This story was excerpted from Sonja Chen’s Dodgers Beat publication. To learn the complete publication, click on right here. And subscribe to get it usually in your inbox.
The Dodgers’ unprecedented 8-0 run to start their title protection hasn’t come simply. Each night time, they’ve wanted to seek out methods to win video games, and most of the time, Tommy Edman has been proper in the midst of the motion.
“It simply looks like each single night time, he does one thing that can assist you win,” supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned earlier within the week. “It would not matter whether or not it is a sac fly, it is preserving the ball within the infield diving, or stretching to get a forceout at second base or getting a success or taking a stroll.”
What comes as considerably a shock is how Edman has been contributing. At this early juncture, there’s been a powerful show of energy.
By his first eight video games, Edman has gone 9-for-31 (.290), with 4 of these hits leaving the yard. He launched the primary lengthy ball of the Main League season within the Tokyo Sequence finale, and he seems nicely on his approach to eclipsing his single-season profession excessive of 13 homers, finished twice in 2022 and ’23.
Since becoming a member of the Dodgers as a part of the three-team deal that additionally introduced Michael Kopech to L.A., Edman has labored to unlock that energy in his swing. A lot of the work has been mechanical, with Edman timing up sure elements to make the general movement extra impactful.
“Up to now, I’ve gotten into positions with my swing the place I am unable to make use of my entire physique,” Edman mentioned. “Proper now, I really feel like I can use my lower-half higher. Simply general, the sequencing of it, all the things would form of go without delay prior to now, and now I am doing an excellent job of making that pressure with the decrease physique ranging from the bottom, and letting the bat form of act as a whip.”
Notably, the switch-hitting Edman can also be doing extra injury from the left-hand aspect. All through his profession, he is been extra productive from the opposite aspect of the plate, to the purpose that he has opted to face right-handed pitchers whereas batting righty now and again. Edman has a profession .512 slugging proportion as a righty going through lefties, in contrast with .378 as a lefty going through righties.
This season, two of his 4 homers have come as a left-handed batter, although he is had twice as many at-bats from that aspect of the plate as a result of the Dodgers have seen extra right-handers. Whereas it is troublesome to attract long-term conclusions from a pattern of eight video games, the progress Edman has made has stood out to his supervisor.
“He is all the time been superb right-handed, and he labored actually onerous this previous winter on the left-handed swing,” Roberts mentioned. “He’s significantly higher for me within the batter’s field batting left-handed.”
Equally to how he is channeled his energy stroke, Edman attributed his early enhancements to being extra conscious of his mechanics when he is hitting lefty.
“Numerous it’s simply staying related and staying sturdy on my bottom,” Edman mentioned. “I really feel like once I begin to fall off left-handed, it is as a result of I am drifting ahead and dropping my energy and form of collapsing down.”
Final offseason, Los Angeles locked Edman up with a five-year, $74 million extension to make sure he would stay with the crew by at the least 2029, with a membership possibility for ’30. Along with his capability to play a number of positions at a excessive stage — though he is primarily been at second base within the early going — Edman embodies the kind of versatility that the Dodgers like to have on their roster.
If he can proceed to construct on the progress he is already made on the plate, then that deal will solely look higher and higher.
“It has been a variety of work,” Edman mentioned. “It is form of a relentless course of, all the time making little tweaks and discovering totally different cues. But it surely’s been good to see some success early on within the season.”
