PHOENIX – The Los Angeles Dodgers’ billion-dollar offseason will be the talk of their winter, but their most consistent move of the spring could very well be making their Gold Glove right fielder their new everyday shortstop.
As much as this club’s winter plans were lining up, there was very little, at least publicly, to suggest the Dodgers had any idea they were going to write a roster card that included Mookie Betts at shortstop with 12 days left before the season opener. in Seoul, South Korea. Especially since just weeks ago, general manager Brandon Gomez announced that Gavin Lux would “definitely” be the club’s everyday shortstop.
But for the second spring in a row, Lux’s supposed ascension to the shortstop role failed to make it out of spring training. The 26-year-old former top prospect, who is coming off a torn ACL suffered last spring, has experienced a recurrence of throwing problems that have caused the club’s best-laid plans to go awry.
So Friday’s lineup card had Betts at shortstop and Lux back at second base, where he’s played every day for the club through his last healthy season in 2022. This isn’t a one-day experiment.
“Permanent for now,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
The Dodgers’ public comments surrounding Lux this winter were emphatic in their praise; after sitting behind $300-plus million shortstops in Corey Seager and Trea Turner, Lux will finally come off the wings. Yet the club is still monitoring the market for potential upgrades at the position this winter and remains interested in long-time target Willie Adames of the Brewers, as Athletic reported on Thursday.
Concerns about the club’s left-back have grown stronger since Lux was cleared to return to the game. The former first-round pick committed errors in each of his first two chances this spring, sending his first throw to first baseman Kevin Padlo on Feb. 28 and seemingly bouncing every throw to first base that followed. Lux has had trouble throwing before in his prospect days, prompting the club to place him in the backfield with special assistant Jose Vizcaino in the spring of 2019; the infielder opened up about his struggles with anxiety and the work the club has done with mental skills coach Brent Walker to get Lux back to a productive level as a second baseman in 2022.
After speaking with Lux and Betts on Thursday, Roberts announced that Lux will be back there in 2024.
“He was feeling the weight of it,” Roberts said, alluding to the mental aspect of Lux’s troubles. Within six spring training games and just 10 defensive chances, the organization pulled the plug. Less than two weeks before the start of the season, Roberts said, they didn’t have much of a choice.
“The calendar where we’re at, we have to make a decision,” Roberts said. “I think it’s the best thing for the Dodgers right now.”
Lux is expected to move all of his work to second base, Roberts said, rather than continue to deal with throwing issues on duty at shortstop. Instead of picking him outright, the Dodgers still want to have Lux’s bat in their order, with the left-handed hitter finding form with the best offensive season of his career in 2022 (109 OPS+).
Betts said he called Lux on Thursday, urging his doubles partner with a message: “Nothing has changed except your view of home plate. We are still together in the middle. We’re still doing this thing together. So it doesn’t really matter.
But Friday’s announcement cemented a situation that escalated quickly and quite obviously. But going to Betts, who himself hadn’t played shortstop in nearly a decade before being forced into 16 games (12 starts) last season, presents another potential challenge to baseball’s most glamorous roster. The Dodgers had already announced this winter that the six-time Gold Glove right fielder would move to second base essentially full-time after unlocking the club’s roster as a de facto reliever a year ago; Betts, of course, had more established experience on the right side of the infield after being drafted to that position.
“It’s something I know he didn’t expect, we didn’t expect,” Roberts said. “(But) you never worry about the emotional side of things or the psychological side of things when it comes to switching positions with Mookie.”
Forced to stay on the other side of the diamond last season after Lux’s knee injury and after Miguel Rojas suffered a hip injury, Betts saw just 46 at-bats. That he ranked neutral there in such a small sample was a testament to his athleticism, but it reflected the fragile foundation the club had at the position after Lux’s injury. Betts said he hasn’t played shortstop every day since he was in high school — last year’s brief cameos, he said, provide little in the way of preparation for that assignment.
“It’s all tough playing shortstop,” Betts said, “but somebody’s got to do it.
“Everything is changing. But it is what it is. This is the task at hand and nobody cares. No one cares what I have to go through. I don’t care what I have to go through. Any day we’re in Korea, I’ll be ready to go.
Now they were left in a similar position. The rest of their shortstop depth chart aside from Lux looks almost identical to the one from a year ago. Rojas has been sterling defensively, but is coming off back-to-back offensive seasons that graded out well below average. Kiké Hernández struggled mightily as the Red Sox’ full-time shortstop early last season before dealing with a two-year abdominal injury with double hernia surgery last winter. Chris Taylor has experience at the position, but is needed in the outfield and dealt with a lingering knee problem last summer. Either can still log starts at the position, with Betts still free to play second base, but the Dodgers have settled on their most likely lineup.
An offseason that seemingly had it all still had one surprise up its sleeve.
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(Photo: Michael Reeves/Getty Images)