WASHINGTON — Tommy Edman can do just about anything for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Except pull rank.
The reigning National League Championship Series MVP, their leader in home runs on this young season and the superglue that holds the middle of their diamond together, Edman, at 30, would be a decorated elder on most rosters.
With these Dodgers, who feature seven players with nine-figure contracts, four likely Hall of Famers and an industrywide expectation that they’ll repeat as World Series champions, he’s fortunate just to get his hacks in.
“I talked to him yesterday and he was struggling to get some cage time, because he’s so low on the totem pole,” says his former St. Louis Cardinals infield mate, Paul DeJong, who’s now the Washington Nationals’ third baseman. “With the amount of vets and guys on that team, I thought that was pretty funny. Because on this team he’d be one of the veteran players.
“To see him back toward the bottom of the service time rank, that would be humbling. But he’s the type of guy that’s going to get his work in no matter what the case is.”
And the work, quite often, is excellent.
Edman parlayed his late-season heroics after a July trade from St. Louis into long-term security, signing a five-year, $74 million extension this offseason, one year before he was eligible for free agency. And while his 11 hits and 11 RBIs in the NLCS tied a Dodgers franchise record, they’ll experience the full spectrum of Edman’s talents this season.
He’s already slugged five home runs in 14 games, tied with Teoscar Hernández for the team lead, and ranks second or third in hits, RBIs, runs and slugging percentage. While most of his starts have been at second base, he’s also logged time in center field and is available if needed at shortstop.
The marriage of Edman and the Dodgers is practically perfect: He’s perhaps the most deluxe edition of the versatile star, a fellow who can toggle excellently between positions as needed, an art previously mastered by the likes of Chris Taylor and Kiké Hernández.
Yet Edman is both a switch-hitter and the 2021 Gold Glove winner at second base. As the Cardinals faded from perennial ...
