Looking Ahead
The Dodgers are the most dominant team in baseball right about now, but I am always looking forward to what will happen next year and beyond. Next year could bring some BIG CHANGES for the Dodgers. Let me list what I think they will be: Max Muncy will not be re-signed. He will…
The Dodgers are the most dominant team in baseball right about now, but I am always looking forward to what will happen next year and beyond. Next year could bring some BIG CHANGES for the Dodgers. Let me list what I think they will be:
- Max Muncy will not be re-signed. He will be 35 this year and 36 next year. It’s time! Just ike Justin Turner, Max is going to decline.
- Miguel Rojas will retire and join the Dodgers front office or coaching staff.
- Michael Conforto will be gone by then… if not sooner.
- Kike Hernandez will retire a Dodger and go to work for the team.
- Mookie Betts will move to 2B, his best position.
- Dalton Rushing will become the Dodgers’ starting catcher. Oh, and along the way, he will become an All-Star Catcher.
- Will Smith will move to third base and work on this transition over the winter and in Spring Training. His bat will play there. He has become an elite hitter, but catching wears him down.
- Teoscar Hernández will move to LF. Andy Pages will move to RF, not because he can’t play CF, but because he is an elite RF’er, and Tommy Edman will move to CF, where he is also elite.
- That leaves SS to Hyesoeng Kim and Alex Freeland. I think Freeland will win the spot as Kim will be the “play-all-over” utility man. Elijah Hainline is also coming on fast – 22 year-old SS is hitting .300/.849 OPS between RC and OKC this year.
The Lineup will look like this:
- Ohtani DH
- Betts 2B
- Freeman 1B
- Smith 3B
- Rushing C
- Hernandez LF
- Edman CF
- Pages RF
- Freeland SS
Utility: Kim, Feduccia, Outman, ???
The key to this is Dalton Rushing, whom the pitchers love to pitch to and whose bat will be that of a slugger. He is very Muncy-esque. The Dodgers and all of his teammates are high on Dalton. Will Smith will be an All-Star third baseman (maybe not every year, but he will excel at that spot). SS is also taxing on Mookie. He is doing a great job there, but his offense is suffering. I could even see a move being made this year where Mookie moves to 2B, Conforto is DFA’d, and the outfield rotates with Kim and Freeland manning SS. If they are considering that, they should do it soon.
OK, let your heads explode!
X-CITES
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Discussion (97)
Disagree, not disagreeable
I think the Dodgers will go for the Japanese 3B next year, so it would be very logical and appropriate to keep Muncy. Moving Smith to 3B could be an option only if they can’t get the Japanese 3B.
I read about signing Kelly before the SD series to destroy Machado’s head, and while I loved the idea, I’d rather have Tatis for that.
I believe:
Max back
Kike plays on another team
Smith still catching
Agree with most of that Mark, but I also believe that Muncy will be brought back for one more year at that price. He can DH and give Ohtani a breather now and then, and he could also spell Freddie at first. I like him better there than Kike. The deadline is going to be very interesting. I think LA makes at least 2 trades, a bullpen arm being one.
The Los Angeles Dodgers and Kansas City Royals will be delayed on Sunday for their series finale.
The start time is still TBD for the rubber match, but the tarp is out and the field won’t be ready for the 11:10 a.m P.T scheduled time for first pitch.
After the All Star Break,there will be 65 games remaining in the regular season. Assuming Ohtoni has built up to 5 innings by then, a six man rotation will be fully functional. If all ptchers go at least 5 innings in the remaining schedule,Snell and Glasnow will only have pitched approximately 75 innings or less before the playoffs start IF they can remain healthy and injury free,a BIG IF. May should be removed from the starting rotation when both Snell and Glasnow return. Yamamota should take a trip to the IL for some R&R for some undisclosed injury after the Break to get ready for October baseball. Sheehan should definitely be part of the six man rotation.
Noah Davis Recalled, Luis García Designated For Assignment. Opens up a spot on the 40 man roster for Edgardo Henriquez This was the fifth consecutive scoreless outing for the flame-throwing Henriquez, who has pitched in eleven games in June, indicating that he is healthy.
Saturday scores
Oklahoma 7, Sacramento 4
Tulsa 6, Frisco 1
Fort Wayne 2, Great Lakes 1
San Jose 12, Rancho Cucamonga
ACL Dodgers 16, ACL Athletics 9
Sunday schedule
Great Lakes (Brooks Auger) at Fort Wayne (Luis Gutierrez), 10:05 AM PST
Oklahoma City (Matt Sauer) at Sacramento (Carson Whisenhunt), 1:05 PM PST
Tulsa (Patrick Copen) at Frisco (Trey Supak), 4:05 PM, PST
Rancho Cucamonga (Logan Tabeling) at San Jose (Drake George), 5:00 PM, PST
2:10 PM ET
Dodgers (52-32)
Royals (39-44)
SP Lou Trevino (opener)
3-0 4.06 ERA
SP Kris Bubic L
6-5 2.18 ERA
Confirmed Lineup
DH S. Ohtani L
SS Mookie Betts R
RF T. Hernandez R
C Will Smith R
CF Tommy Edman S
LF Andy Pages R
3B Max Muncy L
1B E. Hernandez R
2B Miguel Rojas R
Justin Wrobleski L 3-2 4.91 ERA will pitch after the opener
Max has a team friendly option next year for $10MM as I recall. I think he stays one more year. I don’t know why people talk of Will playing 3B. He last played 3B in 2021 (2 innings). He last saw significant time (80 innings) in AAA in 2018. After years of catching every day, moving to 3B is a tough transition and it’s not like he was ever very good there