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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Employees Author
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Dodgers had spent three years coveting Tommy Edman, which, when you concentrate on it, makes a number of sense. Maybe no franchise locations a higher emphasis on versatility, and maybe no participant encapsulates it higher. Edman performs superior protection at two premium positions, hits from either side of the plate, possesses the power to maneuver runners over and drive them in. When the Dodgers lastly landed Edman over the summer season, they had been hazy on a job however envisioned somebody who would assist them in a large number of how.
What they did not foresee was what finally transpired — that Edman would accumulate 11 RBIs in a single postseason spherical, function the cleanup hitter in a pennant-clinching sport and change into MVP of the Nationwide League Championship Sequence.
“It is a loopy trajectory,” Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned after Sunday’s 10-5 victory over the New York Mets in Recreation 6. “I am unable to say sufficient concerning the entrance workplace with the ability to purchase him on the deadline. What he can do for us on the sector, within the clubhouse — it is simply wonderful.”
Edman’s season did not start till Aug. 19, 21 days after the Dodgers acquired him in a three-team commerce with the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago White Sox that additionally landed them hard-throwing reliever Michael Kopech.
His proper wrist was sluggish to heal from offseason surgical procedure, pushing his return again by a few months. He was lastly able to enterprise out on a rehab task by late June, however then he sprained an ankle throughout a exercise. When the Dodgers engaged St. Louis on Edman in late July, they evaluated his 2024 season on the premise of 1 medical report and the small handful of scouts who descended upon Springfield, Massachusetts, to look at him play in 4 rehab video games.
It was sufficient to finalize a commerce. Their imaginative and prescient for him crystallized three months later.
“You see how he suits everywhere in the diamond, the praise to our workforce with the velocity, you’ll be able to inform the baseball instincts,” Dodgers basic supervisor Brandon Gomes mentioned. “And clearly, the second doesn’t trouble him.”
Edman, 29, batted .407 within the NLCS, changing into the third participant ever with eleven-plus hits and eleven-plus RBIs in a single postseason collection, alongside Bobby Richardson within the 1960 World Sequence and David Ortiz within the 2004 American League Championship Sequence. When Miguel Rojas’ adductor tear prevented him from cracking the NLCS roster, Edman moved from middle area to shortstop, making a pathway for Enrique Hernández, notoriously good in October, to proceed getting at-bats. And when Freddie Freeman‘s sprained proper ankle prevented him from beginning Recreation 6, Edman supplied all of the early manufacturing the Dodgers wanted, poking a two-run double down the left-field line within the backside of the primary and launching a two-run homer to left-center area within the backside of the third.
The one different Dodger to amass 11 RBIs in a single postseason collection is Corey Seager in 2020.
“It is fairly loopy, particularly with the historical past of the group, to have tied that document,” Edman mentioned. “An enormous a part of that could be a testomony to the blokes on the workforce. We had actually good at-bats all through the collection. Our entire lineup was actually good. Any variety of guys may have received MVP.”
A kind of candidates disagreed.
“Tommy, I feel, clearly is the MVP,” Shohei Ohtani, talking via an interpreter, mentioned after an NLCS that noticed him attain base safely 17 occasions. “He does issues, not simply this postseason however through the common season, contributing in locations the place it does not actually replicate on the stat line. However I feel the widespread theme for this season has been lots of people, completely different guys, have been stepping up.”
The Cardinals established themselves as one of many sport’s pre-eminent franchises via a player-development system that regularly turned lesser-regarded prospects into legit main league contributors. Edman, a sixth-round select of Stanford in 2016, was among the many newest. He turned a daily in 2020, received a Gold Glove at second base in 2021 and accrued 5.3 FanGraphs wins above alternative in 2022, throughout which he supplied a .725 OPS, accrued 48 extra-base hits, stole 32 bases and excelled at three up-the-middle positions — second base, shortstop and middle area.
For as a lot because the Dodgers requested, the Cardinals had been hardly open to dealing Edman. A commerce by no means bought shut. That lastly modified halfway via 2024, when a glut of place gamers and a need for beginning pitching made him a commerce candidate. An early permutation had the Cardinals sending Edman to the White Sox for right-hander Erick Fedde. Then the Dodgers jumped in. The White Sox, in rebuild mode whereas navigating via a traditionally dangerous season, had no use for Edman, who was solely a yr and a half away from free company. As an alternative, the Dodgers despatched them a package deal of infield prospects headlined by Miguel Vargas. The Cardinals bought Fedde and veteran outfielder Tommy Pham. The Dodgers acquired Edman and Kopech, who solidified the ninth inning down the stretch and opened Recreation 6 of the NLCS.
Stated Gomes: “I do not know the place we would be with out these guys.
Edman, although, was an funding. It wasn’t till the third week of August that he was wholesome sufficient to play in main league video games. And it wasn’t till the second week of September, throughout a house collection through which Edman homered 4 occasions towards the Chicago Cubs, that his swing truly felt proper for the primary time. Edman’s numbers slid thereafter, his slash line sitting at simply .153/.261/.305 over his previous 69 regular-season plate appearances — however then he began to place his imprint throughout October.
He did it by shifting runners over with bunts and getting them in with homers. By mashing towards lefties but in addition holding his personal towards righties. By locking down middle area but in addition taking over shortstop.
Now, heading right into a extremely anticipated World Sequence matchup towards the New York Yankees, he is perhaps peaking on the proper time.
“For me, relative to everyone else, I am just about in June proper now,” Edman mentioned. “I’ve performed like three months of baseball. All people else has performed like seven months. I do not need to say it is a bonus, however I feel having that point off, I really feel a bit bit extra contemporary.”
