Dodgers Want to ‘Prove Everyone Wrong’ With Infield Defense This Season
The Los Angeles Dodgers infield is on a mission this season. Max Muncy, Mookie Betts, Gavin Lux, and Miguel Rojas heard the naysayers during the offseason who said they were the team’s weakest link.
“Me, Mookie, Miggy, Lux, Kiké [Hernández], we’re all out there every single day trying to be as good as possible,” Muncy told Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times. “All anyone talked about during spring training was how terrible of a defensive team we were gonna be, and we want to prove everyone wrong.”
Aside from a few hiccups in the season-opening series in South Korea against the San Diego Padres, the Dodgers infield has emerged as one of the league’s best. They enter Friday’s game against the Padres with 25 team defensive runs saved, the second-best total behind Kansas City (35). The middle infield and third-base spots have combined for 12 defensive runs saved, led by Betts’ six.
The unsung hero behind the infield’s transformation has been Rojas. The veteran has worked extensively with Lux and Betts at shortstop and has even offered advice to Muncy.
“Miggy Ro comes up to me every single day and tells me the things I’m doing well, the things I’m doing wrong — he’s holding me accountable,” Muncy said. “And I think Mookie would say the same thing, that Miggy has been kind of our second infield coach next to Dino and has been trying to help us out as much as possible.”
The Dodgers didn’t ask Rojas to take on a mentorship but he took it upon himself. He carved out a new role to remain involved every day regardless of his playing time. It’s selfless players like this who could help this team achieve its ultimate at the end of this season.
Photo Credit: Jonathan Hui-USA TODAY Sports
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Kudos to Rojas for being a great team player and helping out with the defense. With diminished playing time and sacrificing to move to second base for Mookie shows the character of the guy, besides what hotdog Jazz C. is jealous of. My concern is the throws to first have been a bit erratic where if wasn’t for Freeman there would have been more errors. As they say defense wins championships along with good pitching and timely hitting.