HE’S COMFORTABLE
Lux getting used to switch from second base to outfield, which provides Dodgers ‘a better look and more options’
PHOENIX — Gavin Lux tracked the ball looking over his left shoulder, then quickly flipped his head back around to the right. He turned his body to make a catch in deep center field, then caught his balance after stumbling near the warning track.
It might have looked uncomfortable, with Lux — a natural infielder in his third major league season — playing center field Sunday for only the fourth time in his career.
But if the 23-year-old was lacking in confidence, it didn’t show. Instead, Lux fired the ball back into the infield, then laughed with teammate Mookie Betts after one of the rare reminders he’s still adjusting to his new role.
“It’s actually been pretty fun,” Lux said this past weekend. “It’s a challenge, almost, just trying to get more comfortable.”
Lux didn’t have much to smile about earlier this season.
A former first-round pick who was once the Dodgers’ top prospect and 2019 minor league player of the year, Lux was supposed to develop into an everyday major leaguer this year. After overhauling both his swing and training regimen last offseason, he seemed poised to fulfill expectations as the Dodgers’ second baseman of the future.
Instead, he started cold in April, fell into another slump in June, suffered a hamstring strain in July and — after the Dodgers acquired Trea Turner at the trade deadline to play second base — eventually was sent down to triple A in August.
By the start of September, it looked like Lux might get squeezed out of the Dodgers’ postseason plans for a second