Pitcher Zach Lee keeps waiting for a shot with the Dodgers

The Angels would kill for a guy like Zach Lee right now. The Dodgers can barely find room for him on their depth chart.

In spring training, two scouts said Lee could be a perfectly fine No. 5 starter in the major leagues this year. The Dodgers opted to complete their rotation with rookie Ross Stripling and returned Lee for a third consecutive season at triple A.

“I feel like I could go out there and compete and do a job at the major league level,” Lee said this week. “I can’t really control that.

“I just come out here and continue to do what I do and continue to throw as best I can, to try to get an opportunity, whether that’s here or somewhere else.”

Lee, 24, was the Dodgers’ minor league pitcher of the year last season — his 2.70 earned-run average ranked second in the Pacific Coast League — but he also was the only healthy member of the 40-man roster not called up in September. The Dodgers promoted him for three days last month, when their bullpen had been taxed, but they sent him back to the minor leagues without using him.

The Angels have two vacancies in their starting rotation right now, in part because they just lost ace Garrett Richards to elbow ligament-replacement surgery. Their options are few; their minor league system is ranked the worst in baseball.

The Dodgers have no vacancies, and plenty of options. Their farm system is strong.

Mike Bolsinger, Brandon McCarthy and Hyun-Jin Ryu could return about mid-June. Manager Dave Roberts said Friday that each could have a minor league rehabilitation assignment within the next two weeks. The Dodgers hope Brett Anderson can return from back surgery in late summer.

The Dodgers also have prospects Julio Urias, Jose De Leon and Jharel Cotton at triple A. Baseball America ranks those three among the Dodgers’ top 10 prospects, with Lee at No. 14.

The Dodgers selected Lee in the first round of the 2010 draft, under previous management, then persuaded him to turn down a scholarship to play quarterback at Louisiana State by signing him for a club-record $5.25-million bonus. If baseball does not work out, he said he would consider college football.

“It’s not something I’m thinking about doing right now,” he said. “If I feel like I’m not making progress in the next year or so and I don’t feel like there’s going to be an opportunity, it’s something to fall back onto.”

Lee has another option year beyond this one, so the Dodgers control his rights through at least 2017. He said neither he nor his agent has asked the Dodgers to consider trading him if they do not see an opportunity for him to help the team.

“It’s not really in your control, where I’m at in my career. The only thing I can control is to go out there and throw,” he said. “I can’t do a whole lot about the scenario I’m in, so I just try to make the best of the scenario I’m in, whatever that scenario is.”

Homecoming day

The return of Alex Anthopoulos, who assembled the Blue Jays’ first postseason team in 22 years, generated so much interest in Toronto that the Jays arranged a news conference for him. The Canadian-born Anthopoulos resigned as general manager last fall, after the Jays hired Mark Shapiro as club president.

The Dodgers hired Anthopoulos as vice president of baseball operations. He said he splits his time between Los Angeles and Toronto, meeting regularly with President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman and senior VP Josh Byrnes to discuss “all aspects of baseball operations,” including trades, international signings and the amateur draft.

One day, Anthopoulos drove to see the Dodgers’ Class-A Rancho Cucamonga farm team.

“You would think that’s a quick drive,” he said, “but I’m learning about L.A. traffic.”

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