LOS ANGELES — Dustin May had a laptop hooked up to his television at his family’s home in Justin, Texas. He watched the 2016 draft unfold from his couch along with his parents, his grandmother, a friend from high school, and his agent, Craig Rose.

Will Smith and his teammates at the University of Louisville were in the Cardinals’ clubhouse, along with their families, watching each name come off the draft board with nervous anticipation.

Gavin Lux was at his family’s home in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The Dodgers were merely one of 30 possible employers before they chose Lux; he said it was his uncle, the former minor league baseball player Augie Schmidt, who told him that day: “man, you just hit the jackpot.”

Tony Gonsolin might have the funniest draft story of any player in the Dodgers’ superlative 2016 class. He and a friend were driving home from a workout in their hometown of Vacaville when his name appeared on his smartphone.

“I said, look, this is me! I just got drafted. That’s really cool,” Gonsolin recalled telling his friend. “We were driving and he was trying to give me a hug when we were driving. I was like: Stop that, let’s get back to your house first, it’s two minutes away, we’ll celebrate then.”

Three years and three months later, all four players have lockers in the Dodgers’ clubhouse. May, Smith, Lux and Gonsolin are all candidates to make the postseason roster of the National League’s best team. They have cemented the class as the Dodgers’ best draft of the decade – at least – in astonishingly short order.

Lux and Smith are among 10 first-round picks from the 2016 class who have reached the big leagues. May is one of nine third-rounders who have arrived, and Gonsolin is the lone ninth-rounder. Only 18 of the 935 players chosen after Gonsolin have already debuted.

Fifth-round pick Devin Smeltzer, whom the Dodgers traded to the Twins for Brian Dozier last year, made his debut in May. Others are on their way, either with the Dodgers or with another organization. The only question is how many more will arrive and when.

“I think there could be 11 or 12 big leaguers in the draft class,” draft director Billy Gasparino said.

The 2016 draft was Gasparino’s second with the Dodgers. He had just enjoyed a full offseason to assemble a full staff and hire new scouts. In hindsight, he said, that might have contributed to the group’s success in June. Unlike Lux, Gasparino did not immediately realize he had hit the jackpot. The feeling in the draft room afterward, he said, “was definitely on the high end of optimism.”

More than perfecting the process of scouting and drafting, Gasparino believes the Dodgers were simply able to choose the players they wanted before their rivals could take them off the board. Some years that happens. Other years, it doesn’t.

“If I had a secret recipe for what happened in ‘16 I would roll it out every year,” Gasparino said. “I’ve thought about it a lot. Felt a little better (after that draft) than most years, but to stamp this as special, is really hard to say.”

Lux attended his high school graduation the Friday before the draft began, then attended a pre-draft workout with the Chicago White Sox the following day. Gasparino believed another team, the Kansas City Royals, might have been considering Lux with their first pick too.

The White Sox held the 10th overall pick. The Royals weren’t picking until the second round, 67th overall. Lux was still on the board when the Dodgers’ number-20 pick came around.

“As the week unfolded, it grew and grew that we wanted him to be our guy,” Gasparino said. “There was a little discussion about college pitching versus Lux, but he had a really good talent package. … There was a little fist pump, ‘let’s do it,’ and quickly move.”

The Dodgers held the 32nd overall pick as compensation for losing Zack Greinke in free agency. They also held the 36th overall pick, which they ultimately used to select Vanderbilt pitcher Jordan Sheffield. The Cardinals were picking 33rd and 34th, the Reds 35th.

Gasparino was quick to credit Josh Byrnes, the Dodgers’ senior vice president of baseball operations, for encouraging the team to select Smith 32nd.

“There was a little moment of strategy play: could we wait on Smith? The industry consensus was a little lower on him,” Gasparino said. “We rolled with it and took the chance. That was a good group decision on that one.”

May was the second high school player the Dodgers chose, after Lux. Gasparino describes the third round as “a high-school overpay round,” a time for teams who feel confident in their draft-bonus pool to select a player who might command a signing bonus above their slot value. Usually, that means a high school player, rarely a college junior, and never a college senior.

In the draft room, Gasparino said the Dodgers were debating between selecting May and a high school position player.

“I think late that night, early that morning, we were trying to create a (financial) scenario to get Dustin,” Gasparino said. “I think we had a million-dollar bonus. We were hoping that would be enough to get Dustin.”

By the ninth round, the financial scenarios weren’t lining up for the Dodgers to make a splurge. (They eventually signed their first 11 draft picks.) Gonsolin was a college senior with plenty of upside but no clear position. During his final pre-draft workout, Gonsolin said he swung a bat and threw from flat ground, not knowing whether he would be selected as a pitcher or an outfielder.

West Coast scouting supervisor Paul Cogan and area scout Tom Kunis were sold on Gonsolin’s potential as a pitcher. It was Kunis who called Gonsolin personally to deliver the good news. Without the table-pounding recommendations from his scouts, Gasparino might have gone a different direction with the pick. That’s not unusual by the time the ninth round rolls around.

“These are the type of players who haven’t been heavily cross-checked in most cases,” Gasparino said. “They’re seniors. They’ve been overlooked at some point. It takes creativity and imagination: this guy’s a talent, a senior, we can save money, but if everything clicks to be a prospect – it takes a fine level of skill. In this case, the area scout and the supervisor both nailed it.”

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Dodgers prepare for postseason with quarantine time A fuller appreciation for the Dodgers’ 2016 draft class is still to come. Infielder Zack McKinstry (33rd round) is Rule 5 eligible this winter after a strong showing at Triple-A. Outfielder D.J. Peters (fourth round) also excelled after a promotion to Oklahoma City. Pitcher Mitchell White (second round) has shown flashes of dominance between stints on the injured list; Gasparino believes the right-hander has a chance to reach the big leagues with the Dodgers in 2020.

Outfielder Luke Raley (seventh round) and pitcher Dean Kremer (14th round) have a strong chance to reach the majors with the Twins and Orioles, respectively. That’s 10 players from the 2016 class who have already reached the major leagues or the high minors in a three-year span.

“It feels quick now, but when you’re living through the ups and downs, it doesn’t feel quick,” Gasparino said. “You just see how much work needs to be done. That’s what makes it special. You realize how special it is when they make it.

“It turned into a magical draft on some levels. I don’t know if you can predict it, or expect it, but it’s pretty neat.”