Jose De Leon is sched-uled to make his major league debut Sunday, making him the latest rookie to fortify the rotation of baseball’s most expensive team.

De Leon, 24, went 7-1 with a 2.61 earned-run average at triple-A Oklahoma City. He has not given up a run in his past 18 innings, and he has 40 strikeouts since his last walk.

The Dodgers’ ever-evolving rotation soon could be fortified by Clayton Kershaw, who will make his first and perhaps only minor league rehabilitation assignment Saturday at Class-A Rancho Cucamonga. Kershaw is scheduled to throw three innings and be followed by Brett Anderson, on a rehab assignment of his own.

With Rich Hill set to start for the Dodgers on Saturday and De Leon on Sunday against San Diego, the team is in line to use seven starters in seven games, with five of those starters as rookies (De Leon, Julio Urias, Ross Stripling, Brock Stewart and Kenta Maeda).


De Leon would become the 15th starting pitcher used by the Dodgers this season, one shy of last year’s total. By Sunday, rookies would have started 56 of the Dodgers’ first 136 games.

At the start of the season, Baseball America ranked De Leon as the Dodgers’ No. 3 prospect, behind Corey Seager and Urias. Seager, 22, is favored to win the National League rookie of the year award; Urias, 20, entered play Friday with a 5-2 record and 3.71 ERA.

Short hops

The Dodgers added five players in the first wave of September roster expansion: outfielder Yasiel Puig, catcher-infielder Austin Barnes and pitchers Louis Coleman, Josh Fields and Josh Ravin. … The Dodgers selected Stewart as their minor league pitcher of the year and infielder Edwin Rios as minor league player of the year. Neither player was ranked among the Dodgers’ top 30 prospects by Baseball America at the start of the season. Rios, 22, the Dodgers’ sixth-round draft pick last year, hit a combined .303 with 27 home runs for three teams.


bill.shaikin@latimes.com

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