Dodgers News: Left Field Still Has No Clear Answer
If you were looking for who the Opening Day left fielder was going to be already, you might have to wait a little longer. As of right now, the Los Angeles Dodgers don’t have an everyday left fielder on their roster – at least from a job point of view. They still have left fielders, but not an everyday one.
There are a lot of potential candidates on the roster in guys such as Carl Crawford, Alex Guerrero, Scott Van Slyke, Andre Ethier, and Kike Hernandez. And therein lies the problem. There are too many mouths to feed and not enough food to go around as far as the left field job is concerned.
ICYMI: Magic Johnson Bests Peyton Manning in Egg Russian Roulette
From Ken Gurnick of MLB dot com:
Eight players started there in 2015 — the most of any of the eight positions — and most of those players are returning in 2016, with no clear starter going into Spring Training and possibly none coming out of it.
The last part is pretty scary. There is no clear starter at all, and there doesn’t seem to be one in mind. Sure, Ethier was really good in 2015, but he was basically a platoon player against only right-handers. He hit just .200 against lefties in 48 plate appearances. That means it’ll have to be a platoon yet again.
Of course, that’s if the team keeps Ethier (or Guerrero) at all. They’re reportedly looking to trade both, with the Dodgers pushing harder for a team to take Guerrero. Crawford has been injury prone the last several years which lends itself to a whole new batch of issues.
As Spring Training fully gets underway on the 24th of February, the Dodgers have a lot of questions that they need to have answered by the time camp ends. The most prevailing and important one is who the starting left fielder happens to be. They better figure something out soon or else more questions will arise.
Dodgers News: Kershaw Tops MLB’s Rotation List
Either hits well against righties while Van Slyke hits well against lefties. Problem solved! Everyone else can backup or pinch-hit.