A.J. Pollock’s first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers did not go as planned as he was largely unable to overcome his reputation of being an injury-prone player from his time with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Pollock suffered an elbow infection in April that cost him almost half the season. When he returned in July he was a productive player and finished the regular season hitting .266/.327/.468 with 15 home runs, 49 runs scored and 47 RBI in 86 games.
However, Pollock struggled mightily in the postseason, going 0-for-13 with 11 strikeouts and a walk in the Dodgers’ National League Division Series loss to the Washington Nationals.
As Pollock now gets ready to begin his second season with the Dodgers, he is not sugarcoating his 2019 postseason struggles and is looking forward to getting past them.
“I feel like as an athlete, you have expectations in yourself and you go out there you and fail. I don’t have any excuses for it,” he said at Dodgers FanFest. “It was three games and I did horrible, I didn’t really contribute anything to the team, but it was three games.
“It’s kind of one of those things where you just get your butt kicked sometimes. You move on, and I’m really just looking forward to the next season. Hopefully we could get a lot of at-bats in the postseason, you have a bigger sample size and there will be a lot more opportunities to contribute. That’s where my head’s at. I don’t think anyone left last season feeling pretty good about things, but yeah, hopefully next time will be a better result.”
Another talking point in 2019 was Pollock’s decline defensively. The 2015 Gold Glove Award winner began the year as the team’s starting center fielder. But after posting -9 defensive runs saved in 510 innings in center field, Pollock was moved to left, where he finished the season with -1 DRS in 145 innings.
“I definitely was not happy with how my defense went,” he said. “I don’t care if I was playing left or center, but it wasn’t where I wanted to be. My expectation in myself is a lot higher than that. But yeah, I’m not out in center field right now (for offseason workouts).
“I’m really just working on speed work and the little, small things that kind of go into things, but we’ll dowel things in Spring Training. I feel pretty good, I feel like I’m in a good spot, just excited to get going.”
As it currently stands, the Dodgers have four starting-caliber outfielders in Cody Bellinger, Joc Pederson, Alex Verdugo and Pollock. If everyone is healthy, which is no sure bet, manager Dave Roberts will have some interesting decisions to make on a nightly basis when filling out his lineup card.
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