Dodgers will get a glimpse of Gavin Lux at shortstop while Corey Seager is out
The Los Angeles Dodgers have another significant injury with shortstop Corey Seager out awhile, but one-time top prospect Gavin Lux now has an opportunity in front of him.
The Los Angeles Dodgers added to their list of notable injured players on Saturday, when shortstop Corey Seager was hit on his right hand by a pitch from Marlins pitcher Ross Detwiler.
Seager was of course placed on the IL Sunday with a fractured hand, but overall the news is good. Manager Dave Roberts said Seager has a fractured fifth metacarpal in his right hand, but he will not need surgery.
Seager will probably miss at least a month. Roberts added the plan is for Gavin Lux to get the majority of the time at shortstop in the interim.
The Dodgers are perpetually in an enviable position. They are able to spend freely, while also having a top-notch farm system to create a continuous pipeline of homegrown talent as the core of the team. So someone like Lux, a first-round pick in 2016 out of high school and regarded by at least three prominent outlets as a top-five prospect in all of baseball heading into 2020, hasn’t gotten a ton of opportunity yet.
Lux started the season with the Dodgers, and he’s been the primary second baseman to this point. So he has actually played more games in the big leagues (71) now than he has in Triple-A (49 games). A normal 2020 season would have surely yielded some time in Triple-A for Lux, but his only available action was 19 games with the Dodgers.
Over 260 major league plate appearances over the last three seasons (entering Sunday), Lux has a .218/.273/.351 slash-line with 30 RBI and 17 extra base hits (six home runs). But he is hitting .289 with seven RBI and a .733 OPS in 12 May games (again, entering Sunday), as he has cut down his strikeout rate.
Seager is headed for free agency after the season. The Dodgers have the means to keep him if they’d like to, but they won’t necessarily be painted into a corner either. If the Dodgers hesitate at all, no one would fault Seager if he takes a big deal elsewhere.
The upcoming run playing shortstop in Seager’s place is not going to determine the course of Lux’s career. But he has a clear opportunity in front of him, and the Dodgers can get a glimpse at an option to replace Seager in 2022 if it comes to that.