Kuzul

The Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t merely tread water in Clayton Kershaw‘s absence. They went full Michael Phelps and splashed into the lead.

When Kershaw last pitched for the Dodgers on June 26—before his back betrayed him—they were 41-36, eight games behind the hated San Francisco Giants in the National League West.

Entering play Tuesday, L.A. sat in first place, 1.5 games up on San Francisco. 

That’s partly because the Giants have stumbled, going 14-26 since the All-Star break. But give credit to the Dodgers roster for showing resilience and to rookie skipper Dave Roberts for keeping the wheels on.

Now, the really good news for the Chavez Ravine faithful: Kershaw thew a pair of simulated innings without a setback on Tuesday, per Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times. 

“My guess is that Kersh will want to pitch in a major league game tomorrow,” said president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, per McCullough. “With the time he’s missed, my guess would be the next step would be a minor league assignment. I think it will take a little bit of time to build him up in a way for him to be strong through September and hopefully October, as well.”

The words “Kershaw” and “October” occupying the same sentence should leave Dodgers fans salivating.

There are no guarantees, obviously. This herniated disc has been a nagging bane for Kershaw, costing the three-time Cy Young Award winner two months and counting. Rust and recurrence are always concerns, even for the best pitcher on the planet.

A Kershaw revival, however, makes this Los Angeles rotation exponentially more dangerous. 

Rich Hill, whom the Dodgers acquired at the trade deadline, made his belated debut Aug. 24 after struggling with a blister, tossing six scoreless frames in a 1-0 win over the Giants. 

Japanese import Kenta Maeda has been the team’s most consistent starter with a 3.38 ERA and 148 strikeouts in 146.2 innings. And rookie Julio Urias has allowed just one earned run with 14 strikeouts in his last 12 innings.

Add Kershaw, and you’re looking at a potentially fearsome group.

He’s not the only Dodgers hurler on the comeback trail. Brett Anderson (blister), Scott Kazmir (neck irritation), Brandon McCarthy (hip stiffness) and Alex Wood (elbow soreness) are all working their way back as well, per Michael Duarte of NBC Los Angeles.  

Soon, the Dodgers could be swimming in starting pitching depth. That’s a best-case scenario. Given the raft of injuries the club has weathered so far, L.A.’s front office should be rubbing rabbits’ feet and knocking on the conference table until their knuckles bleed.

Even if Kershaw is the sole cavalry, though, the Dodgers will take it and smile.

The offense is clicking, posting the NL’s second-best OPS (.779) since the All-Star break behind shortstop and Rookie of the Year favorite Corey Seager, first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and third baseman Justin Turner. 

The bullpen, anchored by All-Star closer Kenley Jansen, is tied for the best ERA (3.35) in the Senior Circuit.

Now, insert Kershaw. The Dodgers have gone 14-2 in his starts this season and 59-56 in their other games. His 5.5 WAR is tops among all pitchers, despite his protracted DL stint. 

We could keep lobbing stats at you, but what’s the point? Kershaw is great. Like death, taxes and gravity, it’s an ironclad inevitability, assuming he’s healthy.

That’s an assumption until we see him square off against big league hitters.

You can psychoanalyze his reportedly tearful reaction, as McCullough reported, to the trade of veteran catcher A.J. Ellis, which the New York Times‘ Tyler Kepner, among others, called into question:

You can point to his career 4.59 postseason ERA as proof he won’t necessarily carry the Dodgers to the World Series promised land, no matter whether his back is right. The potent Chicago Cubs, resurgent Washington Nationals and even-year Giants all lie in wait, after all.

Set that aside, though. Kershaw is a generational talent. The Dodgers have gained significant ground in the standings without him. They’re now poised to get him back.

Forget treading water. Think full splash ahead.

All satistics current as of Aug. 30 and courtesy of MLB.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

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Scott Van Slyke’s disappointing season will come to a premature end, as the Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder will have surgery on his ailing right wrist. 

Continue for updates. 

Van Slyke Confirms Surgery

Saturday, Aug. 27

Per Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times, Van Slyke will miss the rest of 2016. Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register added that Van Slyke said his surgery is scheduled for Sept. 1, and the arthroscopic procedure will clear out cysts and scar tissue in his wrist. 

Wrist problems have plagued Van Slyke dating back to 2015. He didn’t play in the National League Division Series against the New York Mets last season with inflammation. 

After appearing in four games in the first week of this season, he was placed on the disabled list with wrist irritation. He was out for nearly two months before being activated prior to a June 3 game against the Atlanta Braves when Yasiel Puig was injured. 

Earlier this month, Van Slyke went back on the DL with wrist irritation. The Dodgers moved him to the 60-day disabled list on Aug. 25, officially ending any hope of his returning before the regular season ended. 

The injuries have taken a toll on Van Slyke’s performance. He had a career-high .910 OPS in 98 games during the 2014 season, but that number fell to .700 in 2015 and to .606 this season. 

The Dodgers outfield has been a mess all season, with Howie Kendrick being the only stable presence. Joc Pederson is turning things around in the second half, while Josh Reddick is still acclimating himself to his new team. 

The 30-year-old Van Slyke finds himself in a precarious position because he’s eligible for arbitration this winter for the first time, but his struggles the last two seasons could make him a potential non-tender candidate. 

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Outfielder Andre Ethier hasn’t played a regular-season game in 2016, but the Los Angeles Dodgers are hoping he will be able to contribute before the year is over.

Continue for updates.

Ethier Likely to Be Activated in September

Tuesday, Aug. 23

Although the exact plan hasn’t been announced, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts explained the idea to have Ethier rehab and then return to the team at some point in September, according to Eric Stephen of True Blue LA.

The 34-year-old outfielder broke a bone in his right leg during a spring training game and was placed on the disabled list before the start of the season. The injury apparently took longer to heal than anticipated, and Ethier remained inactive through August.

According to Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times, the veteran finally started to face live pitching. But the manager “estimated he is running at 75 percent.”

“He’s getting closer,” Roberts said Sunday, per McCullough. “But to say when he’s going to go out on a rehab [assignment], I’m not sure.”

The Dodgers hope Ethier will be able to return to action as soon as possible. They are locked in a tight battle with the San Francisco Giants for first place in the National League West and can use any help they can find. They can especially use help in the outfield after Yasiel Puig’s regression this season.

Ethier is coming off a solid 2015 season in which he hit .294 with a .366 on-base percentage to go with 14 home runs in 142 games. He is a consistent hitter in the lineup and has the versatility to play all three outfield positions if needed.

Even if he comes back at less than 100 percent, any contribution would be helpful for the remainder of the regular season and possibly the postseason.

Follow Rob Goldberg on Twitter.

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Even with Adrian Gonzalez‘s awesomeness meter at less than 100 percent for most of the season, the Los Angeles Dodgers haven’t had much trouble hitting in 2016.

Just imagine what they can do now that his meter is far past 100 percent.

There was a hint of what it could be like Monday afternoon at Great American Ball Park. The Dodgers opened a proverbial can of whoop-ass on the Cincinnati Reds, beating them 18-9 to split a four-game series. Gonzalez was responsible for eight of those runs, seven of which came on a trio of home runs.

Here, gaze upon said dingers with glee:

This is the second time Gonzalez, 34, has clubbed three homers in a game. The other time he did it was April 8, 2015, which seemed to signal his seemingly long-lost power was ready for a comeback. Sure enough, he hit 28 homers last year—the most since he clubbed 31 in 2010.

It’s a similar story this time around. The home runs Gonzalez hit were only his 13th, 14th and 15th of 2016, but they upped his total in August to six. That’s twice as many as the veteran first baseman hit in any other month this year.

Now, you could point out that while one of Gonzalez’s dingers was a legit moonshot, the others were pop flies that may not have been home runs in other parks. If you do that, you’re either a nitpicker…or Adrian Gonzalez himself.

“It’s tiny; the ball flies,” Gonzalez said of the Reds’ digs after the game, per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. “Right field’s really short. Left field plays short.

“I hit two fly balls for home runs today. It could easily have been a 1-for-6 game with five outs. It ends up being a pretty good day.”

Still, we’re not about to let Mr. Modesty bust a perfectly good narrative. Especially since this one’s, well, perfectly good.

This season hasn’t been Gonzalez’s best, but it has been a tale of two stretches in which the second is better than the first. That’s an easy thing to pull off if you start from a low enough place—such as the one Gonzalez occupied earlier this year.

Through May 16, he was batting .282 with a .408 slugging percentage—well short of his .493 career mark. Over half his batted balls were going on the ground, and he was also pulling the ball just 31.2 percent of the time.

It turned out Gonzalez was still battling a bad back that had plagued him down the stretch in 2015. That prompted Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts to give Gonzalez a couple of days off, during which he received treatment.

Not counting Monday, Gonzalez had hit .304 with a .451 slugging percentage since his return. In this span, he’s put only 44.8 percent of his batted balls on the ground and pulled the ball 40.8 percent of the time.

By getting more balls airborne and using his pull side more frequently, Gonzalez has been using two of three recommended ingredients for power hitting. The other? Hard contact, which leads us to the monthly progression of his hard-hit rate:

• April: 30.0%
• May: 31.9%
• June: 32.9%
• July: 27.4%
• August: 43.1%

Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs highlighted how Gonzalez’s hard-hit rate hasn’t experienced a peak like this since about two-thirds of the way through 2015. And since he was already doing everything else he needed to do to hit for power, finding this upturn was probably inevitable.

Gonzalez was hitting .368 with a 1.014 OPS in August even before he went off for three jacks. If this is at all indicative of what he can be for the Dodgers down the stretch, Roberts has every right to feel the way he does about his lineup.

“Very excited for our offense,” he said after Monday’s game, per Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times.

The Dodgers offense has been the best in the National League since the All-Star break, and not just because Gonzalez has gotten hot. Also heating up any room they walk into are young studs Corey Seager (22) and Joc Pederson (24) and ol’ standbys Justin Turner, Yasmani Grandal and Howie Kendrick. Chase Utley hasn’t been consistent since the break, but he’s been powerful, with six home runs.

The timing couldn’t be better. Los Angeles had been getting away with makeshift starting pitching all season, but not anymore. After Scott Kazmir’s latest flop Monday, Dodgers starters have a 6.67 ERA in August.

Help is on the way. Trade-deadline acquisition Rich Hill, he of the 2.25 ERA, is slated to make his Dodgers debut Wednesday. Clayton Kershaw, ace pitcher extraordinaire, could return in September.

But as we talked about over the weekend, there’s a nonzero chance Hill and Kershaw are rusty when they come back. Whatever regular-season innings they log could be just as much about getting back into form as they are about shutting down opposing lineups.

As such, the Dodgers’ need for offense will remain intact. It can only help that vintage Gonzalez has returned. He’s in a lineup that’s facing a tall order, but the unit looms that much larger now that he’s swinging a hot stick.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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There are a number of ways a baseball player might injure a finger. Ordering room service at a hotel isn’t traditionally one of them.

But that was the case for Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder Josh Reddick, who hurt a finger while holding his door open for a room-service cart, according to Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times. Reddick was scratched from the starting lineup Monday because of discomfort he experienced while throwing a ball.

Reddick pinch hit in the fifth inning of Monday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds, however, so it appears as though his injury won’t keep him out of the starting lineup for long. That’s good news for the Dodgers, who held a one-game lead over the San Francisco Giants in the National League West following Monday’s 18-9 win.

The Dodgers and Giants open a three-game series Tuesday in Los Angeles.

Reddick, 29, is hitting just .149 with one double in 18 games since the Dodgers acquired him from the Oakland Athletics ahead of the Aug. 1 non-waiver trade deadline.

“I’m at rock-bottom right now,” Reddick said, per McCullough. “But I will climb out.”

In 68 games with the A’s this season, Reddick hit .296 with eight home runs and 28 RBI. In 2015, he notched 20 home runs and 77 RBI while hitting .272 for Oakland.

With Reddick sidelined, Andrew Toles stepped into the starting lineup and went 2-for-5 with his first big league home run and four RBI. Los Angeles won 18-9.

You can follow Timothy Rapp on Twitter.

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Just when the Los Angeles Dodgers have finally caught up with the San Francisco Giants, their starting pitching has gone and quit on them.

Clayton Kershaw and Rich Hill, that’s your cue to come back and fix everything.

Both are on the comeback trail from injuries, and Hill in particular is making real progress. He has yet to pitch for the Dodgers since they acquired him and Josh Reddick from the Oakland A’s at the Aug. 1 deadline. But Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times reports the veteran left-hander is slated to pitch Wednesday:

Hill has been dealing with blister problems that have sidelined him since the middle of July. But in a 78-pitch simulated game in Arizona on Thursday, everything was green on his screen.

“Everything felt great,” Hill said, per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. “The ball came out really good, the velocity maintained, breaking ball was really sharp.”

Kershaw, meanwhile, has been out with a bad back since late June. But on Friday, he was able to throw off a mound for the first time in over a month. And contrary to the bad vibes that came from his last mound session, the world’s best pitcher was practically beaming after this one.

“I felt good,” Kershaw said, per McCullough. “I don’t know. Until you face hitters, you don’t really know for sure. I feel 100 percent right now, so that’s a good sign.”

Unlike Hill, Kershaw’s return is not imminent. Don’t hold your breath waiting for it. In fact, I’m legally obligated to repeat that. Seriously, don’t.

But the idea that Kershaw’s return could happen at all is a big enough development on its own. It wasn’t long ago that Jon Heyman was casting doubt on Kershaw coming back at Today’s Knuckleball. According to McCullough, the Dodgers now “hope he could start again at some point in September.”

Talk about a September call-up. It seems like Kershaw last toed the mound ages ago, but it’s hard to forget just how absurdly good he was in his first 16 starts. With an MLB-best 1.79 ERA, 16.1 strikeout-to-walk ratio and other such fantastical numbers, the lefty was on his way to his fourth Cy Young and possibly his second MVP.

And don’t overlook what Hill could bring to the Dodgers. The 36-year-old journeyman put up a 2.25 ERA in 14 starts for the A’s, bringing his ERA in 18 starts since his re-emergence last season to 2.06. It all passes the smell test, too. 

Of course, Hill and Kershaw have been out so long that there’s hardly a guarantee that both will pick up right where they left off. There could be some rust. Potentially lots of it.

But no matter the amount of rust, there’s not a team in the league that wouldn’t roll the dice on two such dangerous arms at this point in the season. And if there’s one club that has no choice but to hope for the best, it’s the Dodgers.

The Dodgers are owed all the credit in the world for not letting Kershaw’s absence crash their pursuit of the Giants in the NL West. They instead did the opposite. As San Francisco collapsed out of the gate in the second half, the Dodgers surged. This past Tuesday, they finally took over first place.

But now the Giants are back on top again, having taken a half-game lead. And while they still have their problems, the Dodgers have come face-to-face with a big issue that we mentioned way back when: starting pitching.

As our own Danny Knobler pointed out, L.A.’s starters didn’t pick up the slack during Kershaw’s absence. They were mostly mediocre. Now they’ve become downright bad. After Brett Anderson paced the Dodgers to an 11-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday with six runs allowed in three innings, L.A.’s starters now have a 7.03 ERA in August.

This feels like a reckoning. Outside of Kershaw, the Dodgers rotation was a motley crew coming into the season. Five months later, not much has changed. Kenta Maeda has been a nice find, but Scott Kazmir has been up and down and Anderson, Brandon McCarthy, Alex Wood, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Julio Urias, Ross Stripling and Bud Norris have been a mixed bag of injured and ineffective.

As such, the only real surprise is that the Dodgers rotation hasn’t been a team-crippling liability. As Corinne Landrey noted at FanGraphs, Yasmani Grandal has done his part by framing everything for strikes. Otherwise, it speaks to how good the team’s offense and bullpen have been. The latter, in particular, is arguably the best in the National League.

With those assets being as good as they are, it would be hyperbole to say the Dodgers can’t make it to October without Kershaw or Hill at their best. They’re in a comfortable spot in the wild-card race as things stand, and the Giants aren’t going to run away and hide with the division race.

But after three straight NL West titles, simply getting into the postseason is a mere formality for the Dodgers. It means nothing if they don’t go far into October. If they can pair Kershaw and Hill with Maeda, their strong offense and (finally) a strong bullpen, they’ll have everything they need to do just that.

Again, it can’t be taken for granted that Kershaw and Hill will save the Dodgers. But if nothing else, the timing works in their favor. This far from October, there’s plenty of time for the two of them to get back on the mound and back in rhythm. Had L.A. gotten the good news a week or two from now, the clock would be ticking a lot faster.

Having Kershaw and Hill arrive at the last minute and leading the charge isn’t how the Dodgers drew it up. But they’ll take it.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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A little after 1 p.m. Sunday, a Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher not named Clayton Kershaw took the mound.

Fifteen minutes later, the Dodgers were down 5-0, and the pitcher not named Clayton Kershaw was done for the day.

By day’s end, the Dodgers—without Clayton Kershaw—had lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 11-3. Sunday starter Brett Anderson had a sprained left wrist. Rich Hill, acquired at the non-waiver trade deadline because the rotation needed help, had his Dodgers debut pushed back for a third time because of blisters.

It would be funny if it weren’t so predictable. I wrote them off six weeks ago, and I wasn’t the only one.

On second thought, don’t click on that June 30 column. The one where I said the Dodgers’ season could fall apart because of the back injury that sent Kershaw to the disabled list. The one I wrote when the Dodgers were seven games over .500—14-2 in Kershaw’s 16 starts and 30-35 in the 65 games he hadn’t started—and six games behind the first-place San Francisco Giants in the National League West.

The Dodgers have gone 21-15 since then and are tied with the Washington Nationals for the best record in the National League over that span.

As of Monday morning, they were one game behind the Giants in the West and a 93.6 percent bet to make the playoffs one way or another, according to Baseball Prospectus.

So the season didn’t fall apart when Kershaw went down. It didn’t even fall apart when Jon Heyman wrote last week on Today’s Knuckleball that Kershaw might not come back at all this year.

It hasn’t fallen apart, even though the Dodgers have used nine different starting pitchers since Kershaw was hurt. They’ve used 13 starters this season, second-most in MLB behind San Diego, Atlanta and Cincinnati.

Overall, the rotation has been as mediocre as you’d expect since Kershaw went down, posting a 4.82 ERA while averaging fewer than five innings per start. The offense has been good, but six teams in baseball have scored more runs than the Dodgers in that span.

So how are they doing it? How are they playing at what amounts to a 96-win pace without the great Kershaw, who was touted for much of the first half as an MVP candidate?

1. Building the Bullpen

As Sports Illustrated‘s Tom Verducci first pointed out, the Dodgers are on a record pace in one significant category. Their opponents have a .202 batting average in innings 7-9.

That’s not just the best of any team this season, it’s the best of any team in any season over the last 113 years, according to Baseball-Reference.com’s play index, beating the 1968 Detroit Tigers (who won a World Series) and the 2001 Seattle Mariners (who won 116 games).

The Dodgers have used 20 different relievers this year, and they’ve regularly carried an eight-man bullpen. They’ve needed it, because their starters pitch so little and their bullpen pitches so much (only the Reds have more bullpen innings). First-year manager Dave Roberts has maneuvered it so well that only 35-year-old Joe Blanton is among the top 17 in the majors in relief innings pitched.

No Dodger is among the top 12 in relief appearances—proof that Roberts understands he can’t rely on just two or three bullpen arms.

Give Roberts credit, but also remember that a strong, deep bullpen is a trademark of Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers president of baseball operations, dating back to his best Tampa Bay teams.

2. Doing It with Depth 

Fox Sports‘ Ken Rosenthal played up this angle, another one borne out by the numbers.

Unheralded catcher Yasmani Grandal has a .710 slugging percentage since Kershaw went on the DL, the best in baseball. Third baseman Justin Turner is in the top eight in the National League with 29 RBI in that time and has been key in a lineup where so many of the big hitters swing left-handed.

The Dodgers have dumped some big names since Friedman arrived 22 months ago, including Matt Kemp (Grandal was acquired in that deal), Carl Crawford (released with about $35 million left on his contract) and Yasiel Puig (sent to the minor leagues with a $7.2 million salary).

They’ve also played most of this season with Anderson ($15.8 million) and Andre Ethier ($18 million) on the disabled list and the last six weeks with Kershaw ($34.6 million) on the DL.

The current 25-man roster makes only about $113 million this year—more than Friedman ever had to spend with the Rays but hardly a big-market number. It’s working.

3. Managing Matters

Roberts works the bullpen and the depth but also gets high marks for the tone he has set and the clubhouse he has run.

Friedman told Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times:

“He’s been challenged as much as I can imagine someone being challenged in year one, just with the sheer volume of injuries. To handle it the way he has, in his first year, is incredible. I know manager-of-the-year banter doesn’t really pick up yet, but I don’t know how he’s not front and center in that conversation.”

4. Giant Problems

The Giants had the second-best record in the National League (49-31) when Kershaw went on the DL. Had they kept up that .613 pace, they’d have 72 wins and the Dodgers would be seven games behind.

Instead, the Giants opened the door. Because of injuries and poor play coming out of the All-Star break, they’re 17-20 since the Kershaw DL announcement.

Credit the Dodgers for taking advantage.

5. Semi-Soft Schedule

This one isn’t as much of an explanation as you’d think, given how top-heavy the National League is this season. The Dodgers’ 21-15 run includes 12 games against teams that are currently in playoff position (Baltimore, Washington, St. Louis and Boston).

They went 7-5 in those games.

Still, with the injuries that have hit the Cardinals, Miami Marlins and New York Mets, it’s hard to find five worthy NL playoff teams. The Dodgers have played at a 96-win pace with Kershaw on the DL, but they shouldn’t need to keep up that pace to make it to October.

They may need to have a shot at passing the Giants, who they meet for three games next week at Dodger Stadium (just before the Cubs come in) and six more times in September and October.

Even a playoff spot would be an accomplishment, given the challenges the Dodgers have faced and the forecasts of doom when they lost Kershaw. But for a franchise that has played in October seven times in the last 12 years but hasn’t been back to the World Series since winning it with Kirk Gibson in 1988, the goal will always be higher.

No matter what they’ve done over the last six weeks, it’s awfully hard to see them winning in October with the team they have now.

There’s no way they’re a World Series team without Kershaw. This time, I’m sure of it.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

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It can be dangerous to buy into the hype whenever a top baseball prospect begins his major league journey. There’s a long list of examples to vouch for how potential doesn’t always pan out.

And then there are guys like Corey Seager.

The hype surrounding Seager coming into the year seemed almost impossible to live up to. The young Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop had grabbed everyone’s attention with an enticing breakthrough in 2015, hitting .337 in the season’s final month. That attention was solidified when all the big publications rated him as the No. 1 prospect for the 2016 season.

Last month, Seager was an easy choice for the National League All-Star team. And now it says a lot that we’re not even talking about the 22-year-old as the front-runner for National League Rookie of the Year. Barring injury, that award is his for the taking.

Rather, the conversation has shifted to Seager’s place in the NL MVP race. Mike Petriello of MLB.com put Seager’s candidacy on the table last week, and his case is legit. The wins above replacement leaderboards at Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs don’t dispute the notion Seager is one of the NL’s very best players.

This is happening largely because of Seager’s bat. He’s hitting .302 with a .357 OBP and an .889 OPS. Fellow rookie shortstop Aledmys Diaz has a higher OPS, but the cavernous dimensions of Dodger Stadium allow Seager to lead all shortstops, rookie or otherwise, in adjusted offense.

Of course, Seager being a .300 hitter is a case of his living up to expectations rather than a case of exceeding them. His .337 average in the majors last year was preceded by a .307 average in the minors, and all the gurus had nothing but praise for the skills that made these numbers possible.

For example, Keith Law of ESPN.com touted Seager’s approach as the reason why he was baseball’s top prospect. Christopher Crawford of Baseball Prospectus preferred to drool over Seager’s swing, which he saw as one “that you can watch over and over again without ever getting tired of the repetition.”

The surprising part of Seager’s superstar emergence is his power. He came into the year having never hit more than 20 home runs in any professional season. In Monday’s 9-4 win over the Philadelphia Phillies, he clubbed his 20th and 21st dingers of 2016.

Seager likely doesn’t have enough power to surpass Mike Piazza’s Dodgers rookie record of 35 home runs. But with a little under two months to go, he could definitely get to 30. Pretty good for a guy Baseball America claimed would hit around 25 home runs once he reached his prime.

Where’s the extra power coming from?

“I never really hit this many,” Seager told Doug Padilla of ESPN.com. “It’s probably one of those things that who knows what this is. It’s happening.”

What’s clear, though, is that Seager isn’t selling out for power. He entered Monday with a 1.5 ground ball-to-fly ball ratio. Most true power hitters keep their marks under 1.0. 

Seager is letting his power come more naturally. He may not put the ball in the air often, but he doesn’t hit cans of corn when he does. Even before he mashed his latest dingers, he was averaging 95.2 miles per hour on his fly balls and line drives, according to Baseball Savant. That was ahead of fellow rookie slugger Trevor Story and just a few ticks shy of guys like Chris Davis and Kris Bryant.

This is not the only area where Seager has been a pleasant surprise. As much as everyone was praising his bat coming into the year, “meh” was the general opinion on his defense.

“Seager has the hands for short but not the speed or agility, while his arm would play anywhere on the diamond,” wrote Law, “making a move to third base…[is] the most probable long-term outcome.”

This could still be true, but the defensive metrics say there’s no hurry. Defensive runs saved claims Seager’s defense at shortstop has saved four runs. According to ultimate zone rating, it’s more like 7.7. If it’s the latter that has the right idea, Seager is safe among the league’s top 10 defensive shortstops.

This makes him come off like a guy who carries a chip on his shoulder. That may be because he does.

“Since the day I signed I was told I would [have to] move to third base,” Seager told Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports over the All-Star break. “… Nobody had seen you play, and you’re already getting written off.”

What’s more, Seager has been at his best at a time when the Dodgers have needed it most.

A back injury has rendered staff ace Clayton Kershaw, he of the three Cy Youngs and one MVP, unable to pitch since June 26. It was easy to predict the Dodgers’ demise at the time, but Seager is one of the forces staving it off. All he’s done since Kershaw’s injury is hit .311 with a .900 OPS, helping to lead the Dodgers to a 22-13 record. Their deficit in the NL West is just one game.

For now, Seager isn’t the no-brainer in the NL MVP race he is in the NL Rookie of the Year race. It’s a crowded field, and he faces stiff competition from guys like Bryant and Daniel Murphy. If the Colorado Rockies get hot again, National League home run and RBI leader Nolan Arenado could crash the party.

The fact Seager is even a part of this discussion, however, is as fitting as any statement one could make about his rookie season. In the face of overwhelming expectations, he’s managed to overwhelm expectations.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked. 

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It’s not easy to take Justin Turner seriously as a star player. He used to be an anonymous New York Mets utility guy. He’s now a Los Angeles Dodger not named Clayton Kershaw, Adrian Gonzalez or Corey Seager. I won’t say he doesn’t have the “good face,” but it’s confirmed he looks like a Muppet.

But I will propose this: Turner is not only a really good player, but an elite one when he has his legs under him.

It feels necessary to bring this up in part because of how insanely hot the 31-year-old third baseman has been. He was sporting a .642 OPS as recently as June 3. The next day, a two-hit game catapulted him to the following numbers over his last 48 games: a .321/.370/.642 slash line with 15 home runs.

It also feels necessary because of the recent buzz in the air about the Dodgers possibly making a seismic shift at the hot corner. Although it was really only a suggestion, Jon Paul Morosi of MLB.com raised some eyebrows when he linked the Dodgers to Tampa Bay Rays star Evan Longoria last month.

Obviously, nothing materialized. Longoria is still safe and sound in Tampa Bay, and Turner is still wearing Dodger blue.

But since that “rumor” is nothing if not a good conversation starter, let’s have this one: Would the Dodgers actually have upgraded if they’d gone from Turner to Longoria?

By FanGraphs‘ reckoning, Longoria has only been worth 0.5 more wins above replacement than Turner in 2016. That’s partially owed to a small difference in their offensive performances. Per weighted runs created plus, a metric that rates hitting production on a scale where 100 is league average, Longoria (128) has been only three percentage points better than Turner (125).

Look beyond just 2016, however, and it’s no contest. Here’s how wRC+ ranks the top offensive third basemen in the league over the last three seasons:

1. Josh Donaldson: 146
2. Justin Turner: 140

Ranking just behind Donaldson, who is at least 20 different shades of stupendous, in anything is a heck of an accomplishment. The heck of it is that Turner’s 2014-2016 offensive output might rank ahead of Donaldson’s had it not been for the injury bug.

It seemed like a fluke when Turner broke through with a .340 average and .897 OPS in 109 games in 2014 after the Dodgers picked him up off the scrapheap that winter. However, he hit .323 with a .950 OPS in his first 87 games in 2015, putting any “fluke” reasoning on thin ice.

But then he developed an infection in his leg last July that sidelined him into mid-August. He wasn’t the same after he returned, hitting just .237 with a .691 OPS. He would later have microfracture knee surgery in the fall. In June, Doug Padilla of ESPN.com observed that surgery “looks to have taken a toll on him” as he struggled out of the gate.

But as his red-hot hitting suggests, Turner has since snapped out of it.

“I’m definitely feeling comfortable again,” Turner told Padilla in July. “I felt comfortable all year. I don’t know what was going on those first two months. But yeah, I feel good, I feel comfortable, and I’m getting better results.”

It’s fair to say the Dodgers have experienced two different versions of Turner: the unhealthy one and the healthy one. Focus on what the healthy one has done in 2014, 2015 and 2016, and the numbers are staggering:

Anybody who can put up a wRC+ in the high 150s or high 160s isn’t just a really good hitter. That’s territory that only Mike Trout has consistently occupied over the last three years, and that only a handful of heavy hitters—Trout, Donaldson, David Ortiz, Jose Altuve, Daniel Murphy and Matt Carpenter—are occupying in 2016.

We had to jump through some hoops to put Turner in this kind of company, but the reality that it can be done speaks volumes about how far he’s come as a Dodger.

Turner was really only a glove-for-hire when the Dodgers picked him up on a minor league contract in 2014. He had played all over the infield in three seasons with the Mets but was just a .265/.326/.370 hitter with a 97 wRC+. In other words, below average.

But Turner has always had a good approach. He’s maintained a well-below-average strikeout rate while mostly keeping his walk rate in the realm of average. If a hitter can do that, all he needs to become complete is an ability to barrel the ball.

This is where Marlon Byrd emerges as a key figure in the Turner legend.

Turner crossed paths with Byrd when the two were with the Mets in 2013, the first season of Byrd’s late-career transformation into a power threat. One likely reason for that isn’t fun to think about, but it’s one of the other reasons that Turner latched on to.

“The old saying is ‘stay back stay back stay back.’ Well, [Byrd] was talking about doing the opposite,” Turner told Eno Sarris of FanGraphs last year. “Not backing the ball up, going out and getting it. Being aggressive and get out there and get on your front side, get off your back side.”

This advice opened the door for Turner to stop being content with making contact and instead prioritize making good contact. The new him showed signs of life in 2013, as he put more balls in the air and made more hard contact.

When he’s been on two good legs as a Dodger, he’s mostly continued to up the ante:

Going down this path could have wrecked Turner’s approach. Instead, it’s been like a rock. He’s still tough to strike out and is still taking his walks. Mix that with an increasing amount of solid contact, and it’s no surprise that health has been the only thing barring him from the hitting elite.

Because Turner is on the wrong side of 30, there should be some doubt about how much longer he can keep this up. It’s hard to argue with Tim Dierkes‘ rankings for this winter’s top free agents at MLB Trade Rumors, in which Turner barely missed out on the top 10.

But right now, that’s neither here nor there for the Dodgers. Their hunt for an elusive World Series title got off to a rocky start, but their rebound to the tune of a 59-48 record has them breathing down the San Francisco Giants‘ necks in the National League West. Turner has had a big hand in this, as his hot hitting is in the middle of a team-wide offensive surge the last two months.

That’s what stars can do.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked and are current through August 2.

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Yasiel Puig is a good baseball player.

With all the acrimony and controversy swirling around the Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder, it’s easy to lose sight of that fact. But it’s a fact, nonetheless.

And yet, it’s been a while since results were consistently there for Puig.

Now, the mercurial Cuban’s career in Dodger blue is on life support after the team optioned him to Triple-A on Tuesday, per Ken Gurnick of MLB.com.

The move came after protracted trade speculation, as Gurnick outlined:

Puig’s demotion culminates two weeks of drama and intrigue, beginning with a reported tight hamstring, followed by more than a week of limited playing time and trade rumors. According to his agent, Puig was told that he would be traded Monday, and if he wasn’t and the Dodgers acquired an outfielder, Puig would be demoted.

The Dodgers acquired a right fielder at the trade deadline, landing Josh Reddick along with southpaw starter Rich Hill from the Oakland Athletics.

And sure enough, Puig was demoted.

It’s a steep, vertigo-inducing fall for a guy who was one of the game’s most exciting stars just a few seasons ago.

Puig arrived with a bang in 2013, posting a .925 OPS in 104 games and finishing second in National League Rookie of the Year voting. The following year, he was an All-Star and top-20 NL MVP finisher.

In 2015, however, Puig appeared in just 79 games while dealing with injuries and inconsistency, posting a career-low .758 OPS.

His problems extended beyond normal growing pains. In December 2015, Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller painted a picture of a player teetering on the brink:

Tucked somewhere among the salacious stories of [Zack] Greinke tossing Puig’s suitcase off the bus and onto a street in Chicago, ace Clayton Kershaw allegedly advising the Dodgers front office this winter to dump the outfielder and third baseman Justin Turner almost getting into a fight with Puig last spring looms one of the biggest questions facing the Dodgers for 2016:

Is the relationship between Puig and his teammates inside the Dodgers’ clubhouse irreparably broken?

Not everyone thought it was. Veteran first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, for one, came to Puig’s defense at the time.

But one former Dodger didn’t mince words.

“He is the worst person I’ve ever seen in this game,” the unnamed player said, per Miller. “Ever.”

That may sound like hyperbole sparked by Puig’s brash, bat-flipping antics. The old school clashing with the new school, with predictably cantankerous results.

But the preponderance of evidence leans toward Puig being a polarizing clubhouse presence.

That’s fine when you’re producing. When you’re not? That’s a different story.

So as Puig struggled with career lows in on-base percentage (.320) and slugging percentage (.386) in 2016, the ill will apparently festered.

And then, a 25-year-old preternatural athlete with five-tool potential found himself ticketed for bus rides in the minor leagues.

Before that, the Dodgers put Puig on the trading block, per Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, but didn’t receive an acceptable offer.

So they sent him down, unceremoniously, despite the fact he hit .308 with an .830 OPS since returning from a hamstring injury in June.

Clearly, Los Angeles had reached the end of its rope with Puig.

Reddick is only a rental, yet the club seems prepared to cast aside a man who looked like a franchise building block a few short years ago—even, it’s worth noting, in the midst of a tight divisional race with the archrival San Francisco Giants, when a few hot weeks from Puig could make all the difference.

The next logical step is for the Dodgers to put Puig on waivers to see if they can move him before Aug. 31. Sports Illustrated‘s Jay Jaffe, among others, listed Puig as a leading waiver candidate. If that doesn’t happen, look for Los Angeles to aggressively shop him over the winter amid a weak free-agent class.

It’s easy to imagine a curious club taking a flier. Again, Puig is just 25. He’s only recently removed from results that teased superstar possibilities. And he’s locked into an affordable contract that pays him less than $20 million through 2018.

Plenty of players his age are figuring out the majors—forget lighting them on fire.

In a way, Puig is like a comet that burned fast and bright across the sky. The question is: Will he crash to Earth or streak across the heavens again?

Puig’s tenure with the Dodgers is likely coming to an end one way or another.

But he’s still a good baseball player. Surely that will be enough for someone, somewhere to give him a second chance.

All statistics accurate as of Aug. 2 and courtesy of MLB.com and Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.

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