Even successful two World Sequence titles — and delivering in some clutch moments alongside the best way — doesn’t assure a roster spot with the Dodgers anymore.
Backup catcher Austin Barnes discovered that earlier this week.
And on Sunday, veteran utilityman Chris Taylor found that actuality, too.
The Dodgers designated Taylor — who performed greater than 1,000 video games in Los Angeles and secured a pair of World Sequence rings in 2020 and 2024 — for task to clear a pathway for Tommy Edman’s return from the injured record and for rookie second baseman Hyeseong Kim’s function the remainder of the season.
The transfer occurred simply 4 days after Barnes was additionally DFA’d to provide high prospect Dalton Speeding a shot within the majors.
Taylor, 34, had collected simply 35 plate appearances this season throughout 28 video games, hitting simply .200 with a lowly .457 OPS.
However from 2017-23, he served as an everyday within the Dodgers’ lineup, showing in 100-plus video games in all the full seasons throughout that stretch — and logging 56 in the course of the condensed 2020 marketing campaign — as each an infielder and outfielder.
In 2017, Taylor was named co-MVP of the NLCS, and 4 years later, his two-run homer over the left-field fence — with two outs within the high of the ninth inning — helped the Dodgers safe a win within the wild-card recreation.
He homered 4 occasions in 11 playoff video games in 2021, along with launching one other 4 balls over the fence throughout Los Angeles’ run to the title the earlier season.
“This has been a really emotional week for all of us,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman informed reporters Sunday, based on the Los Angeles Instances. “Barnsey and CT have been in the course of some enormous moments for this group. Each guys have left an indelible mark on our tradition and the place we’re at this level. So the choices had been extremely tough. The conversations had been robust.
“However with the place we’re, the division race, the composition of roster, every thing, we felt like this was within the Dodgers’ greatest curiosity by way of the best way to win as many video games and put us ready to greatest win the World Sequence this yr. Doesn’t imply that was straightforward. However finally felt prefer it was the fitting factor to do.”
The Dodgers, at 29-17, led the Padres by one recreation within the NL West getting into Sunday’s video games, whereas the Giants (two video games) and Diamondbacks (5 video games) had been all inside hanging distance in MLB’s best division via the primary portion of its season.
