Underrated Dodgers acquisition's huge night should force LA's hand with roster move

When he was acquired from the Nationals at the trade deadline, Alex Call didn't immediately strike fans as an obvious Michael Conforto replacement. LA had just traded away some outfield depth in James Outman, and everyone expected that the Dodgers would shoot higher for a full-time outfielder, namely Steven Kwan.

Through Tuesday night's win over the Rockies, Call has played in 14 out of 16 games since the deadline, but seven of those have been purely entailed pinch-hitting or pinch-running opportunities. He got his seventh start in the lineup on Tuesday, filling in for Conforto in left field and batting seventh.

In his first at-bat, he homered against Rockies starter Austin Gomber (his first homer as a Dodger), and he drove in a runner during his very next at-bat with an RBI single. Then he doubled in the top of the fifth, singled in the seventh, and finally struck out swinging in the eighth, spoiling a shot at a perfect 5-5 night.

It was his first truly standout night for the Dodgers, and it better have afforded him some more opportunities in Conforto's place if LA is still unwilling to dump him outright.

Alex Call's stellar night against Rockies should force Dodgers to finally make a decision on Michael Conforto

Sure, Coors Field and the Rockies can make a lot of subpar guys look like the best who ever played, and the Dodgers got contributions from all over the lineup on Tuesday night. The game ended in a 11-4 rout for LA and at least one hit for everyone in the starting lineup. But by contrast, Conforto went hitless in two at-bats on Monday and is batting .150 with a .427 OPS this month.

It's hard to talk about Conforto without sounding entirely like a broken record, but his presence on the roster just gets more infuriating every passing day. The Dodgers have their issues outside of him — pitching injuries, bad relief appearances, shoddy defense — but it's obvious that Conforto is the one weak link in LA's overall strongest characteristic: hitting the ball.

Call left the Nationals with a .274 average and .757 OPS. He doesn't have the power that the Dodgers would hope they would find in Conforto, but at least he actually manages to make contact and get on base. That's all fans want to see out of Conforto at this point, but he can rarely even do that.