Los Angeles Dodgers prospect Gavin Lux was named the 2019 Minor League Player of the Year by Baseball America. The honor is the latest accolade in what’s been an impressive season for Lux.
He began the 2019 campaign with Double-A Tulsa, batting .313/.375/.521 with seven doubles, four triples, 13 home runs and 37 RBI in 64 games. Lux was among the affiliate’s eight players named to the Texas League All-Star Game, which the Drillers hosted.
Shortly after, Lux earned a promotion to Triple-A Oklahoma City, where he continued to shine. The young infielder hit safely in his first 16 Triple-A games, which also included a stretch of at least one home run in five consecutive contests.
When including combined time with the Drillers and Oklahoma City, Lux had a 50-game on-base streak from early June to the middle of August. He was named Pacific Coast League Player of the Week for the period of July 15-21, and PCL Player of the Month for July.
Overall with OKC, he batted .392/.478/.719 with 18 doubles, four triples, 13 home runs and 39 RBI in 49 games.
That earned the 21-year-old his first MLB call-up right after active rosters expanded in September. Lux finished his Minor League season ranked fourth in batting average (.347), 10th in on-base percentage (.421), sixth in slugging (.607) and fourth in on-base plus slugging (1.028).
As Lux continued to impress during his time with Oklahoma City, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts acknowledged the club was mulling over a potential call-up. However, initial indications were the Dodgers had not yet decided if Lux would be placed on the active roster.
One thought was to have him join the team on an unofficial basis like Will Smith did last year for his apprenticeship. It wasn’t until Sept. 1 drawing closer that Roberts said the Dodgers had shifted their thought process to promoting Lux with the intention of playing him.
That came in the wake of Max Muncy sustaining a fractured right wrist upon being hit by a pitch. It created more of an opportunity at second base, where Lux spent time improving defensively — dating back to Spring Training.
More recently, Lux approached the Dodgers front office about receiving increased opportunities at second base in effort to improve his positional flexibility. That’s paid off as he’s made each of his six starts with the Dodgers at second.
Lux went 2-for-3 with three runs scored and a double in his record-setting MLB debut and had a single the following night, but is hitless in his past four games. Of course, the Dodgers are hardly going fret over a small sample size in what’s taking shape to be a promising career.
