As the 2025 offseason rolls along with less than one hundred days until Opening Day, the Los Angeles Dodgers roster for the upcoming regular season still has some massive questions.
All eyes are on fan-favorite Teoscar Hernández and whether or not the right-handed slugger will re-sign with the Dodgers, as the 32-year-old has stated numerous times over the last several months. However, the biggest question is: What is the overall plan for former top prospect Gavin Lux?
Going back to the 2020 season, a common theme for Los Angeles Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Freidman is finding a role for the once highly touted prospect.
Looking back at the 2019 season is a good explanation of why the Dodgers have held out so long for Gavin Lux.
Lux turned eyes after hitting .347/.421/.607 with an OPS of 1.028, finishing between the top ten in batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging between Double-A and Triple-A.
Lux also led all Dodgers farm players with 159 hits and 99 runs scored, which, by September, earned him his Major League call-up. This success earned Lux the 2019 Baseball America’s Minor League Player of the Year award, but with Corey Seager under contract until the end of the 2021 season, a future trade for Trea Turner would block Lux, who never got a real opportunity to shine at the big leagues.
Obviously, we know how the rest of the story unfolds, as when Lux finally got his chance to earn the starting shortstop role, he would suffer a gruesome season-ending knee injury on the basepaths during spring training.
The Dodgers opted to run that same plan back entering the 2024 season, insisting they’d give Lux every opportunity to earn the starting shortstop role. Offensively, Lux was one of the better hitters in Cactus League action, hitting .297/.350/.378 with a .728 OPS, which made him a lock to make the team’s 26-man roster.
However, his defense was his undoing, which in turn prompted the Dodgers to make the switch, moving all-star Mookie Betts to the position and placing Lux back at second base, a position he had played the most at the Major League level.
Lux would stay at second base for the rest of the 2024 season and, as of now, is likely to play there in 2025. However, as recent reports suggest, the Dodgers have been shopping Lux in trade talks.
According to sources at DodgersBlue and J.P. Hoornstra of Newsweek, the Dodgers offered Gavin Lux in a potential deal with the Milwaukee Brewers for top closer Devin Williams before he was finally traded to the New York Yankees last week.
The deal got close enough to the final stages that when Williams was introduced as a member of the Yankees this past week, he stated that when he heard he was traded, he thought he’d be heading to Los Angeles.
So that begs the question: What are the Dodgers’ plans for Gavin Lux, and will they continue to shop him in trades this winter?
If I were to describe Lux’s 2024 season, it would be an Oreo cookie. Sandwiched in between a terrible first half and a mediocre postseason was a fantastic second half, which gave many Dodgers fans a glimpse of who Gavin Lux was supposed to be.
In the first half of the 2024 regular season, Lux was borderline unplayable. The left-handed swinger hit .213/.267/.295 with a .562 OPS and a 60 wRC+. Thankfully, Lux improved significantly in the second half, and the Dodgers desperately needed him, too, with Mookie Betts, Max Muncy, and Freddie Freeman missing extended periods of time.
Lux was not only one of the Dodgers’ best hitters but also one of the best in Major League Baseball, with a .304/.390/.508 slash line and a 152 wRC+. Unfortunately, he could not extend that elite hitting into October, when he reverted back to his first halfways.
Lux’s place on the Dodgers came into question after the 2024 World Series. At the annual General Manager meetings, Los Angeles Dodgers General Manager stated that Mookie Betts would be a full-time infielder for the upcoming season. Many insiders assumed Betts would return to second base, the position he had been preparing to play full-time last winter.
However, those questions for Lux went away when the Dodgers at the 2024 Major League Baseball Winter Meetings stated that Betts would be their full-time shortstop rather than their second baseman.
Right now, Lux is penciled in as a second baseman, but due to his aforementioned splits, we could see the Dodgers opt for a platoon role. Lux would start against right-handed pitchers, and Miguel Rojas would get the nod against lefties.
Externally, the Dodgers have continued to be connected to all-star third baseman Nolan Arenado, and if the Dodgers and Cardinals do match for a trade, it would be hard to see Gavin Lux having a spot on the roster.
Internally, the Dodgers also have top prospect Alex Freeland, a natural shortstop who can play both middle infield positions and has hit well in all levels of minor league baseball.
If the Dodgers were to trade Lux, the left-handed hitter would still have a decent amount of value despite an inconsistent Major League career.
Lux still has two full seasons of club control remaining and is just now entering his second year of arbitration, where he is estimated to earn $2.76 million for the upcoming season. According to Baseball Trade Values, Lux will be a free agent after the 2026 season and is still estimated to have a trade value of $16 to $19.2 million.
As the offseason rolls along, the Dodgers will eventually have to decide what to do with Gavin Lux. Whether that is running it back or moving on from the once highly touted prospect.
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