2. A.J. Pollock does not help against left-handed pitching
One of the biggest holes in the Los Angeles Dodgers roster is the lack of a true everyday player that hits left-handed pitching fairly well. Yes, the team does have Justin Turner but is banking on Chris Taylor and Enrique Hernandez to be the other right-handed bats in the order.
They are both good in their roles but to win the World Series your second best right-handed hitter has to be better than Hernandez or Taylor. Although Corey Seager hits southpaws fine, the Dodgers would benefit immensely from a right-handed bat to bat fifth in between Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy.
On the surface, Pollock seems like he can be that guy. He is a lifetime .275 hitter against southpaws after all, which is much better than the rest of the Dodgers.
However, the recent results have been not as impressive. Pollock hit a lowly .221 against southpaws last year and was worse across the board than he was against right-handed pitchers.
While his overall numbers are good, last season did show a hole in Pollock’s game that will be consistently attacked as teams are going to throw the entire left-handed kitchen sink at the Dodgers.
Yasiel Puig was worse against southpaws than Pollock but neither were particularly good, making this at best a lateral move from Puig to Pollock. Which makes you question, why would they free all that money up to begin with then?