Reinforcements are on the way ... eventually
There might as well be a turnstile at the door to the Dodger clubhouse. Players are going (to the injured list), players are coming (reinforcements, including one very surprising addition whom we assume will be officially added today), and players are trying to hang on (those still on the active roster who have somehow managed to stay healthy).
Is this a recipe for a repeat? That’s to be determined, four months in the future. Right now it’s all they have, so what other choice is there?
Before the Florida Marlins’ 3-2 win Sunday snapped the Dodgers’ winning streak at four, Dave Roberts was 20 minutes
behind schedule for his pre-game briefing. The suspicion was that a roster move was still being decided upon after Corey Seager broke his hand Saturday night, when he took a Ross Detwiler fastball on the back of his right hand just above the pinky.
No, the move didn’t involve Albert Pujols. The former MVP and future Hall of Famer, whose agreement to a contract with the Dodgers was widely reported Saturday, was not officially added to the roster Sunday and the assumption is that he will join the club today, just in time to face the Arizona Diamondbacks and Madison Bumgarner. Instead, Keibert Ruiz was recalled from Triple-A on Sunday.
But let’s do the math: Before Sunday’s game the Dodgers had 13 players on their injured list, including Seager. Ruiz showed up Sunday. Infielder Yoshitomo Tsutsugo, acquired from Tampa Bay on Saturday, will also arrive today; he was a star in Japan but struggled with the Rays, and Roberts said he feels there’s some offensive capability to be unlocked there. David Price likely will be activated today as well, while Tony Gonsolin, Zach McKinstry and – the biggest addition of all – Cody Bellinger are in various stages of the designation “getting closer.”
Meanwhile, Chris Taylor, scheduled to play second base in the original lineup Sunday with Gavin Lux moving to shortstop, was scratched less than an hour before game time with soreness in his right wrist after tweaking something while hitting in the cage, according to Roberts. Sympathy pains for Seager, perhaps?
The mystery isn’t that the team widely proclaimed going into the season as the best in the game was two games out of first place after Sunday’s loss. The mystery might be that they were only two games back, as smudged and messy as the original blueprint has become.
The Dodgers are still trying to paper over the loss of two of the main pillars of their celebrated depth. Kiké Hernández and Joc Pederson left as free agents, but that was predictable. When key depth players have a chance to play more, and get paid more, what else can you expect?
Of those trying to replace them, Matt Beaty has thrived, graduating from needing a chance to making the most of a chance, and McKinstry appeared to be in a groove before getting hurt. Other young players trying to assume those roles have struggled. And when Roberts was asked to explain why the bench (and bullpen) performances have been so up and down, he only needed one word to explain.
“Experience,” he said. The season is 46 days old and the Dodgers have already cycled through 39 different players on the major league roster. Tsutsugo will be No. 40 and Pujols No. 41 when he arrives Monday, and while the Dodgers’ signing him was as surprising a move as the Angels releasing him in the first place, when you consider Andrew Friedman’s track record it’s in character and makes sense.
Friedman acquired both Chase Utley in
2015 and David Freese in 2018, both in-season moves and both players at the back ends of their careers. Both men contributed on the field, Utley more so during the regular season and Freese more in the postseason, but both made far greater contributions in the clubhouse, reinforcing the culture that has taken hold during this run of team success.
Set aside the circumstances of Pujols’ ending with the Angels – i.e., he felt he could still play every day and his bosses didn’t. The idea that he’s willing to come to the Dodgers pretty well knowing he wouldn’t be stepping into a fulltime job indicates he’s willing to take any role he’s given. And the way he made himself available for his teammates in Anaheim, and especially the way he mentored Mike Trout, suggests that he will add to the Dodgers’ culture, not detract from it.
“He knows the perfect time to come up and throw something out,” Trout said last weekend, shortly after the Angels made the move. “He just has that feel.”
No one connected with the Dodgers can say as much before it becomes official, of course. But if Pujols can have any impact at all on the young guys who are trying to fill those bench roles and ultimately become regulars, these few months could benefit the Dodgers for years.
Sunday’s lineup, for example, had Beaty hitting fourth for the first time in his career (he was 3 for 4), Luke Raley playing right (he was 0 for 4 but made a highlightreel catch tumbling over the box seat railing along the foul line to rob Isan Diaz in the second), and Sheldon Neuse at second, where Taylor would have been (1 for 4, doubled and scored, but committed a key error in the Marlins’ decisive fifth).
“There’s certain things that you can’t control and those are injuries, but you have to keep moving forward and expect guys that are filling in to be productive,” Roberts said afterward. “... It’s kind of what you have right now, and you still got to make do and not make excuses.”
And fervently hope for those guys who are “getting closer” to hurry up.