Dodgers: 4 players who could be first-time All-Stars in 2021

2. Gavin Lux

The Los Angeles Dodgers’ top prospect is ready for a full-time starting job

Gavin Lux has been in a very similar situation to Alex Verdugo’s predicament, prior to being traded. Lux has seemingly been big-league ready for a season and a half at this point, but has not been tasked for the full-time second base job with the Dodgers.

Lux was a September call-up in 2019 and did okay. He hit .240 with a .705 OPS in 23 games that season. That was still enough to land him a spot on the postseason roster, where he hit a home run in his first-ever postseason at-bat.

The 2020 season was an odd one for Lux, as many expected him to be the team’s full-time starting second baseman. He showed up late to what the league called “Summer Camp” for undisclosed reasons and mostly stayed at the alternate site.

Lux appeared in only 19 games and was not that great. He accumulated 63 at-bats and hit .175 with a .596 OPS.

Do not sell your Gavin Lux stock. He was a green rookie in 2019 and was put into a really bad situation to succeed in 2020. With another offseason and a regular Spring Training to go to work, we should finally see the potential that Lux possesses.

Is it enough to be an All-Star? Well, that just depends on how quickly he can adapt to MLB pitching and how the other second basemen in the National League play. But with Enrique Hernández gone, the door is open for Lux to prove his worth.

Let’s not forget that Lux was ranked as the second-best prospect in baseball behind Wander Franco by MLB Pipeline in 2019 and that he hit 26 home runs with a .347 average and 1.028 OPS in his last season in the minors.