Dodgers: 3 players who resurrected their careers in Los Angeles

Tim Wallach

For those who don’t remember Tim Wallach, before he was a coach for the Dodgers, he was an All-Star hitter.

The third baseman from Huntington Beach appeared in five All-Star games over his career, won three Gold Gloves, and two Silver Slugger Awards. Playing the majority of his career with the Montreal Expos, Wallach had his best season in 1987, when he finished fourth in MVP voting, batting .298/.343/.514 while hitting 26 home runs, driving in 123 runs, and leading the league with 42 doubles.

Wallach was a hitting machine over the first eleven seasons of his career, before his production started to decline as a 33-year-old in 1991. He hit a career-worst .225 that season, struggling to get on base with an anemic .292 on-base percentage. In his final two seasons with the Expos, he played in plenty of games, 283, but batted only .223 and was limited to 21 home runs and 121 RBIs, numbers he was accustom to producing in a single season.

In the 1992 offseason, he was traded to the Dodgers for Tim Barker.

Playing in a new city for the first time in his career, Wallach continued to struggle, before finding new life in the strike-shortened 1994 season.

Over 113 games, Wallach, who hadn’t hit better than .250 from the plate for three consecutive seasons, slashed .280/.356/.502 in 1994. He found his power again, smacking 23 home runs, while driving in 78 baserunners. He was voted National League Comeback Player of the Year.

By 1995, Wallach, now 37-years-old, regressed a bit, but still showed some sneaky power before finishing his career between the Angels and Dodgers in his last season.