Dodgers: The Three Most Important ex-Dodgers in the WS

After a disappointing exit in the NLDS to the NL champion Nationals, all that’s left to for the Dodgers to do this season is watch the World Series.

Both teams in the fall classic have former Dodgers on their roster. Let’s take a look at the three most important ex-Dodgers in this series.

In total, there are five former Dodgers among the 50 men competing in this year’s World Series. The total can be moved up to six if former Dodger prospect Yordan Alvarez is included. As most know by now, Alvarez was dealt for Josh Fields in 2016 in possibly the worst deal during Andrew Friedman’s tenure.

Both the Nationals and Astros have big-name players that need to contribute. Immediately, Jose Altuve, George Springer, Anthony Rendon, and Juan Soto come to mind as key bats for both sides. In terms of pitching, the obvious choices are the four aces that headline both staffs, Gerrit Cole, Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, and Stephen Strasburg.

However, as Dodger fans know first hand, some of the “non-stars” need to show up in order to take their respective teams over the top. In 2017, Marwin Gonzalez and Yuli Gurriel both showed up in a big way to put the Astros over the Dodgers. Just last season, Steve Pearce was the World Series MVP en route to a Red Sox title.

While these former Dodgers may not be the stars of their new teams, they will still need to perform well in order to ensure that they will wind up raising that World Series trophy.

Zack Greinke

Most of the talk this series has been about the mouth-watering starting pitching matchups. The Gerrit Cole-Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander-Stephen Strasburg are all people have been talking about.

This is for a good reason, Cole and Verlander will likely finish 1st and 2nd in AL Cy Young voting, while Scherzer and Strasburg will likely both finish in the top 5 on the NL side.

However, people seem to forget about the third matchup of Greinke-Corbin. Both of the former Diamondbacks are among the best pitchers in the bigs.

Greinke has to perform well for the Astros this series. Before entering the series, Greinke was still going to be an important game for the team. Now, after falling in game 1, the Astros will be leaning on Greinke’s production even more.

While writing this, game 2 has yet to start. If the Nationals somehow find a way to go up 2-0 in the series, Zack Greinke will instantly become the MOST important player in this series for the Astros.

If Astros even up the series, Greinke will still face an enormous amount of pressure as he will try to steal home-field advantage back from Washington. The Astros traded for him right before the deadline, and now they need him to perform on the biggest stage of the season.

If Greinke falters, the Astros can be in a world of trouble being down 2-1 or 3-0 with two games to go in Washington. However, if Greinke can perform well, he can sway the momentum back in favor of the AL Champion Astros.

Howie Kendrick

The hero of the NLDS will need to once again come up big for this young and inexperienced Nationals lineup. Howie Kendrick has by far the most post-season at-bats on the roster. He spent two seasons with the Dodgers.

He was very productive in 2015 against the Mets, despite the Dodgers NLDS exit. In 2016, Kendrick was once again very productive in the NLDS for Los Angeles. However, much like most of the offense in that series, his bat seemed to disappear against the Cubs who went on to with the pennant and eventually break their vaunted curse.

This will be Kendrick’s first-ever World Series appearance. The pressure will be on for him to produce. This post-season he has been a staple in the middle of the order for the Nationals. He has also produced at an unreal level these playoffs for the Nats.

Kendrick is a big reason the Nationals are playing for a World Series. If they want to win a World Series, he will need to continue his gritty at-bats and production as a whole. Even if Kendrick isn’t putting up ridiculous numbers, the Nationals can still count on him to work the count and put up a tough at-bat.

His defense has been woeful to say the least, luckily he can be the DH in Houston. However, in Washington, he will need to clean up his act. Giving that Astros offense extra outs to work with, is not ideal.

Howie Kendrick will need to continue to put together solid at-bats this series for the Nationals. He may not be the most important offensive player on this roster, but he is still a key component to the Nationals World Series push.