Dodgers: Five questions that must be answered during Spring Training

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LOS ANGELES, CA – OCTOBER 31: Austin Barnes (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /

5. Who deserves more playing time — Austin Barnes or Yasmani Grandal?

Yet another platoon on Dave Roberts’ hand. As we head into Spring Training, it is evident that the Los Angeles Dodgers have the absolute best problem there is to have in the MLB: they simply have too much talent. Austin Barnes and Yasmani Grandal are both great MLB catchers and the Dodgers have to somehow find a way to provide them their needs.

Heck, the two catchers were both included in two of MLB Network’s three top ten catchers list. Some teams struggle to find a decent starting catcher at all, the Los Angeles Dodgers have two of the best in the league.

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Both are great behind the plate and are excellent batterymates for the Dodgers pitching staff. Grandal does have the slight edge fielding wise and has posted better numbers catching for Clayton Kershaw than Austin Barnes has.

Grandal also possesses the power advantage. At his best, Grandal is the best power-hitting catcher in the game and may only fall behind Buster Posey as the best hitting catcher. However, Grandal has become far to unreliable and his batting average has dipped as a result.

Barnes, on the other hand, possesses a nice pop to his swing that naturally finds the gaps in the outfield. Most importantly, though, Barnes is very consistent and he gets on base. His 14.9 walk percentage last season was the second-best among catchers with at least 250 plate appearances.

Next: Dodgers Roundtable: Spring Training

The two are likely going to have the same lefty-righty platoon that they shared last season. However, Grandal was still always considered the number one catcher. Spring Training will tell us who that number one catcher will be in 2018.

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