February 1st, 2019 at 8:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka Dodger fans who were expecting or perhaps even hoping to see only one so-called “everyday” second baseman in 2019 are in for a bit of a surprise. Not only will there not be only one second baseman, there will be several of them.
“I think with CT [Chris Taylor] and Kiké [Hernandez], they’re both going to play a good bit,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told reporters during last week’s FanFest event at Dodger Stadium. “There’s going to be some competition between them, and they’ve put themselves in a position where they deserve to play. And so how that shakes out exactly remains to be seen.”
That’s two.
But wait… there’s more!
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had this to say about second base during FanFest:
“I can see Max [Muncy] at second base a little bit,” Roberts said. “I can see Kiké and Taylor vying for at-bats at second base. I can see Kiké and Taylor spelling Corey [Seager] a little bit at short. So, second base is something where we have a lot of options, but we haven’t defined who’s going to get the lion’s share there yet at second base.”
Now chances are probably pretty good that you had CT3 and Kiké inked in as platooning at second base, but this Muncy thing probably caught you a bit off guard.
Granted, we all know how incredibly talented and versatile the 28-year-old Midland, Texas native and Dodgers 2018 home run leader is, but of the combined 223 games that Muncy has appeared in over his three major league seasons, only 34 of them (15.25 percent) have been at second base. Then again, of those 34 games, Muncy committed only one error in 125 total chances for an outstanding fielding percentage of .992, while turning 17 double plays.
Additionally, of those combined 34 games that Muncy played at second, 13 of them were with the Dodgers in 2018 and all of them were starts. In those 13 games, Muncy committed that lone error in 50 total chances for a .980 FPCT, with eight double plays.
When you put all of this together, it stands to reason that Muncy might actually see significant playing time at second base against right-handed pitching, with Cody Bellinger filling in for him at first base.
Then again, Andrew Friedman and Dave Roberts aren’t exactly known for that stands to reason thing, are they?
Stay tuned…
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Spring training 2019 will determine how much Max Muncy plays @2nd. I know you want his bat in the line-up, but I would prefer him at 1st. Dodgers should play him at 2nd this spring the majority of the spring training games. Personally I just wish Dodgers FO/Roberts would platoon less.
Couldn’t agree more on the “I just wish Dodgers FO/Roberts would platoon less” thing. I’ve been saying this for quite some time, as those who frequent this site will tell you.
That being said, in my opinion I believe that Bellinger is a better defensive 1B than Muncy, having personally watched Belly come up through the minors. Obviously, not so with Max, as he was signed as a free agent on April 28, 2017 and played all 118 minor league games as a Dodger at OKC before being called up to the big club on April 17, 2018 – 16 games into the regular season.
As noted in the article, I believe that Muncy will see quite a bit of action at 2B against right-handed pitching, even though he was .255 / .361 / .529 / .891 against lefties in 2018. HOWEVER, he was a ridiculous .266 / .401 / .601 with an absolutely insane 1.001 OPS against right-handers in 2018. As such, his bat MUST be in the line-up every day – period.
Ron, I concur for the most part and maybe down the road Dodgers can ship Muncy to the AL, should they see him with defensive issues. Al has that DH which would serve Muncy well and it would allow for Belinger to go back to his Gold Glove position of 1st base. OH and BTW Muncy is just another list of a plethora of LHB on this team.
a good defense should be same inf plyers everyy game like garvey cey lopes a russell
Maybe the DH isn’t a bad idea after all… keeps a bat in the lineup while reducing the wear-and-tear (or incompetence) of playing defense.
Union President Tony Clark agrees with you 100%. I know I am fighting windmills, but leave the game alone.
I think adding the DH to the NL will be part of the next CBA discussions.
No doubt, but what will the union trade off for that concession by the NL owners? Without the NL owners agreeing to a contract there is no deal possible. I don’t believe the players will give up much, if anything, to add DH to NL — my gut feeling is that the NL players do not want the DH, especially pitchers who like to hit.
I believe the DH in the NL is inevitable.
I think when (not if) baseball expands to Portland/Montreal the leagues as we know it will go away and all teams will be realigned in geographical divisions, so the DH will be universal.
Sometimes I like to see pitchers hitting (see Hill, Rich or Ryu, Hyun Jin) or at least trying to put up a competitive at-bat (see Kershaw, Clayton or, had to say it, Bumgarner, Madison) but too many of them just don’t give a sh*t and it shows.
I said before and will now repeat it again..a constant obsessive compulsive platooning at 2nd base is a HORRIFICALLY STUPID idea, beings that Seager will now have to put up with a different middle INF. partner daily. They (Dodgers) will find out soon enough that maybe, just maybe it will not benefit the team in the long run with a revolving circus at 2nd base. If Dodgers want to platoon in the way they did last year, don’t expect another WS appearance. Baesides, rarely these days do ya see a team in 3 straight WS anyway. WSS.
If you recall Justin Turner was a multipositional player before he settled in to third base. Can Kiki be the same?
I think Kiké could provide gold glove quality defense at several positions if was allowed to there regularly. However, I think the Dodgers see much greater value in Kiké as a super-utility player. If Turner did not have knee issues we may have seen him play 2b and 3b. It seems to me that more MLB teams are moving toward the Dodgers style, employing more players who can effectively play multiple positions as it gives more depth to the team and flexibility to the manager.
I believe I am OK with player’s ability to play multiple positions, if in fact they are good and comfortable in doing so. Some players simply perform better knowing they can excell at that particular position they play for the most part. But again, I have the issue with the over done platooning of players, taking normally every day players in and out of the lineup daily for analytical, match up reasons or those players simply are effective only against one side of a pitcher.
I am much more comfortable with Kiké at 2B than Taylor or Muncy … at least until Gavin Luz arrives.
One might be surprised at what Kike might do if he was playing every day at 2nd. But Dodgers like his super utility ability so that won’t take place. And let us hope that Lux is not traded before he gets here.
Brian, you may have something here, in fact he (Kike) may very well do similar as Turner has by settling in a 2nd base. But as long as he’s on this team that probably won’t happen.
Can’t believe after an article about “Dodgers 2019 second base situation” and eleven comments, not ONE mention of lefty Gavin Lux. I expect to see him at second sometime in 2019. We’ll see.
I may be the only one, but I don’t see positional versatility and platooning as a weakness, rather flexibility. Everybody hates platooning and wants full-time players, except Manny Machado. Who are these full-time players that can hit both lefties and righties? Maybe Hernandez/Taylor can do it this year, but if not, give me the platooning percentages.
I enjoyed Pederson’s 2018 .894 OPS against righties, but his .513 OPS against lefties, not so much. Until the Dodgers have a stud at a position who hits anybody, give me a platoon.
You must have been typing as I was posting. lol!
Yeah, my slow fingers betrayed me.
For the most part I was always told that a player is platooned because he either is a utility/bench type player to begin with or he has awful splits, meaning he struggles big time with either LHP or RHP. But if I recall, Boston didn’t have to do much in the way of platooning and they won the WS in 5 games over us. I honestly cannot imagine any team successfully winning the WS with a team made up of only platoon players. In the 2018 WS and basically throughout the second half of the season, only Turner and Machado where not platooned.
re: a player’s ability to hit against both righties and lefties.
If only a player was given a chance to do both, but it seems once you’ve struck out against one or the other, you don’t get a second chance. How else is one supposed to improve?
Anyway, I would love it if the Dodgers stayed with one primary lineup. I get it that players need a day off now and then, but I think I consistent lineup BOTH in who plays and WHEN they hit would help everyone on the team, players and *MANAGER* alike. Puig, I think, wasn’t helped by moving him out of the 8th hole, even if it looked like the right move.
Here’s my plan for the infield and outfield. An everyday player at each position, each plays seven out of every eight games. On the eighth day Kike, who’s subbed at each position, gets his game off, then they start over again.
Catchers can be on their own rotation.