March 19th, 2016 at 8:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka Say the name Chase Utley around a group of Dodger fans and you will probably hear three things:
- His violent takeout slide of Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada during Game-2 of the 2015 NLDS (legal or otherwise) that left Tejada with a broken femur and eventually led to the new “Utley Rule”
- His hitting only .202 in his one month with the Dodgers in 2015
- His receiving an insane one-year / $7 million contract during the off-season
And while it is impossible to dispute any of these three things, the cold hard truth is that Chase Utley will be on the Dodgers Opening Day roster on April 4.
How so, you ask?
Because Utley is having a great spring training and, thus far, he deserves to be on the Dodgers’ Opening Day roster.
Regardless of what your opinion is of Chase Utley, there isn’t a guy who plays the game harder than he does. (Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)
Although it is impossible to predict what kind of season the 37-year-old / 13-year MLB veteran will have, his spring training numbers have impressed even the biggest Chase Utley critics. In the nine spring training games in which he has played, the Pasadena, California native with a .281 career batting average is 8 for 27 (.296) with two doubles, one triple and two runs batted in. And while nine spring training games is a ridiculously small sample size, it’s hard to argue that his aggressive style play – especially on the base paths – and his endless enthusiasm are not contagious in the Dodgers Camelback Ranch clubhouse, especially among the younger players.
If there is one knock on the veteran second baseman it’s that he hasn’t looked all that sharp defensively at third base. But to be fair, it’s hard to expect great results at the hot corner when he has spent his entire career as a second baseman. But with the re-signing of fellow veteran second baseman Howie Kendrick, the Dodgers have no choice but to fit Utley onto their 25-man roster as a utility bench player and use him to occasionally spell Kendrick at second, Justin Turner at third and even Adrian Gonzalez at first. Additionally, and not a pleasant thought, the veteran infielder would probably be among Dodger manager Dave Robert’s first choices to fill in at any one of these positions in the event of an injury to Kendrick, Turner or AGon.
With 16 spring training games remaining and with 24 position players still in camp vying for what will probably be 12 roster spots, it’s still a bit premature to guess who will end up where on Opening Day. But if he continues to play the way that he has thus far through the spring and has throughout his 13-year MLB career, it’s probably safe to say that Chase Utley will be one of those 12.
…which may turn out to be a good thing in the long run.
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I’m sure you know that Ruben Tejada is no longer a Met. What this means I really don’t know.
He was released. Only 26 so something going on.
Apparently Neil Walker and Asdrubal Cabrera signed by the Mets made Tejada expendable. The Card1nals might pick him up. I wonder if that diffuses any Met – Utley issues.
Certainly as a back up type player it would be easy to keep Utley out of games with the Mets but that might only endanger one of his teammates.
I like Utley as a teammate but have concerns about the possibility of his taking a spot Austin Barnes could and perhaps should have. On the other hand you never know – a healthy Utley might just cause some damage (no pun intended) if at all near his former self which he would only have to be in shorter stints as a utility player. He is a good baseball man.
I’d expect to see him involved in a trade come June. Maybe to the Mets. Or, how about a keystone combination somewhere of Tejada/Utley?
I’ve always thought they wouldn’t have signed Utley if they’d known they’d be getting Howie back. I guess they should have waited on that decision.
Just sayin’
Suspect you may be correct RR.
I knew that the Mets released Tejada, I wasn’t sure if it was known on this blog.
It’s been known for two days. He’s now with the Cardinals.
Now that Tejada is no longer with the Mets, do you think they’ll still go after Utley? I’d guess his departure makes it a null issue, IMO.
Dodgers with 3 players whose best defensive position is 2b; Kendrick, Hernandez, and Utley — none of whom have ever been thought of as anything more than an emergency fill-in at 3b. Also available at 2b when/if needed are Johnson, Culberson, Barnes, and perhaps Herrera. Should something significant happen to Turner (60+ days) I think the team has only 2 viable options: recall Culberson to platoon with Utley at 3b, or less likely, move Seager to 3b with Kike moving full time to SS with Culberson as the utility infielder. I still believe that Guerrero is currently the best backup at 3b, but it appears to be a fait d’ accompli that he will soon be with another team when Roberts doesn’t even mention his name as a 3b alternative.
I still scratch my head when I look at the construct of this roster. After the deadline hairball that was coughed up it remains very difficult for me to buy into a serious run at contending in ’16. We continue to sign broken down aces with the hope one or more of them will actually contribute. It should not come as a surprise to anyone that out of all these guys that have had TJ surgery none of them look like they usta did. Signing guys like Beachy and calling it depth is nonsense. Honestly, we all knew Greinke was going to leave and with that I was prepared for the rebuild with an eye on ’17 or more likely ’18. I had an infield left to right of Seager, Peraza, Hernandez and AGon and I was happy with it. Utley for $7 million? Well, I wouldn’t have done it, but, ok, for a year he can platoon and have solid influence on all the young infielders. Now I look around and what I see is the same team that flatlined last year only without Greinke. I don’t see it. Not with this staff, and not with so many question marks in this lineup.
Someone that was not drinking the blue Kool-Aid on St. Pat’s day. You mean you don’t quite like how it’s all about the future and yet we sign people representing the past. Howie Kendrick and Chase Utley should not even be on this team. The Micah Johnson’s, Austin Barnes, Culberson’s and Hernandez could have manned the position of 2B this year. At least then you would know what you had there but now they will give Kendrick/Utley the bulk of the playing time and will not know any more next year than what they know this spring.
I’ve been saying for a good long time that there is no true plan. It changes on a daily/weekly basis. Which way is the wind blowing today? What are the people saying? How can we spin our next move? F & Z are in over there heads. They have screwed up about every deal/non-deal that they have made.
Anthopoulos is on board because ownership is starting to worry about the direction F & Z is going. After the debacle that is about to take place this year, I’m expecting at a minimum of Zaidi to be replaced. W’s & L’s will determine their fate. Let the season begin.
Simply amazing.
Not sure which part you are amazed at. Tell me who thinks having a 37 y/o and a 34 y/o 2nd baseman on the roster @ $17M for this season makes any sense?
Then why trade Peraza and Schebler away if Johnson at the age of 25 is not ready to play at the big league level? And if it was ‘all’ about Montas well then they really did not do their homework cause beside the injury his control is a huge issue. So now when this unproven commodity gets healthy again we’ll find out if he can even throw strikes.
Frazier/Seager/Peraza or Hernandez is better TODAY AND NEXT YEAR than Turner? (even if healthy) or Utley/Seager/Kendrick or Utley. Obviously my opinion but at least could sell building for the future with a 30 y/o, 21 y/o and a 21 y/o.
Or maybe you think that Friedman and Zaidi actually insisted on adding the reigning Executive of the Year to the office staff? Anthopoulos did not leave his position of Senior Vice president and General Manager of the Blue Jays to do Friedman and Zaidi’s ‘bidding’ and if you truly think that he is going to help them overcome their deficiencies, well I guess we’ll see. People above them brought him on board…..enough said.
My bad on having both Frazier and Peraza……but personally if I was going to trade Peraza it would have been to acquire Frazier. A left side of the infield with Frazier and Seager would be an excellent starting point.
That’s exactly what I was thinking about in my first comment on this article.