Dodgers News: Don Mattingly Addresses Outfield Concerns

[new_royalslider id=”50″] It is now September and the infamous 40-man roster has gone into effect in Major League Baseball. For many teams, this is a chance to see what their top prospects have to offer, but for some, the top prospects are fighting for a chance to make the playoff roster and steal playing time from others.

Unfortunately, this scenario has been discussed about for quite some time now in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization. Outfield phenom Joc Pederson has joined the Dodgers and has already affected the outfield picture, causing Dodger fans to raise some eyebrows once again about the outfield situation.

According to Michael Lananna of MLB.com, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said he’s going to stick with what’s been par for course in the outfield and he doesn’t have plans on altering it, despite the recent change:

We’ll just see how it goes,” Mattingly said. “I haven’t made any plan to do anything different than we’ve been doing.”

On Monday, Mattingly said that he’d primarily play Pederson off the bench as a pinch-hitter and pinch-runner. But on Tuesday, Pederson got his first Major League start in center field, in place of a struggling Yasiel Puig, and on Wednesday, Pederson started in center field again while Puig played right field giving Matt Kemp the day off.

While Pederson has started in Puig’s position, Mattingly said Puig shouldn’t feel additional pressure with the young prospect now with the team.

It will be interesting to see how Pederson does with his time up in the big leagues. Will he force Mattingly to play him on an every day basis, or will he make Mattingly’s job easy by struggling?

Pederson collected his first career hit at the Major League level in Tuesday’s win, but has otherwise struggled at the plate.
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