There is little doubt that if Dodgers utility outfielder / first baseman Scott Van Slyke were on any other major league team, he would probably be an everyday player. Oh sure, he’s not the greatest defensive outfielder in the game today, but it’s hard to rank him below average. In fact, there are some who consider him above average – especially for his throwing arm.

Quick: Who led the Dodgers in outfield assists in 2015?

No, it wasn’t Andre Ethier (6) or Yasiel Puig (6) or Joc Pederson (5) or Kiké Hernandez (2) or Carl Crawford (0) – it was Scott Van Slyke with eight outfield assists. What makes this even more remarkable is that Van Slyke played in a grand total of 74 games in the Dodgers outfield last season, having started only 44 of them. (He also appeared in 21 games at first base).

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that Van Slyke had what can only be described as a dismal season offensively in 2015, and he’ll be the first to admit it.

“Obviously, I think 2014 would be my year that I would try to emulate every year. Obviously, I didn’t get that last year.”

There’s a very good reason why Van Slyke wants to emulate his 2014 season. The 29-year-old Chesterfield, Missouri native and son of former major leaguer Andy Van Slyke hit .297 with a .386 on-base percentage and .524 slugging percentage for an outstanding .910 OPS in 2014. He also slugged 11 home runs and had 29 RBIs – all of this is in only 98 total games played. But it’s what he did against left-handers that caused former Dodgers manager Don Mattingly to pencil Van Slyke’s name into the starting line-up whenever the team faced a left-handed starting pitcher. Against lefties, Van Slyke hit .315 with eight of those 11 home runs coming off of left-handers.

“He’s here really to punish left-handers,” Mattingly said of Van Slyke in 2014. “Right now, that’s what he’s doing. That’s his job really, is to hit left-handed pitching.”

Scott Van Slyke punishes left-handers. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

But a late-season wrist injury last year derailed any hopes Van Slyke had of repeating his 2014 season. In fact, the soft-spoken, extremely likable utility outfielder managed to hit only .239 with only six home runs, and only .258 with three of those home runs off of lefties.

“It was something to do with how my ligament was reacting when I would flex it backward,” Van Slyke said. “We weren’t really able to figure out what it was. The last [cortisone] shot that I got before the playoffs helped and as I started doing traction and stuff like that for the last couple weeks of the season, it started feeling better and it’s only improved since then.”

With the apparent glut of outfielders heading into spring training camp next week, Van Slyke is well aware that his role – at least the one that he’s had with the Dodgers for the past four seasons – has been and will most likely continue to be that off a fourth or perhaps even a fifth outfielder; a role that he says doesn’t bother him and, in fact, he embraces.

“For me in my role I think it’s important to be as productive as I can when I get the opportunity to play. What that looks like I don’t know but I know that defensively, I want to be an asset,” said Van Slyke. “When I go in in the seventh inning I want to be able to make a play that maybe the guy that came out of the game before me wouldn’t be able to make. Whatever that looks like, I want to be able to have somebody look at me and say ‘He’s contributing.’

“The role is what it is and I’m very happy with my job. I’ll never complain about being in the big leagues in any role that I have,” Van Slyke added. “Obviously, when you do something in life, you want to do it to the best of your ability, so whether that is playing once a week, I’m going to do that to the best of my ability and whether it’s playing six through the week, I’m going to do it to the best of my ability.

“But I can only control my attitude and how I look at my situation as a positive of being able to have a job and do something I love to do.”