It’s probably safe to say that there isn’t a Dodger fan out there who wasn’t surprised – shocked even – when the Dodgers acquired 36-year-old Curtis Granderson from the New York Mets on August 19 in exchange for the proverbial ‘player to be named later’.

I mean, let’s face it, Granderson has always been a Dodger killer – not in a Paul Goldschmidt sort of way, but a Dodger killer nonetheless. In fact, over the course of his 14-year MLB career, Granderson has a slash-line of .273 / .338 / .579 for a very good OPS of .917 in his 33 career games against the Dodgers. During those 33 games, the Blue Island, Illinois native and Detroit Tigers 2002 third-round draft pick out of the University of Illinois slugged 10 doubles, three triples and seven home runs. Again, not Paul Goldschmidt-type numbers but still Dodger-killer numbers.

However, in the recently concluded three-game series against the Dodgers at Citi Field on August 4, 5 and 6, Granderson went 1-for-9 with two walks and a strikeout. Ironically – and you’ll see why in a minute – that one hit was a solo home run off of Dodgers left-hander Rich Hill in the bottom of the first inning. It was the first of three home runs that Hill would allow in the inning to stake the Mets to an early 3-0 lead. But just as they have done 41 other times this season, at least up until the last week, the Dodgers came back to win that game by a score of 7-4 and ended up sweeping the three-game series.

Sure enough, in only his second game with his new team, Granderson hit a solo home run against the team that had drafted him 15 years earlier in the eventual 6-1 loss to the Tigers. He also struck out twice, which brings us to the point at hand.

Since becoming a Dodger on August 19, Granderson is 5-for-37 with (wait for it…) 14 strikeouts. In other words, the 6′-1″ / 200-pound veteran outfielder has struck out in 38 percent of his at-bats with his new team. But here’s the head-scratcher. Four of his five hits in his 10 games as a Dodger have been home runs (including a grand slam) … FOUR of them.

Oh sure, it’s easy to say that because of his home run power, Granderson fits right in with the rest of the Dodgers powerful left-handed bats. The problem with this concept is that “Grandy Man” (as he used as his nickname during Players Weekend) has stranded a total of 14 runners on base and has done so in six of his 10 games as a Dodger with two outs and runners in scoring position.

Of his 14 strikeouts with the Dodgers thus far, five have been looking.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

While the fact that four of Granderson’s five total hits as a Dodger have been home runs may woo some Dodger fans, the painfully brutal truth is that because of his excessive strikeouts, several of which have come with runners in scoring position and two outs, he is actually hurting the Dodgers more than helping them. That being said and because of this, he may also be the deciding factor when it comes time for the Dodgers to submit their playoff rosters. He may very well be the reason why the Dodgers might add another veteran left-handed-hitting outfielder to their playoff roster instead of the Grandy Man. That would, of course, be 35-year-old / 11-year MLB veteran Andre Ethier.

Who’s it going to be, Dodgers, “Captain Clutch” or the enigma that is Curtis Granderson?