The Dodgers had one of the best defenses in all of baseball last season in terms of defensive runs saved. However, two key pieces were not as great as the rest of the team. Those players were third baseman Justin Turner and outfielder AJ Pollock.
In Turner’s case, his defensive downturn can easily be contributed to age and because of it, the Dodgers are considering a positional change for him to first base. Similarly to Turner, the Dodgers made a positional change for AJ Pollock, moving him from center field to left field — it worked well.
Justin Turner
According to the president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, the downturn of Justin Turner’s defensive output is ‘an aberration’. He reportedly is expecting a bounce-back year for Turner defensively, wherever his spot may be. With the Dodgers taking a hard look at free-agent third baseman Anthony Rendon, that could mean a positional move from the hot corner over to first base.
Friedman said he sees Justin Turner’s dip in defense at third base this year as an aberration and expects a bounce back year in the field.
— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) December 10, 2019
Turner finished the season with -7 defensive…
Read “Dodgers: Friedman Discusses Turner and Pollock’s Defensive Expectations” at Dodgers Nation