The Los Angeles Dodgers were expected to have one of the most powerful lineups in 2022, but so far early in the regular season they’ve been defeating teams another way.
While they only have a collective .405 slugging percentage, the Dodgers are second in baseball with 14 stolen bases. Entering play Wednesday, the St. Louis Cardinals narrowly edge them with 15 stolen bases, while the Baltimore Orioles, L.A. Angels and New York Mets have 12 each.
Stealing bases has never been a focus of the Dodgers’ offense under president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and manager Dave Roberts. In their last three full seasons, they’ve stolen just 65, 57 and 75 bags, which all ranked in the bottom half of the league.
That mindset hasn’t changed much this season despite their early lead in stolen bases, and Roberts is shocked to see the Dodgers sitting at the top of the category but he anticipates change, via SportsNet L.A.:
“Certainly not a point of emphasis. I think it’s opportunities that we’re given and our guys being proactive. If you have a chance to steal a base and take 90 feet, we’ll do that. Very surprising stat right there. I’m proud of it, but I don’t think that’s going to hold for very long.”
While the Dodgers might not be focusing on stolen bases, this is one of the faster clubs they’ve had in recent memory.
Trea Turner is among the fastest players in the sport with a 29.9 feet per second sprint speed, but they also now have Gavin Lux (29.1 feet/second) and Chris Taylor (28 feet/second) playing every day with speed that ranks in the top 20% of the league.
Along with them, Cody Bellinger and Mookie Betts are also both excellent baserunners who can steal some bases even without elite speed.
As surprising as their current stolen base lead is, the Dodgers’ drop in slugging might be more surprising. Their slugging percentage this season is significantly lower than their .429, .483, .472, .442 and .437 slugging percentages over the previous five seasons, but they still rank in the top five across MLB.
Roberts expects the home run totals to pick up for his club, but he is seeing a concerning trend which could be caused by MLB’s new rule requiring every club to use a humidor.
“There’s been a handful that I felt off the bat, the sound, the trajectory, the velocity, that I thought would be home runs that didn’t go out of the ballpark,” he recently said.
If MLB is going to continue pursuing rules that suppress offense, then the Dodgers would be wise to use their speed to their advantage.
Dodgers set franchise stolen base record in 2021 postseason
While the Dodgers didn’t run much throughout the 2021 season, that changed in October and they showed they can make the stolen base a part of their game.
After averaging 0.4 stolen bases per game during the 2021 regular season, the Dodgers set a franchise postseason record with 16 stolen bases in just 12 games; an average of nearly 1.2 per game. Their previous playoff record was 13.
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