Gavin Lux had an eventful lead-up to his fifth Major League season with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Coming back from tearing his ACL and LCL in his right knee during 2023 Spring Training, Lux opened 2024 Cactus League play as the Dodgers’ starting shortstop. However, he had to move back to second base after multiple errors, and to his credit, has taken it in stride while looking comfortable manning the four-hole.
Another challenge at the start of the 2024 campaign is getting his body re-adjusted to playing at an increased capacity after being inactive for an entire season.
“That soreness after playing a couple games in a row, that’s coming back,” Lux said. “Which I honestly missed last year, believe it or not. It’s just trying to handle that soreness with your body. That’s the hardest part, but it feels good to be back out there.”
His transition back to the field has been pretty seamless since the regular season began, but the results on offense have been slower to arrive in 2024.
Lux is not too concerned with results this early into the season and is more so focused on the fundamentals of getting into good counts, making solid contact and setting the table for the top of the Dodgers lineup.
“I’m seeing the ball fine,” Lux noted. “Not really getting hits, but more process over results at this point. Not even 30 at-bats, so just trying to barrel the ball, control the strike zone, have good at-bats and flip it over to the top,”
Lux is hitting .200/.259/.240, with a double, two walks and five strikeouts in 25 at-bats so far this season. He is controlling the strike zone like he wants as evident by a 15.6% chase rate, which is in the 91st percentile.
Lux’s problem right now seems to be that when he swings at pitches in the zone, he is only making contact 79.5% of the time. It is a decent size drop off from his previous two full seasons, but that should come in due time with more regular playing time.
Could Gavin Lux be turning a corner?
Lux did have his best game of the season in the Dodgers’ 5-4 win against the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday.
He played a significant part in their three-run fourth inning that proved to be the difference in a close game. In total, Lux went 1-for-2 with two walks, an RBI and one run scored.
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