Dodgers first-rounder hits ridiculous stolen base milestone in breakout season

With Shohei Ohtani having dramatically limited his aggression on the base paths this season, the Dodgers are in the bottom third of teams in baseball in stolen bases, down from the top third last year. And it's not an exaggeration to say that they can attribute that ranking to almost entirely to Ohtani — he's only stolen 17 bases so far this season whereas he'd stolen 46 by this time last year (and he stole 59 by season's end).

The Dodgers just aren't great runners overall, nor was their roster constructed with much of a care for speed. They do take extra bases at the second-highest clip in baseball behind the Tigers, but they don't go out on a limb to steal. Their fastest hitter, Hyeseong Kim, has above-average (but not elite) speed.

As a whole, baseball's attention has sort of drifted away from speed and is far more focused on power. Guys that can run feel like they're tapping into a vintage part of the game.

Dodgers' No. 25 prospect Kendall George is doing exactly that in High-A this season. On Sept. 5, he stole his 100th base of the season. He swiped a mind-boggling 34 in August and kicked off the month by stealing five in a single game.

Dodgers' No. 25 prospect Kendall George stole his 100th base of 2025 in High-A

It's no surprise that George, a first-round pick for the Dodgers in 2023, has 80 run on MLB Pipeline's 20-80 scale (their scouting report reads: "Some scouts have joked that George possesses 90 speed on the 20-80 scale"). Kellon Lindsey, LA's first-round pick in 2024 and No. 11 prospect, is the only other prospect in the Dodgers' pipeline to have such high marks for speed, and he only stole 10 bases through May 14 in Single-A before he was sidelined with a shoulder injury. George had stolen 21 by the end of May.

George is far from a power hitter — he has just 16 extra-base hits and three homers in 111 games in High-A this year — but he certainly makes contact (.295 average) and has walked more than he's struck out. And, clearly, he's going to be a problem for pitchers if he gets on base.

Last year in 86 Single-A games, George only stole 36 bags, and he picked up steam a lot more starting in July of this year. It's fair to wonder what the holdup was, but he's quickly dispelled whatever doubts might've been holding his coaching staffs back from giving him the eternal green light.