August 23rd, 2016 at 9:43 am 
by Ron Cervenka Since being acquired from the Oakland Athletics at the August 1 non-waiver trade deadline, 29-year-old Gold Glove outfielder Josh Reddick has appeared in exactly 18 games with the Dodgers. In those 18 games Reddick has gone 10 for 67 (.149), has an on-base percentage of .208, has a slugging percentage of .164 for an OPS of .373. Of those 10 hits only one has gone for extra bases, a double on August 14 against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Dodger Stadium. Reddick has yet to drive in a run and has one stolen base, but has been caught stealing once as well.
Since his initial call up to the Dodgers on July 8 and subsequent re-call on August 21, 24-year-old rookie outfielder Andrew Toles has appeared in exactly 18 games with the Dodgers. In those 18 games Toles has gone 15 for 46 (.326), has an on-base percentage of .396, has a slugging percentage of .457 for an OPS of .853. Of those 15 hits, three have been doubles and one a home run. Toles has also driven in five runs and stole a base. He has yet to be caught stealing.
On the first pitch of his first major league at-bat, Toles lined a double into the left-center field gap.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)
We have heard – ad nauseam – that Reddick is having great at-bats, is hitting the ball very hard and that he is merely the victim of bad luck with his hard-hit balls being hit directly at opposing defenders. (I’ll let you decide whether this is more a matter of some excellent advanced scouting rather than “bad luck”).
While 18 games and 67 and 46 at-bats respectively is indeed a very small sample size, 18 games is 18 games and Reddick and Toles have both appeared in the exact same number of games, so the comparison is most certainly a fair one … regardless of sample size.
With the Dodgers nursing a one-game lead over their arch rival San Francisco Giants in the NL West with exactly 38 games remaining in the regular season, and with nine of those remaining games against said Giants, the Dodgers have zero wiggle room and zero margin for error. As such, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts must – absolutely must – put out his best eight position players for every remaining game, this in spite of pressure from above from Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi to play Reddick over Toles in an attempt to justify what, to this point, has been a failed trade acquisition.
Please understand that this isn’t to say that Reddick hasn’t had a decent eight-year MLB career, he most certainly has with a career slash-line of .253 / .314 / .429 / .743. But if Friedman, Zaidi and Roberts are playing to win in the final four weeks of the 2016 season, they would be making what could prove to be a fatal mistake by playing Josh Reddick over Andrew Toles.
It’s as simple as that.
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What are Toles’s MiLB splits vs LHP? I can only see the 1 AB in majors.
Toles: .217 / .277 / .267 / .544 in 60 ABs at 3 MiLB levels vs LHP in 2016.
Reddick: .175 / .241 / .175 / .416 in 80 ABs vs LHP in 2016.
Toles could be the shot-in-the-arm the Dodgers need right now. We hope he can stay hot and contribute down the stretch.
Unfortunately, for Toles, and any other left-handed hitting outfielder who might consider breaking in with the Dodgers, their brain trust seem to automatically assume that “left-handed batter” is synonymous with “can’t hit lefties.” If you’re left handed, you won’t get much of an opportunity to prove them wrong. Toles has only 1 AB against a left-handed pitcher, and he got a hit.
The only exception to this rule is Joc Pederson, who is currently hitting .098 against lefties in 41 AB, but his defense is what keeps him in most games vs. lefties. The Dodgers don’t have another true center fielder but do have an adequate back-up in Enrique Hernandez.
All this then leads us back to the Puig conversation… which, for all accounts, isn’t going to just go away any time soon. With the September call-ups just around the corner, it will be very interesting to see what direction the Dodgers will head. If Puig is left stranded in OKC, then the writing on the wall will be guilded in gold leaf; Puig’s playing days for the Dodgers will be over.
I think Kike’ has to play tonight against Bumgarner. He’s 10-16 with 4 dbls and 3 HR against him this year. That would mean Pederson, Toles/Reddick, or Utley sits. It’s getting to crunch time, and I like a veteran presence in the pennant race, so I would keep Utley in the lineup. So are the Dodgers better off with Joc in CF and Kike’ in RF, or Kike’ in CF and Toles in RF? Again it’s crunch time, and defense can win games too, so Joc needs to stay in the lineup. He does have 4 hits against lefties, so it is possible that he can come through. Kike’ hasn’t played much RF, but he isn’t going to get hurt out there. I agree…it would be nice to have a focused Puig in RF.
My biggest problem is that I live in NorCal so I have to watch/listen to Krukow and Kuiper instead of Vin. MLB gets blocked for Giants games that are on TV in Northern California.
IMO management creates their own problem by not giving young batters a chance against same side pitchers.
Agreed
they already did when they said ” Here you go Andrew (Friedman) work your magic.”
It’s amazing, on the service this trade didn’t look bad. Reddick received a lot of praise, from those who were familiar with him. But now it looks more like it didn’t make sense. If he’s not very bad he certainly looks like a very ordinary newcomer, to me.
I agree Toles should be starting as long as he’s hot. Segedin can fill in against lefties…or just keep Toles in the 8 spot and give him a chance to prove he can hit LHP. How many chances did they give Reddick to prove he was a cleanup hitter?