Minor League End Of Season Evaluations: Outfielder Tony Gwynn

NAME:  Tony Gwynn

POSITION: Outfielder

HEIGHT: 5-11

WEIGHT: 195 LBS

SEASON IN REVIEW:

After spending a lot of last year on the big league roster, Gwynn spent his year in Triple-A playing for the Albuquerque Isotopes. With a plethera of outfielders including Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig, Carl Crawford and Andre Eithier, it was difficult for the Dodgers to find a spot on the everyday roster for him. Also, with current 40-man roster players Scott Van Slyke and Alex Castellanos, Gwynn didn’t seem to fit into the Dodgers’ plans this season.

However, this season for the Isotopes, Gwynn had a very strong showing as he hit .300 in 107 games. He scored 53 runs batting in front of Van Slyke for most of the season and also had 27 RBI’s to go along with two homeruns, 12 stolen bases and 49 walks.

Chris Jackson, who covers the Isotopes for the Examiner and MILB.com, had this to say about him:

Great clubhouse guy, positive and upbeat. Pretty much same player, singles hitter, some speed, good defense.

You would think that these numbers would for sure produce at least a chance at the 40-man roster, but with the stacked outfield that the Dodgers possess, there just was not enough room for Gwynn. Last year, Gwynn played in 103 games with the Dodgers, but he was apart of a numbers game this season.

FUTURE GOING FORWARD:

Gwynn looks to be burried behind outfielders who have undeniable talent,which isn’t favorable for Gwynn to be called up again the the Dodgers unless there are a number of injuries.

The Dodgers will probably look to keep their outfield core of Kemp, Puig, and Crawford in-tact for the foreseeale future. Likely they will also look to bring Van Slyke up to join the big league roster as he has shown that he can be a more than productive player at the big league level which again does not look good for Gwynn.

Jackson also talked about how he expects Gwynn to receive a minor-league contract, maybe from another team:

He’ll be a minor-league FA, figure he might get another AAA contract somewhere for 2014. He has a future in coaching if no one signs him.

For Gwynn I would think that the best case scenario would be a change of scenerary by way of trade or new contract. He has big league talent that any team would be lucky to have, but it does not look like it will be used by the Dodgers. His dad, Tony Gwynn Sr., is a coach so maybe he’ll choose to go down that route.

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In case you missed it, here’s the Dodgers pool celebration, PLUS Yasiel Puig’s celebration dance off!

http://youtu.be/LknQOqL7uME