ATLANTA – The Los Angeles Dodgers are not for everyone. Sometimes young players have to leave if they are eligible for a free agency if they want regular game time. And savvy players are sometimes brushed aside because the Dodgers have the ability and will to attract other, more savvy players.
Hall of Fame pitcher Waite Hoyt famously said, “It’s great to be young and a Yankee.”
Being young and a dodger in an era of free agency, analytics, financial generosity, and continued victories sometimes means reluctantly putting yourself on the injured list as the club manipulates its roster during the six month loop of a regular season, or back into the minor leagues, even if you were a contender for the Rookie of the Year award.
Gavin Lux, who started the second game of the National League Championship Series on Sunday, became familiar with the latter this summer. As one of the top prospects in a system that has recently spawned two rookies of the year with Cody Bellinger (2017) and Corey Seager (2016), Lux hit 0.286 with five homers and 19 RBI in May, but was later in the summer passed out and wasn’t the regular playing time he would have in a place like Pittsburgh or Miami, where he might have worked his way out of a crisis.
So on August 26th, the Dodgers sent him back to Oklahoma City in Class AAA.
“It’s pretty easy to look around the league and say, oh yeah, maybe I wouldn’t have been sent down on this team,” said Lux. “But there are a lot of really good people here to learn from, a lot really good players to learn from and guys who have been there and a lot of superstars, the Hall of Famers.
“So it’s a blessing for me, as opposed to the other way around. And I’m still at the beginning of my career, so I’m just a sponge trying to soak up as much of these guys as possible. “
Perhaps one day Lux will grow into a mainstay like Seager or Justin Turner – a process that could be greatly accelerated if Seager left Los Angeles as a free agent this off-season. Or maybe he’ll become an October star for the Dodgers and still end up elsewhere, like a handful of others scattered around this month.
Four years ago, Kiké Hernandez scored three home runs for the Dodgers in Game 5 of the NLCS against the Chicago Cubs, helping push the Dodgers into the World Series against Houston. Hernandez became the first player with three homers in a postseason game at Wrigley Field in the stadium’s over 100-year existence. His seven RBIs that night set an NLCS record.
But his regular-time path with the Dodgers was hampered by the team’s belief in platooning and was then cut off entirely by players like Mookie Betts and Bellinger on the outfield and Seager and Max Muncy on the infield. For example, before the 2021 season, Hernandez signed a two-year free agent contract for $ 14 million with Boston. Hernandez was one of the offensive stars when Boston defeated the Tampa Bay Rays in an AL division series and has already completed three home runs through two ALCS games against Houston. The Dodgers could see him in the World Series if they and the Red Sox move forward.
In his postseason career, Hernandez now has a three-homer game, a five-hit game, a seven-RBI game, a pinch-hit homer, and a walk-off series that defines RBI, according to the Elias Sports Bureau there is no other player in MLB history has accomplished more than two of these five accomplishments.
Immediately the Dodgers are currently facing outfielder Joc Pederson in the NLCS Pederson, who had shown some signs of fame in Los Angeles, had an odd end to his time with the Dodgers.
It was turned over to the Los Angeles Angels as part of an intricate deal that included Bett’s arrival from Boston just before spring 2020 training. But Pederson stayed with the Dodgers that season because the deal’s first trip was canceled. When it was renewed, Pederson stayed with the Dodgers.
That fall, Pederson helped the Dodgers win their first World Series since 1988 by busting a major home run in Game 5 and leading a 4-2 win over Tampa Bay. That was after scoring four hits in Game 3 of the NLCS against Atlanta to help the Dodgers avoid elimination after losing the first two games.
And yet the Dodgers said goodbye again, this time for real. Pederson, who had been reduced to a traction role, settled on a one-year free agent deal for $ 7 million with the Chicago Cubs that gave him the chance to become an everyday gamer.
Atlanta then acquired him in a July trade after losing outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. for the season to a knee injury. Against Milwaukee in the Division series, Pederson slammed a series-spinning, triple pinch-hit homer against reliever Adrian Houser in Game 3. After he homerte in Game 1 against the Brewers, also outside of Houser, it was once “Joctober”. again.
This flair for the drama continued on Sunday with another home run and helped Atlanta to a surprising 2-0 lead in the NLCS
“He was number one in situations like this,” said Atlanta’s manager Brian Snitker. “Number two, this guy doesn’t have a heartbeat at all. It’s like he’s in the playground. If you’ve played against him in the postseason in recent years, you could see that. “
Pederson has beaten 12 homers in 165 career postseason at-bats, but the Dodgers didn’t seem to miss him too much. Their current roster includes at least three players expected to be inducted into the Hall of Famers on the first round of voting: Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer and Albert Pujols. Then there are other battle-hardened veterans like the All-Stars Betts 2021, Justin Turner, Trea Turner and Chris Taylor and more. The team has often consulted veterans like Chase Utley as mentors.
“When I went into the playoffs in 2019, JT pulled me aside and Chase Utley was there too and he just said, ‘Every time you step in, try to feel like you’re 4 for 4. “, ‘” Said Lux. “That’s the best feeling you can have when you’re a hitter. Go up 4 for 4, there is no pressure. You feel good I think that’s the best advice I’ve gotten from everyone when I go to the playoffs. “
For the players who stay, knowledge is available at every turn. Sometimes it comes from unexpected sources. When Bellinger won the Division Series game on Thursday with an RBI single in the ninth inning, it was his third hit in a winner-take-all game. This came after a season in which the formerly most valuable player only scored .165, after several talks with Scherzer this summer.
“Belli had a tough year,” said Scherzer. “I had a few conversations with him. Man, just keep grinding. I know you struggle through a lot. Everyone in their career is slapped in the face. Nobody ever had an easy career. There are always years when the game just comes back and hits you in the face. “
Scherzer told Bellinger that he would continue to work hard and fight his way through a bad year and that if he continued to get opportunities, good things would come.
“He will do absolutely great things for us in the playoffs,” said Scherzer in San Francisco late on Thursday evening. “I saw this a mile away. I just wanted it so bad for him. It’s so great to see him doing it. “
Bellinger, who won’t be eligible for the free agency until after the 2023 season, could be one of the local players to stay, but he has to improve as the Dodgers won’t wait forever. There is always a Betts or Trea Turner or Scherzer that can be acquired to replace a player who is not at his best.
Playing in what Tommy Lasorda, the team’s hall of fame manager who passed away this off-season, called “Blue Heaven” means living in a clubhouse of constant change, endless creative possibilities and a steady stream of new toys.
Almost everyone, it seems, is replaceable.
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