Los Angeles Dodgers: Players that will have a surprising impact in 2019

2. David Freese

David Freese excelled in his short time with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2018, which prompted the team to exercise the club option to keep him around for another year. Because of his success, there are some fans that would actually expect a big impact out of him in 2019.

However, the popular consensus about Freese is someone that will be a nice bench piece, will take over the clubhouse mentor role from Chase Utley and will provide sparks in October. When looking at Freese’s recent seasons before becoming a Dodger, that is a fair expectation.

Freese is going to be more than a bench piece in 2019 and is going to play in a lot more games than you would expect. In fact, I would go out on a limb and say that Freese makes at least 130 appearances for the Dodgers this season.

The way it is currently looking, the Los Angeles Dodgers are going to be playing Cody Bellinger in the outfield in 2019. Bellinger playing in the outfield does open the door for Max Muncy to play first, although, Freese should get tasked with most of the starts against southpaws at first base with Bellinger being trusted against lefties in the outfield.

Down the stretch of games, Freese is going to be the first pinch-hit option off the bench and is going to be used in double switches a lot.

Although he is not a power-hitting bat, having Freese’s right-handed bat in the lineup is huge next to Cody Bellinger for the same game planning reasons as adding Rios to the lineup.

Also having Max Muncy interchangeable with Enrique Hernandez at second base makes it much harder to gameplan against the Dodgers. A trio of Bellinger, Freese and Muncy/Hernandez in the order gives the Dodgers the kind of flexibility needed late in games in big spots.