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3 overreactions to Week 1 of Dodgers' spring training: LA should make some changes
When their 8:05 PM game against the Reds wraps up on Thursday night, the Dodgers will have a full week of spring training games under their belts. And it's been an exciting one, at that. The Dodgers trounced the Padres 14-1 to kick things off; Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto made their debuts; and the Dodgers look like they may never lose again.
Everything has gone about as well as everyone expected it to. Ohtani hit a homer in his debut, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman look great, and so on. Dodgers prospects and non-roster invitees have come up in a big way in later innings to propel the team to win after win (and one tie).
However, seeing the team on the field has made a few gaps more apparent, and it reminds us that there's still some work to do before Opening Day. Right now, when games are still relatively low-pressure, is the time to overreact.
3 overreactions to first week of Dodgers' spring training
Jose Ramos is making a case for himself on the Dodgers' bench
As of right now, the Dodgers' bench will include Kiké Hernández, Chris Taylor, Miguel Rojas, and Austin Barnes, and Miguel Vargas might be somewhere in that mix as well. Hernández, Taylor, and Rojas give the Dodgers a great mix of veteran utility players to employ all over the field; Barnes isn't an ideal backup catcher (we'll get to that later) but, as of now, is the best option the Dodgers have; and Vargas' transition to left field has gone pretty well, as he's made a couple of nice plays out there during spring games.
However, Jose Ramos, a non-roster invitee who ended the 2023 season in Double-A, should have the Dodgers' attention. He's appeared in five of six games so far and has even been out-hitting the major leaguers. As of Wednesday, he has a .556/.636/1.000 line with a home run and three RBI, tying him for fourth with Kody Hoese, Andy Pages, and Travis Swaggerty. It's a small sample size all-around, but he's hitting better than even Betts so far.
Because Ramos has yet to get to Triple-A, it's unlikely that he'll make the team by Opening Day, but if he keeps it up in the minors and Rojas and/or Vargas continue to hit poorly off the bench, the Dodgers could eye Ramos in later months of the season.
Austin Barnes really shouldn't be the Dodgers' backup catcher
We've already said a lot about Austin Barnes and how he doesn't deserve to be on the 40-man roster. He's been a Dodger for nine seasons and the team clearly has their reasons for keeping him, despite the fact that he's a .219 career hitter and didn't put up great numbers behind the plate last year either. It could be a clubhouse thing; a guy who's been with the team for so long is bound to know the pitching staff and the organization very well.
Even if he feels that his job and Opening Day roster spot are completely secure, the Dodgers might consider otherwise. In nine at-bats, the second most any Dodger has taken so far, Barnes has only gotten one hit down and has struck out five times, the most of any Dodger. Meanwhile, NRI catcher Chris Okey, a minor league signing for the team this offseason, has hit a home run and driven in five in only four at-bats.
Sure, there are a lot of moving parts here. Barnes has started in three games while Okey has come in during later innings, which means that Barnes might be seeing higher-caliber pitching. However, he also doesn't exactly have a wealth of exceptional hitting during regular seasons to back him up. The Dodgers still owe him $7 million over the next two years (team option for 2025), but maybe they should consider eating the cost and letting a better hitter come up to the majors.
Mookie Betts will edge out Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani for NL MVP
Ahead of Shohei Ohtani's Dodger debut on Tuesday, baseball history/analytics genius Sarah Langs noted that the 1-2-3 punch of Betts-Ohtani-Freeman in the starting lineup will make the Dodgers the first team since the 1996 Red Sox to bat three MVPs sequentially. No doubt that Ronald Acuña Jr. will give all three of them a serious run for their money in the 2024 MVP conversation, but it's almost preordained that Betts, Ohtani, and Freeman's names will be coming up a lot at the end of the season.
Ohtani not playing the field this year will hurt his chances a lot, unless he can do something absurd like break Aaron Judge's single-season, non-McGwire-Bonds home run mark (which might be a possibility that shouldn't be totally ruled out), while Freeman has gotten MVP votes after every one of his last six seasons, winning in 2020. Betts is in a similar, if not better, boat. He's gotten votes in eight out of 10 seasons and won the award in the American League in 2018.
He's appeared in four games so far with eight plate appearances, during which time he's driven in a run, doubled, walked four times, represented two Dodger runs, and is hitting for a better average than Freeman. However many votes he gets in the MVP race will certainly factor into how well he can adapt to second base, but he hasn't given us any reason to worry about that transition.
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