball October 4.

Hyun-Jin Ryu is already making his second rehab appearance for Single-A Rancho Cucamonga, in a game that begins shortly before the Dodgers take the field in San Diego. We’ll update that one later this evening. Update: In three innings, Ryu allowed three runs (one earned) on a single and two home runs, walking none and fanning two.

Also continuing to percolate in the minor leagues is 19-year-old Julio Urias, who extended his Triple-A Oklahoma City scoreless streak to 27 innings with five shutout frames tonight against Salt Lake. Urias allowed three hits (picking off one of the three), walked none and struck out five, lowering his 2016 ERA to 1.10. He has struck out 44 and walked eight this season.

Urias was pulled after five innings and 64 pitches, an inning earlier than his three previous starts.

In the meantime, for the next two series, the Dodgers plan to continue with an eight-man bullpen and four-man bench (which includes Adrian Gonzalez for one more night), Dave Roberts told reporters today, adding that they want to continue to evaluate Chin-hui Tsao, who pitched a shutout inning against the Angels in his big-league season debut Thursday.

Roberts also discussed a long chat he had today with struggling reliever Chris Hatcher that seemed to be in large part about rebuilding his confidence, saying that in trying to be too perfect, Hatcher has made imperfect pitches. That’s a major paraphrase on my part, but J.P. Hoornstra of the Daily News has some video of Roberts, who compared Hatcher to Yasiel Puig, Justin Turner and Yasmani Grandal as players who are trying too hard to do more.