Los Angeles Dodgers: Three bold predictions for new Dodger, A.J. Pollock

1. A.J. Pollock hits southpaws much better in 2019 than 2018

One of the primary reasons the Los Angeles Dodgers wanted to bring in an outfielder like Pollock instead of Harper, aside from the massive amounts of money Harper would cost, is that Pollock is a right-handed bat.

Before signing Pollock the Dodgers really lacked another great right-handed bat. Justin Turner is obviously excellent but having Enrique Hernandez or Chris Taylor as the second-best right-handed bat is not a World Series recipe.

The Dodgers’ bad splits against southpaws came back to bite them hard in the postseason where the Milwaukee Brewers and Boston Red Sox took advantage and had mediocre southpaws thrive against LA. Heck, the Dodgers practically resurrected David Price‘s postseason career.

That is why adding Pollock is so important as he is a career .275 hitter against southpaws. The catch? He actually has a better career average against right-handed pitching and that is because he hit just .221 against southpaws last year.

If that bad trend continues then Pollock is going to be just like Yasiel Puig with the reverse split that does not really help anything.

However, I think that Pollock is going to do better against southpaws for one reason: he is going to be hitting in front of Turner or Corey Seager.

Seager does not struggle against southpaws and is one of the best natural hitters in the game. Having both of those guys trail you in the order is going to make pitchers go right after Pollock, who is going to get more pitches to hit and is going to see that batting average grow against southpaws.

If not, well, Pollock does not bring anything new to the table, which is worrisome.