The Dodgers have played exactly 23 games thus far in the 2017 season. And while there are many who buy into that “It’s still early” thing (of which I do not), 23 games out of a 162-game season represents 14.2 percent of the entire regular season. In other words, the Dodgers are 10 games away from being one-fifth – or 20 percent – of their way through the 2017 season.

Of the 23 games that the Dodgers have played thus far, seven guys have played in 20 or more of them. Of those seven, only one is hitting below the Mendoza line – way below the Mendoza line. The unfortunate part is that this guy is absolutely positively one of the nicest guys in the entire Dodgers organization and a huge fan favorite.

I am, of course, talking about six-year MLB veteran Scott Van Slyke, who is 4-for-27 (.133) with an on-base percentage of .281, a slugging percentage of .296 for an OPS of .578. He does, however, have one of the Dodgers 21 home runs and one double among his four hits, so he’s got that going for him.

It’s no secret that Van Slyke has battled hand and wrist issues over the last couple of years. But he recently said that he is 100 percent healthy right now, which certainly isn’t helping his cause.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Although former Dodgers manager Don Mattingly often proclaimed that the 30-year-old Chesterfield, Missouri native and son of former major leaguer Andy Van Slyke “punished lefties” and, in fact, his four hits this season have been off of left-handers, the painful truth is that Van Slyke is simply not getting it done.

Meanwhile, 1,330 miles due east of Dodger Stadium in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 27-year-old utility first baseman/outfielder O’Koyea Dickson is absolutely tearing the cover off the ball for the Dodgers Triple-A affiliate OKC Dodgers.

In his 17 games at OKC, Dickson is 22-for-67 (.328) with an OBP of .357 and a SLG of .672 for an outstanding OPS of 1.029. In fact, the only guy with a higher OPS who played in 15 or more games at OKC is 21-year-old utility first baseman/outfielder Cody Bellinger (1.055), who was called up to the Dodgers this past Tuesday.

Although Dickson only hit .205 during spring training, he slugged two home runs and two doubles off of major league pitching. He is currently crushing the ball at Triple-A Oklahoma City.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Oh sure, it’s easy to argue that comparing Triple-A to the major leagues is like comparing apples to oranges and, in fact, Bellinger is 1-for-10 with five strikeouts and two walks since his MLB debut on April 25. But anyone who has paid close attention to each of Bellinger’s 12 plate appearances has undoubtedly noticed that he is having very good at-bats – including two nine-pitch at-bats – and his five strikeouts have been on very good pitches. In other words and contrary to the naysayers claiming that he is not MLB-ready, he most certainly is … and so is O’Koyea Dickson with his team-high six home runs, his team-high 15 RBIs and his team-high 47 total bases.

In no way is this meant to be a knock on Scott Van Slyke who, by the way, still has one option year remaining with the Dodgers. In fact, if the Dodgers wanted to keep Van Slyke up with the big club, they could option utility infielder/outfielder Kiké Hernandez to OKC instead, even though he is hitting slightly above the Mendoza line at .237. He, too, has one option year remaining.

The point here is that O’Koyea Dickson has proven that he can hit big league pitching (he slugged two home runs and two doubles in major league spring training camp this year) and that he is currently smoking hot at Oklahoma City right now. And hey, if it doesn’t work out with the Dodgers, he has all three of his option years remaining and can always be sent back down to OKC.

But somehow I get the feeling that if/when Dickson gets the call up, he will be up to stay.