Gordon and Cavazos-Galvez Topps POY

Dodger minor league shortstop Dee Gordon and outfielder Brian Cavazos-Galvez were named Topps/Minor League Players of the Year for their respective leagues. The Dodgers joined the Rays and Yankees as the only franchises with multiple winners among the 16 domestic Minor Leagues.

    Gordon won the honors in the Single-A Midwest League, batting .301 with a league-leading 73 steals and 12 triples for the Great Lakes Loons.  Gordon also earned the Branch Rickey Award as the Dodgers’ Minor League Player of the Year, Midwest League Prospect of the Year, and league co-Most Valuable Player. 

He was also selected to Baseball America’s Mid-Season Minor League All-Star team for all levels of play and to the league’s mid-season and postseason All-Star teams. The 21-year-old ranked among the leaders for all full-season minor league players in steals (second), in triples (tied for eighth), in hits (11th), and in runs (15th) in his second year in professional baseball after being selected in the fourth round of the 2008 First-Year Player Draft.  

Brian Cavazos-Galvez

Cavazos-Galvez claimed the award for the Rookie-advanced Pioneer League, batting .322 with a league-leading 18 homers for the Ogden Raptors.  Cavazos-Galvez, 22, won the league’s Most Valuable Player Award and was named to the league All-Star team after being selected in the 12th round of the 2009 First-Year Player Draft out of the University of New Mexico.

He also led the circuit with 97 hits, 50 extra base hits, 59 runs, and 29 doubles, and also ranked second in the league with 63 RBI. Brian’s father, Balvino Galvez, played eight seasons in the Dodger organization, pitching in 10 games for the Dodgers in 1986, his lone Major League experience.

Cleveland catcher Carlos Santana was also named a 2009 Topps/Minor League Players of the Year. Santana, a former Dodgers farmhand, went to Cleveland in the deal for third baseman Casey Blake. Santana was tossed into the deal when the Indians agreed to pay the final $2 million on Blake's contract instead of the Dodgers.