Dodgers: Three veteran bats to replace David Freese

He wasn’t just a platoon first baseman. He wasn’t just a clubhouse leader. He wasn’t the best Dodger, but he certainly deserved to be your favorite.

With David Freese on to greener pastures in retirement, the Dodgers need both a new clubhouse-saving veteran and a new platoon-able first baseman, or at least a veteran hitter with both postseason experience and a solid bat.

It will be hard to find a player who can play first base, who has playoff experience, and who can hit anywhere near as well as Freese, but the Dodgers can afford to only satisfy one or two of those categories.

The team already employs Matt Beaty for an extended amount of time and for a very reasonable contract, so finding a first baseman is less important than finding a solid right-handed bat, or at least a hitter who can hit lefties better than Beaty’s sub-.200 AVG against southpaws.

Beyond the positional and splits requirements, Andrew Friedman did claim to be open to changing the “complexion” of the team. Thus, he may want to move away from the power-hitting that the team does in general and look for a contact bat, or maybe even a non-platoon option at first base.

That option would likely be Max Muncy though if Friedman trusts Gavin Lux to be his everyday second baseman, otherwise, José Abreu or some other right-handed first baseman would be a potential target. So really, the option will be a platoon option or an option who can pinch-hit or provide Muncy and Beaty rest. As such, it would benefit the team if they could play multiple positions and not just first base like Freese.

All of the solutions I’ll look into here will be free agents, but as the offseason progresses I’l begin to focus on trade targets as well. Let’s get into it.