Dodgers may have a looming second base problem that needs to be resolved – Dodgers Digest

Second base. The keystone. The pivot. It’s one of the most overlooked positions on the baseball field. For a while over the past decade, teams used that position to “hide” players who weren’t traditional second basemen, but their bats were valuable enough to remain in the lineup — the Dodgers are no exception (hello, Max Muncy).

Looking at the Dodgers’ depth chart at second base, it’s not great.

1. Tommy Edman
2. Hyeseong Kim
3. Miguel Rojas
4. Alex Vrijland

Those are guys on the 40-man roster. Edman is best used as a utility player (if his ankle allows), while Kim’s Statcast profile doesn’t exactly reflect a starting MLB second baseman (his defense is legit, though). Rojas will retire after this season and the verdict is still out on Freeland, who may be better at shortstop.

Speaking of Edman, outside of his strong 2024 postseason in which he earned the NLCS MVP, he was below average as a Dodger: .229/.280/.392, 85 wRC+. It’s a little better if you filter the times he’s played second base: .249/.292/.418, 96 wRC+, but he still hasn’t been good. Yes, he was dealing with an ankle injury that actually bothered him all season, but this could also be a case of overexposure as he only had one full season with a wRC+ better than 100 (106 in 2022) as a Cardinal, so maybe he’s just not so good. The problem is that the Dodgers are paying him like a 500+ record guy, so he’ll find his way to the diamond one way or another.

But if you look at this current era (since 2013) of Dodger baseball, they have gotten a lot of production out of second base. Here are their ranks in the MLB since ’13:

• .329 OBP – 6th
• .319 wOBA – 7th
• 103 wRC+ – 6th
• 35.0 fWAR – 8th
• 463 DRS – 1st (I’m surprised too!)

It feels like this is a bit misleading, or at the very least not a true representation of what the Dodgers have done with the position over the last thirteen seasons, especially when you look at the last two seasons.

• .313 OBP – 12th
• .305 wOBA – 9th
• 95 wRC+ – 15th
• 5.3 fWAR – 10th
• 88 DRS – 6th

Definitely a bit of a drop, and it’s easy to see why. They didn’t have any All-Star/MVP/future Hall of Famers shadowing the position in 2024 and 2025. And with the current depth chart, these numbers aren’t very likely to improve.

Mookie Betts‘4.5 WAR as a second baseman is right behind Gavin Lux4.6. The friction? Betts collected that number in 200 fewer games than Lux, thanks to an MVP-caliber 2023 season. Trea Turner spent 48 games as the Dodgers’ second baseman after being acquired from the Nationals at the 2021 trade deadline before returning to shortstop in 2022. He posted a 2.4 WAR during that time. The aforementioned Muncy basically played a full season (151) games at second and was perfectly Muncyan: .230/.362/.484, 128 wRC+, 4.1 WAR. Not to mention the preferences of Dee Strange Gordon (3.6 WAR), Chris Taylor (3.5), Howie Kendrick (3.1), Mark Ellis (1.5), Chase Utley (1.5), Rojas (1.2) and Edman (1.2). Some of these guys were developed at different positions or are utility players who played a fair amount of second base.

The minors are a bit bare. Yes, the Dodgers have a lot of shortstop prospects who could eventually move to second base, as Betts (unfortunately) won’t play forever. Those guys include Clock Lindsey, Emil Morales, Joendry Vargas as well as fringe MLBers/prospects such as Austin Gauthier, Sean McLain And Noah Miller. However, none of them are sure (even if Morales is the best of them all) that it will be a long-term solution in the second term.

It’s not like the Dodgers haven’t tried to address the situation. They have made transactions (Brian DozierKendrik, Logan ForsytheUtley), free-agent signings (Ellis, Kim) and internal development (Gordon, Lux, Miguel Vargas). There is no long-term solution for this feature yet. Not every organization can do one Ozzie Albies, Jose Altuve (despite being an imposter), Kettle Marte or Marcus Semien. Maybe that’s why the Dodgers are in the running Bo Bichette market and even exchanged figures. Or maybe that’s why they seem more interested Brendan Donovan than you would think.

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Maybe second base doesn’t need to be a long-term mainstay for the Dodgers. They have won three championships, five pennants and twelve of thirteen division titles in this current run with the amalgamation of players they have deployed at second base. And because the star power is already in the house, that’s not necessarily the case need an All-Star caliber player at the position. But how good would Bichette look at second, turning double plays with Betts and hitting line drives all over Dodger Stadium?

It’s not very likely that they sign Bichette, but it’s not zero either. Trading for Donovan seems the more likely of the two, partly due to the financial commitment and the fact that Donovan would provide much more versatility than signing Bichette to, basically, play one position. The even more likely move is not to tackle second base at all and use those resources to find an outfielder. But if they land Bichette or Donovan (or someone else we’ve never heard of), the Dodgers could at least capture second base for the next few years. Then the Dodgers can focus their efforts at second base on third base, because Muncy, like Mookie, won’t be around forever either.