Dodgers must beware of Travis d’Arnaud revenge in NLCS

LOS ANGELES, CA - MAY 09: Travis d'Arnaud #72 of the Los Angeles Dodgers during batting practice before playing the Washington Nationals at Dodger Stadium on May 9, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by John McCoy/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - MAY 09: Travis d'Arnaud #72 of the Los Angeles Dodgers during batting practice before playing the Washington Nationals at Dodger Stadium on May 9, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by John McCoy/Getty Images) /
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The Dodgers had Travis d’Arnaud in 2019 before immediately dumping him. Now a Brave, d’Arnaud is a weapon. This stinks.

You remember Los Angeles Dodgers legend Travis d’Arnaud, right? The icon? The gentleman? The guy who appears in the photograph that accompanies this article, essentially standing in for the sum total of his Dodgers biography?

Well, d’Arnaud is now a red-hot member of the Atlanta Braves, one of the supplementary players behind Freddie Freeman and Marcell Ozuna who makes this offense so dangerous.

He’s also, based on how annoying it will be, the most likely Brave to do damage against the Dodgers this NLCS in a key spot.

Short story, even shorter: Before coming to the Dodgers, d’Arnaud was an afterthought and potential reclamation project, escaping the Mets after being sent to purgatory after their 2015 postseason run. After? He became a clutch Ray, who became a clutch Brave, and now we’re here, coming off one of the hottest NLDS series a catcher has ever had.

In case you’re still having trouble recalling d’Arnaud’s Dodgers career, we’ll remind you that it lasted for five games, but more importantly, one at-bat. One, singular, snooze-worthy at-bat. No hits were recorded.

Of course, d’Arnaud didn’t really have a place on this team, and the tandem of Will Smith and Austin Barnes has proven to also be the complete package. But that hasn’t stopped players from crafting a disrespect narrative before!

There’s no hotter hitter in the league than the Braves catcher right now, who flicked balls to right-center with regularity throughout his team’s three-game domination of the Marlins.

The challenge is significantly heftier against the wicked arms of the Dodgers, but d’Arnaud has shown up in the playoffs previously, hitting a trio of homers during that ’15 Mets run.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you. It doesn’t make sense that d’Arnaud is this good, and it doesn’t make sense that he was ever a Dodger. But this is reality, and we foresee reality remaining quite annoying.