Tommy Edman going ballistic after return should quiet Dodgers fans’ fears

For a few months, the Tommy Edman conversation was some flavor of dread. The ankle surgery that was supposed to fix everything kept, well, not fixing everything. The rehab timeline got the “slow program” treatment more than once. And that five-year, $74 million extension looked like the sort of thing another franchise would panic over.

The Dodgers, though, are the Dodgers. They shrugged and just kept winning. The worry wasn’t crazy, though. A 31-year-old utility player coming off ligament repair and a hobbled, forgettable 2025 is not an obvious bet to come back and hit like a monster. Which means that’s exactly what he did.

Tommy Edman's healthy ankle has the Dodgers' super-utility man mashing again

Through Thursday, Edman is hitting .366/.436/.537 across his first 46 plate appearances since being activated in mid-June. Yes, that’s absurd. No, it won’t hold. We can get to that soon, but what’s happened is what’s happened. The guy who couldn’t stay on the field has been one of the best hitters on a team that employs some of the game’s best hitters. Not too bad for a return that nobody was entirely sure would go smoothly.

It’s a bit of a joke, but also the point. If you squint, this sure looks like the version of Edman that showed up in October 2024. He had a rough NLDS, but was NLCS MVP and could have won the World Series MVP too if not for Freddie Freeman’s amazing series. That run was small-sample-size noise for sure, but also a guy getting healthy at exactly the right time. It was a full-blown offensive coming out party.

The healthy-ankle theory has some teeth here. Edman said this spring that the last time he felt close to right was the first month of 2025, when he posted an .818 OPS before the ankle started hurting. The whole idea behind the November surgery was to get that feeling back for a full year, not just a month. And, in a limited sample, it’s holding up. He’s even talked about his swings from both the left and right side holding up, which is pretty rare for a switch-hitter.

It would be irresponsible not to mention that he has a .452 BABIP. That’s pretty much unsustainable. He’s a career .260 hitter with a .407 SLG, so .395 and .579 are pretty obviously outlandish. And, as a Dodger, he has a .695 career OPS, which includes this run. So no, this isn’t real. Regression is coming. But it’ll be interesting to see how hard it hits.

It’s worth noting that Edman has a .319 xBA and a .423 xSLG. No, that’s not what he’s posting in the actual numbers, but those two suggest that he’s over his head. His barrel rate is currently more than double what it was last season. His average exit velocity is the highest of his career. His walk rate is the highest of his career too.

And the reality is that nobody really worried if he’d hit .395 or not because that obviously wasn’t and isn’t expected. The fears were whether he’d be a functional everyday player again and if that contract would continue to age like milk. On both counts, the early returns are pretty emphatic. He’s moving around the diamond again, which he couldn’t do last year. With Teoscar Hernandez back, it sounds like his home will be second base, and then he can fill in wherever. The versatility is the whole reason the Dodgers needed him in the lineup, and it’s back.

The best part is they don’t need this insane version. The team is running away with the division and is stacked enough that a healthy Edman hitting like his career numbers is enough. What he’s done is great, but what matters is that the player they extended has walked back into the lineup and looked like himself. Okay, better than himself. And any semblance of a capable player moving forward is a massive win for LA.

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