Dodgers: End of Season Minor League Awards

The minor league season is coming to a close. All five of the Dodgers’ farm teams made their respective postseasons and with the Triple-A OKC season officially over, now is a better time than ever to hand out the awards for the player down on the farm.

Each level was overwhelmed with talent. Triple-A featured Andrew Toles, Tim Locastro, and Brock Stewart.

Double-A was loaded with talent as well. They boasted DJ Peters, Will Smith for the majority of the season, and Marshall Kasowski, a young pitcher with a rapidly rising stock.

For Rancho, the season could not have gone better. Under manager Drew Saylor, the Quakes had an unstoppable season that saw them losing just 18 regular season games in the second half. Their roster, loaded as ever, featuring Gavin Lux, Connor Wong, and Cody Thomas, three guys who made names for themselves amidst doubt that their stock should have fallen.

Great Lakes is always a fun team to watch as their players are the newest to baseball. It is the first team players go to for a full season and it gives fans and media their first look at the future. Darien Nunez and Brayan Morales were names that stood out on the Great Lakes roster.

And, finally, there is Ogden; the first stop for almost all of the greats. Ogden is the Dodgers’ rookie-level team and, while there, young players get their first taste of the minor league life. Daniel Robinson headlines the list of standouts as he hit .332 in his first 205 professional at-bats. Young shortstop, Ronny Brito hit a team-leading 11 home runs in 219 ABs and on the pitching side, Jose Chacin, who finished the year with Great Lakes was a standout performer.

But, those were just some standouts from each team. The system as a whole had some standouts and this article will recognize those players. Awards that will be given out are MVP, LVP, Cy Young, and Manager of the Year.

There are a few options for this award. Quick risers, Dennis Santana and Caleb Ferguson make a case for the spot because of their sheer dominance over three levels but the lack of innings and time spent on the farm kills their chances of winning the award.

Will Smith also makes a case as he enjoyed a career season that catapulted him all the way up to Triple-A. The versatile catcher, capable of playing both third and second base in addition to being a very good backstop, was a juggernaut on offense where he smacked 20 home runs but his batting average and on-base percentage take the former first-round draft pick off the MVP list.

So, who is it? The answer is actually fairly easy: it’s Gavin Lux.

Gavin Lux was the Dodgers’ 20th overall pick in 2016 out of Indian Trail High School. The smooth-fielding shortstop and second baseman struggled in his first two professional seasons after getting drafted and Dodger fans began to doubt the talented player’s ability to live up to his expectations.

He silenced the haters.

In 2018, Lux was a new player. On defense, Gavin was making highlight-reel plays and offensively, he hit .324 across both High-A and Double-A. The young middle infielder also hit 15 home runs this season while stealing 13 bases.

The breakout was a necessary one not only for the front office’s confidence but for Gavin Lux’s moral. Lux can go into next season with confidence that he is as good as expected and because of the numbers, he not only earns confidence but he also gets recognition.

The recognition here has earned Gavin Lux the Dodgers Way Minor League MVP award.

Here is an award that no player wants, the least valuable player. You never want to write a player name in this category because it is essentially recognizing a bad year and calling that player out on it. But, for one particular player, getting to this spot has little to do with his on-field actions as much as it does with his off-field behavior.

The 2018 least valuable player is Yadier Alvarez.

Yadier Alvarez was brought to this country and the Dodgers organization because he was a game-changing talent. He was so good that the Dodgers invested $16 million in him and passed on current major leaguer Yoan Moncada.

But, what the Dodgers invested in Alvarez they have hardly gotten back in both performance and commitment. Alvarez abandoned his team not once, but twice this season because he did not get his way. The team wanted one thing, Alvarez wanted another, so the prospect with plummeting stock decided it was my way or the highway and he left.

His attitude was the major driving component to land him this “award” but his statistics on the field do not help his case either. This year, Alvarez has a 4.23 ERA and 5.77 runs allowed per nine innings. Alvarez also averages 7.2 walks per nine innings.

Next year will hopefully be the year that the Dodgers investment pays off.