Los Angeles Dodgers: Five players that deserve more credit in 2018

Andrew Toles – LF

Get ready, Dodger fans. Andrew Toles is on his way back. After being sidelined for the remainder of the 2017 season with a torn ACL in early May, he’s slated to return by the start of summer.

Though he didn’t play much in 2017, I think he proved enough the previous year.

What will the Dodgers be gaining when Toles returns? Speed. He can make the expansive outfield of Coors Field look like a little league stadium. He gets to the ball fast, and that is an advantage unlike any other.

Toles, who will be in the lineup on Opening Day, at the earliest, or the summer, at the latest, is going to challenge runners. Just in the National League, you have speedsters like Trea Turner and Billy Hamilton, but Toles has the potential to throw out even the fastest runners at home plate.

Toles deserves far more credit this season because he could wind up being the Dodgers’ starting left fielder for a majority of the season. When healthy, Toles is elite, and having the same player in left, game after game, will be a really good thing. Yasiel Puig is the Dodgers’ starting right fielder. It’s an undisputed fact. There’s the potential for things to fall the same way for Toles in left.

Spring Training will tell us all we need to know about how Toles will play this season, and I have a good feeling that we’ll be excited about what we see.