By removing a key piece from their personnel puzzle this week, the Dodgers roster picture might actually be somewhat clearer.
Gone is Gavin Lux, the homegrown infielder who, after years of trade speculation, was finally dealt to the Cincinnati Reds for a prospect and draft pick on Monday. What remains is a lineup trait the club desires most, having enhanced the “optionality” — as Dodgers brass likes to say — of a position player group that can now be mixed and matched next season in a number of new ways.
With Lux, the Dodgers lineup seemed somewhat cemented. He and Mookie Betts would’ve been up the middle at second base and shortstop, respectively. Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy would’ve played every day at the corner infield spots. And Michael Conforto, Tommy Edman and Teoscar Hernández would have been locked into the three outfield spots.
That was a potentially potent collection of talent.
But once the team landed Korean utility infielder Hyeseong Kim last week, they were suddenly limited in how they could deploy their vast arsenal of versatile weapons.
That’s why, even as general manager Brandon Gomes maintained public support for Lux in the wake of the Kim signing, a trade involving the former first-round pick — or one of the team’s other numerous middle infielder options — always appeared likely.
So, while the team will be sacrificing potential offensive upside in Lux, who came to life late last season in his return from a torn ACL, it is banking on the overall versatility of the roster instead, turning what once looked like a relatively defined lineup into much more of a blank canvas.
Come opening day, Freeman and Muncy will still be the corner infielders. Hernández and Conforto will still be in right and left, respectively. But up the middle, the team could toy around with different ideas, and experiment with myriad ways to maximize production.
So far this offseason, the team has remained committed to giving Betts an extended run back at shortstop, where he started last season before shifting to right field following his return from a broken hand. In a perfect world, Betts will continue to develop defensively into a legitimate everyday option at the position. But if he doesn’t, the club will now have a much simpler fall-back plan, capable of sliding him over to a second base position he has handled much more seamlessly in recent seasons.
In the meantime, Kim could take over Lux’s role at second base, at least as a platoon option against right-handed pitching. And if a need at shortstop arises later in the year, Kim could also contribute there — something the Dodgers seemed more hesitant to do with Lux, after his defensive struggles at the shortstop throughout his career.
Lux’s departure could also alter Edman’s role. Instead of being locked into an everyday spot in center, there might be more infield opportunities for the smooth-fielding utilityman, who served as the Dodgers’ primary shortstop in last year’s World Series run.
The knock-on effects won’t end there. Where second-year outfielder Andy Pages previously seemed boxed out of consistent playing time, he might now have a pathway to more regular at-bats against left-handed pitching. There is more playing time to go around for bench options like Miguel Rojas and Chris Taylor as well.
The cost of all this, of course, is the loss of Lux’s potentially dynamic bat. Though the former top prospect never consistently met the sky-high expectations that accompanied him over his five-year Dodgers tenure, he showed flashes of impact production near the end of last season, batting .304 with a .899 OPS over the second half of the season.
There might not be any one player to compensate for that, including Kim (whose bargain $4.2 million annual salary suggests uncertainties about how well his bat will translate to the majors).
And even if the Dodgers make another addition before the start of the season (a reunion with free agent Kiké Hernández, for example, seems more feasible than it did before Lux’s departure), any offensive gains the Dodgers make this year will likely have to come from the aggregate.
It’s a situation, however, the team is comfortable being in. For years, both their words and actions have emphasized the value they place on versatile players and optionality with their roster. And by dealing Lux, they’ve given themselves exactly that, making their 2025 team lineup more fluid, adaptable and interchangeable than it had looked before.
