Andre Ethier Should Sell His Gloves

Jul 21, 2014; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder

(16) drives in a run against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the third inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

This entire outfield situation is pretty weird. At this point, the Dodgers have 5 healthy outfielders, 3 of which are paid great money, 1 of which is Yasiel Puig, and another who is Scott Van Slyke; someone who has exceeded expectations and would be given much more playing time on other teams. Then they have a top prospect in the game in Joc Pederson, who would probably be called up by a lot of teams in need of offense. The odd man out lately has been Andre Ethier, which is weird.
He is in the worst stretch of his career and with Puig in CF, has lost his main reason for starting which was that he was the player on the team who sucked the least in CF. Now, Crawford is presumably the everyday starter in LF (soon after he and the manager both said he’d be a bench player). To me, Andre Ethier is the better overall player; he was the better hitter last year and Crawford hasn’t proven yet that he is better this year. He has better speed and probably better defense, but the offense isn’t their to justify it but that’s a debate for another day. The thing we are all weirded out by is: Andre Ethier hasn’t started a game on defense since July 22nd against the Pittsburgh Pirates. In fact, he has only pinch hit twice since then and hasn’t played an out of defense since then. July 22nd. That’s a long time ago.

The last time Andre Ethier played defense:

• the Dodgers were in 2nd place
• the world had no idea of Vin Scully’s plans for 2015
• Matthew Kemp had an OPS of .756 (spoiler: It’s much higher now)
• David Price was going to be traded
• Andre Ethier had a lot of hair
• Dan Uggla and Jake Peavy were going to be the Dodgers’ worst nightmares, and not their best trade deadline acquisition
• Clayton Kershaw was the best pitcher in the world (oh)
• Justin Beiber and Orlando Bloom had never been in a sentence together
• Andre Ethier had a lot of hair
• Tim Lincecum was an ace
• Kenley Jansen was a catcher
• Tobey Maguire was Spiderman
• Julio Urias wasn’t a teenager
• We looked at newspapers to find our trade deadline news
• I had never seen a team get a double play out of giving up a walk (Are you serious, Pittsburgh?)
• Andre Ethier ha – … You get the point

Let’s get #TheLastTimeAndreEthierPlayedDefense trending.

Who knows what happens from here on out. Maybe Ethier or Crawford aren’t Dodgers by the end of the deadline, or maybe they are and this situation just stays the way it is. But if Ethier starts a game soon, I hope he dusts the cobwebs off that glove.