Mailbag Monday: Will Teo be a bad contract?
Answering your questions!
Happy Monday, everyone!
I hope everyone had a fun and safe fourth of July weekend. We have a brand new week as the Dodgers embark on a six-game roadtrip before the All-Star break.
As always, thank you so much to everyone who asked a question this week for the mailbag! If you’d like to ask a question for the next mailbag, become a subscriber today!
Peter Zales — Do you have an idea of the long-term plan for Rushing? If he is a MLB catcher and Smith has 9 years to go - something has to give. Would Rushing move to LF? Would Smith possibly move to 3B in a year or so. Why have Rushing only play 1 or 2 games a week?
I’m not sure if the Dodgers even know what the long-term plan is. For 2025, I’m fine with him being the backup catcher. 2026 and beyond is when they’ll need to figure it out. Rushing has too much talent to be starting two games a week. They tried him in left field and it didn’t work, though, how much worse can he be defensively compared to Teo and Conforto?
Maybe they try it again during the offseason? That would make the most sense. I think Will Smith is at least multiple years away from a move to the infield, so you don’t want to have Rushing as a backup until then. It seems like the two best options are to try him in left field again or to trade him.
Jimmy — Kim needs to be in the lineup every day, Pages, Edman, Teoscar will be the outfield. Smith should play 3rd and Rushing behind the plate.
I agree that Kim needs to be in the lineup more, though finding a spot for him every day will be tough with a healthy lineup. Until the Dodgers decide that enough is enough with Conforto, they’ll continue to give him opportunities. The fact that Kim isn’t trusted against lefties already limits his playing time. If the Dodgers choose to cut ties with Conforto, more playing time instantly opens up for Kim at second base. Until then, I just can’t see him getting more chances with a healthy lineup.
I know everyone wants Smith to move to the infield, but I don’t think many realize how much his value will take a hit if he’s moved. He’s one of the best hitting catchers in baseball. That is what makes him so valuable. If you move him to third base, his value takes a major hit. And although Rushing is regarded as a highly-touted prospect, he still needs to prove he can be a big leaguer.
J. Zura — Now that the earliest Muncy could come back is 6 weeks; would it be better to trade for a permanent everyday LF, who can hit consistently? Or moving Mookie to 2nd, Kim to 3rd and trying to trade for Holliday?
With latest firings of Nats General Manager & Manager, do you think the Dodgers will lose any more coaches?
I would love to see the Dodgers upgrade in left field. They’ve given Conforto plenty of chances and his OPS is barely above .600 (currently at .603). I really do think they’re giving him until the trade deadline, which is three weeks away. If there aren’t any signs of life by then, I think they have to cut ties and find a way to upgrade. They could also just choose to cut ties and stick with who they currently have. In this scenario, Teo would move back to left field, Andy Pages would go to right field and Tommy Edman would be your center fielder. Hyeseong Kim would then be the every day second baseman. I think that lineup construction would be the best option for the Dodgers.
In regards to the second question, I can’t imagine the Dodgers let go of any coaches. Maybe if they get eliminated in the NLDS they fire their hitting coaches, but I think everyone is as safe as you could be.
LifesEZ — Silly me. I thought when they said HS Kim would have "More playing time" we would see him 3 or 4 times a week. Then my Amazon copy of Webster's Bizarro World Dictionary-Dave Roberts Edition arrived and I understood my err. Is this the same dictionary Roberts uses to decide when to play Rushing, when to make pitching changes and who to bring in? It seems like he is always making pitching changes thinking about the next game or the next series, not the current one. Am I mistaken?
Your comments always get a good laugh from me! When Dave said that Kim would get more playing time, we all thought he meant it. Well, silly us! Since Dave made those comments, Kim has barely seen the field and even had a stretch where he didn’t start for more than a week. I don’t know if they just don’t trust his bat yet (even though it’s been great) but he should be an every day starter at this point.
In regards to the pitching changes, I agree. It seems like that a lot of decisions have been made this season with the next game in mind. He has an idea if a game is out of reach or not. Sometimes it’s been when the Dodgers are down by 5+ runs, sometimes it’s when the game is within reach and only a couple of runs. It’s a 162-game marathon so I totally get the bigger picture, but I will admit there have been a number of baffling decisions to ‘punt’ games this season, more frequently it feels than in years past.
Jim Ruland — Is this group big enough to pool together enough money to take out Altuve? I mean take him out to a nice dinner and steal all his shoes. Can we make that happen?
There are a lot of things I’d like to do to Altuve, and they’re not as nice as simply stealing his shoes!
Travis — Teo is scuffling right now and has not hit since returning from injury. I feel like he'll come out of it and be fine offensively. I think the all-star break will help a lot, and not just Teo. Having said that, do you think the Dodgers will end up regretting somewhat signing him to that 3 year deal? He's a liability in the field now. And DH will not be an option on this team. And what is this more comfortable in right stuff? He played almost all of 2024 in LF last year (120 in LF, 60 in RF).
I do wonder if that injury is still bothering him, because he hasn’t looked the same since returning on both sides of the ball. I don’t think they’re going to “regret” the decision to bring him back, but I don’t think it’s going to end up being a smart deal when it’s all said and done.
I said numerous times during the offseason I wasn’t a fan of bringing Teo back on anything more than another 1-year deal. Obviously he played a huge part in helping the Dodgers win a World Series and I wanted him back, but thinking about the big picture it just wouldn’t be a smart move. He had a career-year in his ninth season at the plate, but the metrics all across the board suggested regression was coming. I was actually shocked that they brought him back for three years, with a club option for a fourth year. I guess they just couldn’t afford to lose him.
Teo is arguably the worst defensive outfielder in baseball, there’s no denying that. He’s been terrible out there this season. He got off to a hot start at the plate to begin the year, but since returning from the IL his bat has taken a major step back. As of now his wRC+ is 109, down 23 points from last season. In order for Teo to provide value, he NEEDS to hit at the mark he did last season. He’s hurting you so much in the field, so his bat HAS to make up for it. So far this year, it hasn’t.
I worry that 2024 was the best we’re ever going to get from Teo. For the contract he got, posting a 130 wRC+ should almost be the floor, not the ceiling.
Travis — I'm not going to worry about a 3-game sweep in early July. It's aggravating, but I also think it hammers home how important it is that the pitching get healthy. In a postseason series, if they're running out Casparius and Wrobleski for starts, they will have huge problems. And I really like both those guys and think long term they have bright futures. Glasnow is due back this week. Snell out on rehab this week. If they get back healthy and perform to expectations, what do you think the rotation will look like? Including Ohtani being stretched out to 5 or 6 innings.
IF everyone is healthy, which is a massive ask, the rotation should look like this.
Blake Snell
Tyler Glasnow
Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Shohei Ohtani
Clayton Kershaw
Dustin May
Maybe if everyone is back and healthy, the Dodgers can piggyback Emmet Sheehan in the Ohtani starts. Sheehan looks too good to send back down to Triple-A. With Ohtani slowly building back up, letting Sheehan follow makes too much sense.
Again, this is asking for everyone to be healthy, which seems impossible for the Dodgers.