Dodgers: Three key positional battles to keep an eye on going forward

Chris Taylor vs. Kiké Hernandez

The final roster battle is between utility men Chris Taylor and Kiké Hernandez. Hernandez has been the Dodgers’ utility man the past couple of seasons due to his ability to play the infield and the outfield. This spring, the Dodgers tried Taylor in the outfield with limited success.

This season, Taylor has forced this conversation to occur in the Dodgers’ front office due to his stellar play. He is batting .333 with five home runs and 16 RBI with an OBP of .446!

Not only that, but he is feasting on left-handed pitching, batting .440 with two home runs. Left-handed pitching has been the Dodgers’ weakness, so anyone hitting this well against them should be on the roster.

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Kiké Hernandez is batting .250 with three home runs and 12 RBI. Against left-handers, he is hitting .267/.353/.578. That’s an astonishingly elite .931 OPS. Taylor will not continue to hit for the surprising power he has hit for thus far, so it will be a choice between average (Taylor) and power (Hernandez).

I believe that the Dodgers should keep Taylor over Hernandez on the squad as their utility man. The pro to Hernandez is his ability to play the outfield and hit for power against lefties. However, with the call-up of Cody Bellinger, the Dodgers have a player that can play first base and all outfield positions, which would help if Hernandez were to be sent down.

However, Taylor can play 2B, SS, and 3B, which would still give the Dodgers the flexibility that Hernandez provides in the infield. I believe that Taylor should be the man to stay with the ball club due to his ability to hammer left-handed pitching this season. With all that has been made up about the team’s inability to hit lefties, it would be hard to understand why the Dodgers would send a player down who is helping the team considerably in that area.

Next: Getting you ready for the 2017 draft

This decision has been put on hold for now with the unfortunate injury to Justin Turner. The silver lining is that this will allow the Dodgers to further evaluate what they have in each player and get a larger sample size to determine if Taylor’s hot start is a fluke or here to stay. Hopefully, the answer is the latter.