Bo Who?

Since the 2016 First-Year player Draft, Dodger fans have been questioning the first selection made by Andrew Friedman and friends. That selection was none other than shortstop Gavin Lux who is currently pushing for a spot on the Dodgers postseason roster. When we questioned the pick we, of course, did not have the inside information that Director of Amateur Scouting Billy Gasparino and his team had. Yet, it seemed to be a pick that did not add up to us.

One reason that it did not seem to be the best possible option was that another shortstop, Bo Bichette, was available at the time that Lux was selected with the 20th overall pick. The plot thickens when we look back and observe that Bichette was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays with the 66th pick. It thickens because Will Smith (32), Jordan Sheffield (36) and Mitchell White (65) were also selected by the Dodgers before Bichette came off the board. So, it wasn’t a Lux or Bichette only option. It was a Lux, or Smith, or Sheffield, or White option.

Dodger fans were not the only ones questioning the Gavin Lux first-round selection.

“Internally and externally, there always seemed to be a little bit of doubt when you talked to people about it,” Dodgers scouting director Billy Gasparino said. “We (the scouting department) never felt it, but I know it existed.”

Both shortstops started the 2016 season in rookie ball with the 6’0”/185-pound Bichette in the Gulf Coast League and the 6’2’-190-pound Lux in the Arizona League. Lux is three and one-half months older than Bichette. After that Bichette seemed to move more quickly through the Blue Jay system and arrived in Toronto on July 7 in the current campaign. He went on a bit of a tear highlighting a missed opportunity by 29 other MLB teams.

Going back a bit, Gavin Lux, who bats left and throws right, had an acceptable 2016 season with the AZL Dodgers and Ogden Raptors. He followed that with a  very disappointing 2017 campaign with the Great Lakes Loons, especially when compared to Bichette who was also in the Midwest League with the Lansing Lugnuts.

Something happened during the 2018 season as Gavin Lux seemed to take flight. Between the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes  (88 games) and Tulsa Drillers (28 games), he posted a triple slash of .324/.399/.514 with a .904 OPS along with 15 home runs and 57 RBI. He struck out 88 times and had 57 walks. Meanwhile with the AA New Hampshire Fisher Cats 131 games) Bichette’s slash line was .286/.343/.453 with an OPS of .796 along with 11 home runs and 74 RBI. He struck out 101 times and had 48 walks.

So what happened that the young shortstop began to blossom during the 2017 season? Gavin Lux happened. What the Dodgers saw in his athleticism and determination vaulted him to the front of the line. That is, to number one in the Dodgers top 30. What Dodger scout Trey Magnuson initially saw in the Kenosha Wisconsin native simply took root.

Baseball America reported that Lux was aware of the questions surrounding him but simply shut out the chatter and went to work. When he was drafted he was a skinny kid at about 165 pounds. He added 10 pounds of muscle heading into 2018 and another 15 as he prepared for this season. He spent hundreds of hours deprogramming his natural swing and replacing it with a modified version that put him on a better plane with the ball.

His fielding work began in the wee hours of the winter mornings at the Dodgers’ complex in Glendale, Ariz., and stretched long into the afternoons. The same resilience Magnuson saw in Lux as an amateur grew in professional ball, in the form of a relentless work ethic to ensure he would never struggle again as he had in his first two years of pro ball.

In 113 games at Double-A Tulsa and Triple-A Oklahoma City in 2019, Lux hit .347 to rank fourth in the minors, while his .421 on-base percentage ranked 10th and his .607 slugging percentage placed sixth. In terms of OPS, he ranked fourth (1.028) overall, behind only Kevin Cron, Jared Walsh and Mark Payton, a trio of older, bat-first players at Triple-A.

Bichette went to Toronto after some time on the IL in 2019 and 56 games at AAA Buffalo. I expect a comparison at AAA is not apt as Bichette has hit well in 38 games with the Blue Jays. However, below are their AAA stats for 2019.

Bichette   56 games, 35 runs 8 HR, 32 RBI, .275/.333/.473, 806 OPS

Lux           49 games, 54 runs, 13 HR, 39 RBI, .392/.478/.719, 1.197 OPS

Lux is getting his first taste of MLB so we will have to wait and see how the rest of the season plays out for him.

In the meantime, he has been selected as the 2019 Baseball America Minor League Baseball Player Of The Year. The last two winners of the recognition were Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Blue Jays) in 2018 and Ronald Acuna (Braves) in 2017. Ever confident, Lux has been a bit surprised by his rapid ascent up the baseball ladder.

“Obviously I feel like I always believed in myself, but I don’t think I would have expected two years ago to play like how I am now, I guess you could say,” Lux said in the Baseball America piece by Kyle Glaser. “It is a little surreal. I’m just enjoying it and having fun every step of the way and taking advantage of it.”

This season, Texas League managers have voted Lux as the league’s best batting prospect, best defensive shortstop and most exciting player.

What do others on the scene say about Gavin Lux?

“He was doing things not only our guys here were talking about,” Oklahoma City manager Travis Barbary said, “ but you see the reaction in the other dugout and they’re like, ‘Man, this guy is unbelievable.”

“You talked to everybody around—the coaches, the principal, everyone in the office—everybody was glowing about Gavin and who he was as a person as well as a player,” Dodger scout Trey Magnuson said.

But what about the guy who ultimately has the final say with Dodger rosters and players? That would be Andrew Friedman, President, Baseball Operations. I don’t think I have heard Friedman lavish as much praise on any other player, certainly not one yet a full-fledged MLB player. It is a testament to his determination, confidence and work ethic that has drawn such praise.

“Each year in spring training we lay out some goals (for our players) for the year,” Andrew Friedman said.“It’s great in theory. It rarely plays out in practice. But it truly did with Gavin. Every time we gave him goals and things to work on, he poured himself into it and has steadily gotten better at all aspects of his game.”

Friedman does not talk about Lux’s baseball IQ, or at least use that term, but his comments reveal a feel for the game that Lux possesses that is far from typical for 21-year-old players.

“His approach in the box is the most mature I’ve ever been around in someone this age,” Friedman recently told the  Los Angeles Times.  “Just his awareness of what pitchers are trying to do, taking feedback from an at-bat or pitch-to-pitch, how to apply it to what his plan of attack is—it’s something I’ve seen a lot of major league players struggle with throughout their careers. It’s very rare to be able to see someone his age to be able to slow down the game and understand that cat and mouse game between the hitter and the pitcher in such an advanced way.”

As Mark would say, “We are in for some kinda’ ride!”, with Gavin Lux.