The Dodgers have found the switches to their roster
The 2016 season for the Dodgers has shown sparks of a World Series caliber team.
This season has also shown peaks of sometimes being a team that may not even make the playoffs this season.
Luckily for Dodgers fans, the season isn’t close to being over, and has a long way to see what the Dodgers will resemble in October.
If they’re able to make it to the playoffs for a fourth consecutive season!
The Dodgers currently are tied with the Giants for first place in the NL West.
If they wish to stay a top of the division, they’re going to need plenty of help from everyone on the team and from every aspect on the field.
The Dodgers starting rotation behind ace Clayton Kershaw is a toss up.
There is a fifty-fifty chance that they’ll bring the heat and perform just as good as Kershaw, or just get rocked around and look like amateur’s.
The bullpen for the Dodgers is something else and honestly frustrates many fans as they’re unpredictable from inning to inning.
With that being said the Dodgers roster has plenty of strengths and weaknesses to talk about, but has one factor that glows throughout the roster.
That glow is the depth the Dodgers have with utility players, and the flexibility with many players on the team.
Many teams around the league have plenty of players that could play multiple positions, but the Dodgers are suppressed with many of them.
Dave Roberts has an array of different options around the field with being able to move almost every infielder around the infield excluding Adrian Gonzalez and he is simultaneously able to shift his outfield around as well and mostly only with just switches around Joc Pederson, and Yasiel Puig, since Carl Crawford has mostly played in left field while being in blue.
For the Dodgers though the big flexibility on the roster is the usage of utility players.
Most people are already aware of Kike Hernandez from last season, who played good defense in the infield, in the outfield, and offensively flashed throughout last season.
This season the Dodgers once again have been plagued with injuries, have been faced to rely on prospects, and depth from further below.
Thankfully the Dodgers have been flourished with such flexible players that could play a variety of positions; helping out an already struggling offensively team.
The additions of Trayce Thompson, and Charlie Culberson in the starting lineup this season have helped with this as well.
Both have excelled as starters, backups with exceptional defense mechanics, and have gave the Dodgers reliable at-bats.
Trayce Thompson plays mainly all over the outfield, and has only been for the Dodgers for a few months, since he was traded to the Dodgers from the White Sox in a three-way trade with the Cincinnati Reds in December.
Thompson received an invitation to the Dodgers Spring Training camp, and showed flashes of excellence and received a spot on the Dodgers Opening Day roster with Carl Crawford, and Andre Ethier on DL.
In Thompson’s short time playing with the Dodgers, he’s currently second on the team in batting AVG. and OPS., while playing good defense in every outfield position.
Culberson has been in the league longer then Thompson, and has moved quite a bit in his short career from the San Francisco Giants to the Colorado Rockies and now with the Dodgers as he signed a minor league contract this past offseason.
He was also invited to the Dodgers Spring Training and impressed in his playing times, which helped earn him a spot on the Opening Day roster when Howie Kendrick was placed on the DL.
Culberson has given the Dodgers the ultimate utility beside Kike Hernandez, as he basically plays any position besides pitcher and catcher.
He is seventh in batting AVG. and eleventh in OPS. on the team, but has only played in half as many games as Thompson.
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The Dodgers roster from earlier years hasn’t resembled the depth, and flexibility that they currently have, but it brings a bright future for the Dodgers franchise and will go a long way this season for the Dodgers.
This can help in getting them to the playoffs and maybe aid them to getting to the World Series.