The Dodgers have chosen the talented young infielder Gavin lux,. Lux had recently returned to summer camp after an unexplained absence that may or may not have been related to the coronavirus.
It is not immediately clear why the Dodgers decided not to bring Lux to open the season. It had long been hoped that he would be a key part of the roster after destroying the top minor pitching in 2019 and defending himself in his MLB debut. That may happen, but Lux will start the year at the team’s alternate training site awaiting another call.
Obviously, there is a potential here for service time implications for the 22-year-old. He registered just 28 days in the majors last year, so even a brief absence in a shortened season could leave him in fear of a full year of service when the 2020 campaign ends.
Lux obviously has nothing more to prove in the minors, so this decision is surely not about his development. With thirty spots on the active roster, there is ample room to work, though the Dodgers are sure to commit to carrying plenty of additional pitches. The super deep organization certainly has plenty of viable candidates to go through second base, where Lux had been the alleged choice, though it’s still a bit difficult to imagine that it really fell short on a pure talent assessment.
It will be interesting to see how the organization (and Lux himself) discuss the decision when journalists have the opportunity to ask some questions. It could be that there is an unfamiliar motivation or development prerogative, or perhaps the Dodgers feel that Lux only needs more work after a layoff. Whatever the reasoning, the implications of the service are hard to ignore since the team could withstand an additional year of back-end control.
