It’s a word that front offices of winning baseball teams refuse to use; in fact, it’s a word that they will rebuff if you mention it during an interview – rebuilding. But any way you slice it and even though they may refuse to acknowledge it, the Dodgers are in full-blown rebuilding mode.

In spite of having the deepest pockets in all of baseball, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi have clearly shown us – especially recently – that they are more focused on building for the future (aka: rebuilding) than they are (or were) willing to dig into those deep pockets for veteran free agents like Zack Greinke, David Price, Jordan Zimmermann and Johnny Cueto. Instead, they have chosen to protect their top prospects – guys like Corey Seager, Julio Urias, Jose De Leon, Grant Holmes and Alex Verdugo – and in doing so, have put themselves at risk of not winning a fourth consecutive NL West title in 2016 but have put the franchise in a great position to win and perhaps even dominate the division down the road – most likely beginning in 2018.

But putting all of the high finances aside for a minute, there is one position at which the Dodgers could very well be set at for quite some time – if Friedman and Zaidi keep their wits about them, that is – first base.

Eric Karros is one of the best homegrown pure first baseman in Los Angeles Dodgers history – along with Steve Garvey, of course. (AP Photo)

To be blatantly honest, the position of first base has been bastardized over the past two decades. Instead of developing pure defensive first basemen, many teams are filling the position with guys who are less skilled defensively simply to keep their bat in the line-up. As a result, they are sacrificing crucial defense, especially when it comes to picking difficult throws out of the dirt, thereby allowing base runners that a good defensive first baseman would have prevented. It’s certainly no accident that guys like Adrian Gonzalez, Paul Goldschmidt, Mark Teixeira and Eric Hosmer (and certainly Steve Garvey, Don Mattingly, Keith Hernandez and J.T. Snow) have closets full of Gold Gloves. All of these guys are (and were) pure first basemen.

The Dodgers have four-time Gold Glove first baseman Adrian Gonzalez under contract through the 2018 season. However, one month after Opening Day of that season, AGon will be celebrating his 36th birthday. At that same time, Dodgers top first base prospect Cody Bellinger will be three months shy of his 23rd birthday. And while it is highly unlikely that the Dodgers will be able to trade away the $21.5 million that they will owe to the aging first baseman in 2018, it is also highly unlikely that the Dodgers will get the 157 games that Gonzalez has averaged over the past three seasons.

Although it is rare – if not unheard of – for a team to carry two pure first basemen, it is something that Friedman and Zaidi may want to think about when the time comes. The good news is that Bellinger also plays a pretty mean center field, whereas guys like Scott Van Slyke, Justin Turner and Yasmani Grandal who are good at other positions are mediocre at best as first baseman. Now granted, a lot can and will happen between now and 2018 and it is certainly wise to continue to develop Bellinger as a utility outfielder, but the Dodgers would be foolish to look at him as anything other than an eventual pure first baseman.

Although Bellinger plays the outfield well, he belongs at first base. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

For those unfamiliar with Bellinger or unaware with just how good he really is, he just completed his third full seasons in professional ball since being selected by the Dodgers in the fourth round of the 2013 MLB Draft. And though his three-year minor league slash-line sits at .265 / .341 / .488 for an impressive .828 OPS, it’s what he did in 2015 that should have Dodger fans excited. This past season the Chandler, Arizona native and son of former major leaguer Clay Bellinger led the California League in RBIs (103) and runs scored (97), was second in the league in home runs (30), third in total bases (257) and fourth in slugging percentage (.538). He was also named to both the first and second-half Cal League All-Star teams and was named MVP of the Cal League Championship Series in which the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes swept the San Jose Giants in the best-of-five series. To top all of this off, Bellinger was recently named by Baseball America as the Dodgers fifth best prospect for 2016 (he’s now fourth) – and he’s only 20-year-old.

But what is perhaps most exciting of all about Cody Bellinger is that he is currently listed at 6′ 4″ – a full two inches taller than AGon – but is listed at only 180 pounds. In other words, he hasn’t grown into that 6′ 4″ frame yet – and when he does, look out!