The Dodgers’ starting shortstop on Opening Day may not be as foregone a conclusion as we thought.
With Gavin Lux’s recent struggles defensively to open the spring, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts declined to name him the team’s Opening Day shortstop.
When asked if Lux would be the team’s shortstop come Opening Day, Roberts had a simple answer to reporters, including Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic: “I don’t know.”
While he didn’t say Lux wouldn’t be the team’s starting shortstop, he also made it clear that performance matters and the Dodgers will do what’s best for the team in regards to their Opening Day shortstop.
“The No. 1 goal for us to win baseball games,” Roberts said. “So whatever we have to do… is going to be in the best interest of winning.”
He added: “Performance is paramount at this level… I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
This is a sudden change for the Dodgers, who have been adamant about Lux being the team’s starting shortstop all offseason long.
Lux, who missed all of 2023 with a torn ACL, was finally going to get his opportunity to play shortstop for the Dodgers, something he called every baseball player’s dream.
However, the early returns on Lux haven’t exactly exuded confidence in the Dodgers’ staffers.
Lux has had tons of trouble fielding the shortstop position early in spring, and has had even more trouble making the throw across the diamond to first base. And arm strength isn’t exactly a new issue.
In 2022, Lux was in the eighth percentile of arm strength at 76.1, per Baseball Savant. It was one of the reasons he made more sense for the Dodgers as a second baseman rather than a shortstop, which is a much farther throw to first base.
However, with Corey Seager and Trea Turner gone, and the torn ACL behind him, this was supposed to be the year Lux finally took the reins.
Now, Lux still has plenty of time to prove to the Dodgers that he can play the position at a high level. And Roberts even said on Wednesday that he was still confident in Lux’s ability to figure things out with more repetitions.
However, he also knows that with the beginning of the regular season just two weeks away, the Dodgers need to have a shortstop they can trust to start the season.
Lux isn’t in the lineup on Thursday, but he’ll likely get plenty more opportunities over the next week to play the shortstop position before the team heads to Korea. And even if he’s not the starting shortstop in Korea, he’ll have ample time to figure things out over the course of a long season.
If Lux isn’t the Dodgers’ Opening Day shortstop, they could utilize any one of Miguel Rojas, Chris Taylor or Kiké Hernández at the position.
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