LOS ANGELES — Last season all the way through the World Series, the Dodgers got major contributions from rookies and young players, and that carried over into the opening series of 2026 at Dodger Stadium.
Alex Freeland made his major league debut last season, and beat out Hyeseong Kim for a spot on the opening day roster, sharing time at second base. He started once against the Arizona Diamondbacks, and made it count, with a home run, a double that led to the winning run, and was part of two relay plays, throwing out runners at home plate and third base on Friday.
You might have noticed in any of those highlights that Freeland wears number 76. He’s not alone among young Dodgers wearing high uniform numbers. A question I see a lot in the comments section or in my social media mentions is when are these young Dodgers going to get real numbers, or something to that effect.
“I’d like to change it, but maybe when I get a little more service time,” Freeland said, though he admitted he wasn’t really sure how he would go about doing so.
Two years ago, in the second week of May 2024, three young Dodgers switched uniform numbers, going from their first-issued numbers to lower, more traditional numbers. Andy Pages, just a month into his time in the majors, switched from 84 to 44, Gavin Stone went from 71 to 35, and Michael Grove switched from 78 to 29.
Stone at the time had 69 major league innings under his belt, while Grove was at 119 1/3 innings and in his third season. Four Dodgers pitchers with similar experience don’t seem all that keen on changing uniform numbers anytime soon.
“I haven’t really thought about it at all,” said Ben Casparius, who’s worn number 78 since debuting in 2024. “I was always number five my entire life, and I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon [he glanced over at Freddie Freeman’s locker here]. But for me, seven plus eight is 15, and there’s a five in there somewhere.”
Like all of these players, they are wearing the number that was first assigned to them. But it’s grown on them. Grove was the only Dodger to wear number 78 before Casparius.
“I’ve embraced it. To be honest, I haven’t given too much thought into it. It does feel like my number,” Casparius said. “Throwing on a Dodger uniform in general is pretty cool, so I don’t think it will change anytime soon.”
Jack Dreyer made his major league debut last season. The left-hander made the opening day roster out of spring training, and joined Yoshinobu Yamamoto as the only two Dodgers pitchers to remain active through the entire regular season and postseason. All while Dreyer was wearing number 86.
Current Marlins manager Clayton McCullough wore number 86 with the Dodgers as first base coach from 2022-24, but Dreyer is the first player to wear it in team history.
“Growing up, 24 was a pretty common number because that was my dad’s number. But in high school and college, I was four, and then 33 and 41, I bounced around so much. It’s never really been anything consistent,” Dreyer said.
His father Steve Dreyer pitched parts of two seasons (1993-94) with the Texas Rangers, and wore number 24 in both years.
“I like 86. It was randomly given to me when I debuted last year, and I found out I was the first player ever to wear 86 for the Dodgers, so I kind of like how it fits,” Dreyer said. “My plan is to keep it as long as they’ll let me keep it.”
These high uniform numbers are a relatively new phenomenon in baseball. No Dodger player wore anything over 77 until Manny Ramirez donned number 99 in 2008.
Emmet Sheehan is the only Dodger ever to wear number 80, and one of only a dozen major leaguers to ever don the number. All of them have been since 2019.
Like several teammates, Sheehan hasn’t yet entertained the idea of a different number.
“I don’t think I’m going to change it anytime soon,” Sheehan said. “It’s just the one they gave me, and I don’t think anyone else has ever worn it, which I think is pretty cool. And a lot of my family bought jerseys and stuff like that, so I don’t want to make them buy more.”
Sheehan gave the most practical answer here, looking out for his family and friends. Justin Wrobleski, who wears uniform number 70, went in a different direction, with time-honored baseball superstition.
“Let me ask you this question: if you wore one number, and we won two World Series, would you change it?” asked Wrobleski, knowing the answer. “I can’t change it, unless there’s, like, severe fan intervention that he needs to change his number. … I’m trying to build the number 70.
“It’s kind of cool. Not a lot of guys keep a number like this.”