Since the Los Angeles Dodgers traded for catcher Yasmani Grandal before the 2015 season, he has developed into one of the better hitting catchers in baseball as he was named to his first career All-Star team in 2015 and then led all Major League catchers with 27 home runs in 2016.
He looked to have another solid campaign in 2017, and despite getting off to a bit of a slow start, he heated up in the month of May as he slashed .337/.374/.523 with two home runs and 16 RBIs in 23 games.
Grandal, who is known to be a streaky hitter, had another strong month in July as in just 18 games he hit four home runs and drove in 11 while slashing .317/.339/.600.
From August on though, Grandal slumped as he hit just .216 in the month of August and then began September by going 1-for-34 in his first 11 games.
While all that was going on, Grandal’s backup, Austin Barnes, began to see more and more playing time. For much of the season, Grandal and Barnes were in a platoon, with Barnes playing against left-handed pitchers.
But as Barnes continued to produce and Grandal struggled, Barnes got more opportunities against right-handers at Grandal’s expense, and he made the most of it.
By the time the postseason rolled around, Barnes had replaced Grandal as the starting catcher as Grandal started just two postseason games, going 0-for-8 with three walks.
Overall on the season, Grandal played a career-high 129 games and hit .247/.308/.459 with 22 home runs and 58 RBIs. He struck out 130 times though, which was a career-high and his 40 walks were his lowest total since becoming a full-time starter in 2014.
2017 Highlight:
Despite his poor September, Grandal did hit two milestone home runs in the month as on Sept. 19 against the Philadelphia Phillies he hit his 20th home run of the season, giving the team six different players with 20 home runs in a single season, which is a franchise record.
Then on Sept. 24 against the San Francisco Giants, Grandal launched the Dodgers’ 212th home run of the season, which is also a franchise record. The team went on to add to that record, finishing with 221.
2018 Outlook:
Grandal is eligible for arbitration and was tendered a contract by the Dodgers, but his future with the organization very much remains in question after he lost his starting spot to Barnes in the postseason.
It was recently reported that the Dodgers would be open to trading the 29-year-old. But if that doesn’t happen then he and Barnes could be in a competition for the starting job in Spring Training, which is a good problem for the Dodgers to have.
