Dodgers' Tommy Edman roster move still won't get Dave Roberts to quit Michael Conforto

Tommy Edman was reactivated on Sept. 10 after five weeks on the IL with a sprained ankle, his second stint of the season. Edman has mostly played second base this season, but he was in the starting lineup as the Dodgers' center fielder on Wednesday. It moved Andy Pages over to left field, Teoscar Hernández stayed in right, and Michael Conforto was on the bench.

Having Edman, Kiké Hernández, and Hyeseong Kim back should give the Dodgers every excuse to move Conforto to the bench permanently, if not dump him entirely, right? Please, Dodgers?

Nope. Dave Roberts said after the game that he still intends to start Conforto against righties. But Conforto is a reverse splits guy — batting .180 with a .591 OPS against righties and .254 with a .770 OPS against lefties this season. Make it make sense.

Dodgers fans would much prefer if Conforto wasn't on the Dodgers' roster at all, but if they're so set on keeping him, why on earth would they insist on batting him in situations where he's provably worse? What the Dodgers probably view as an opportunity for him to step up and prove them wrong actually feels like they're setting him up for even more failure.

Dave Roberts makes confounding decision to start Michael Conforto vs. righties for Dodgers despite reverse splits

The Dodgers simply do not need Conforto on the roster anymore. Granted, Kim and (Kiké) Hernández have not been batting well since they coming off of the IL, but an outfield made up of Pages in left, Edman in center, and (Teoscar) Hernández in right with Miguel Rojas at second base would also constitute a strong lineup. Losing any one of those bats to accommodate Conforto makes the lineup weaker.

Clearly, the Dodgers have no intention of dropping Conforto at this point, despite continuous and always incorrect predictions that they're going to cut ties with him. If they were going to do it, they would've done it months ago, but now they're digging their heels in, and fans are probably just going to have to wait until the offseason to bid him a not-so-fond farewell. But with almost all of their position players off of the IL (Dalton Rushing is the only one remaining), they have every excuse to quiet quit on him and limit his playing time to almost zero.

Why Roberts and LA's front office are so set on seeing the Conforto experiment through will remain a mystery to fans, but starting him against righties is not only the statistically incorrect thing to do, but is also setting him up to take even more (deserved) vitriol from fans.