Tommy Edman Forever
The most unlikely Dodger leads LA to their fourth NL pennant in eight years.
For 12 Octobers I have been waiting.
I have watched as fabulous Dodger seasons have been destroyed by playoff baseball randos (PBRs) like then-rookie Michael Wacha (2013), Matt Adams (2014), Daniel Murphy (2016), Marwin Gonzalez (2017), Steve Pearce (2018), and Eddie Rosario (2021).
I have witnessed Hall of Famers like Clayton Kershaw and Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman slump while these annoying, blessed-by-the-universe-for-a-month baseball players have singlehandedly knocked the mighty Dodgers—who no one feels sorry for— out of the playoffs.
Every time LA traded for a difference-maker at a trading deadline I thought, “Now THIS is the missing piece.” And how could adding superstars like Manny Machado, Max Scherzer, Yu Darvish, and Trea Turner NOT have been what was needed to push Los Angeles over the top? (I dunno. I was there, and those men could not do enough *for* the Dodgers to offset what the PBRs did *to* the Dodgers).
Well, rather than hunting for a baseball virtuoso at this year’s deadline, Los Angeles completed a small deal with St. Louis to finally acquire a pesky and random player of their own in Tommy Edman. They were forced to do this because they let Machado, Turner, and Corey Seager all leave in free agency because they thought Gavin Lux could handle playing shortstop.
When it turned out Lux could not, in fact, handle playing shortstop, LA was interested in the Brewers’ Willy Adames for the role, but could never work out a trade. They tried moving Betts from right field to short (a bad idea), and then got lucky when 35-year-old Miguel Rojas stepped into the position and had a career year.
But since Rojas is roughly age 70 in MLB middle infielder years, he did not finish the season upright and nearly cost the Dodgers the NLDS when gnarly injuries to his body kept him from fielding and throwing the ball in game changing situations.
Anyway, after Rojas was left off the NLCS roster due to a sports hernia that will require off-season surgery, the Dodgers stuck Edman at short because there was literally no one else.
Enrique Hernandez couldn’t do the job because he had to be available to play third base while Max Muncy shifted to first to cover for an injured Freddie Freeman. Chris Taylor couldn’t do it because LA needed him to play second against the Mets left-handed starting pitchers because Lux hits somehow worse than Taylor against them.
So, the Dodgers plugged Edman into the most important position on the field in the most important series of the year. With the NL pennant on the line, they also moved him up into the cleanup spot with Freeman out and catcher Will Smith scuffling.
It worked.