{"id":114802,"date":"2025-06-19T05:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T05:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/114802\/"},"modified":"2025-06-19T05:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T05:59:09","slug":"latest-on-dodgers-outfield-alignment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/114802\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest On Dodgers’ Outfield Alignment"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dodgers started Hyeseong Kim<\/a> in center field tonight against San Diego right-hander\u00a0Stephen Kolek<\/a>. Kim was flanked in the corners by Andy Pages<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a>, leaving\u00a0Michael Conforto<\/a> out of the lineup. Manager Dave Roberts said pregame that he\u2019s unsure whether the lefty-hitting Conforto will get a start against rookie righty\u00a0Ryan Bergert<\/a> in tomorrow\u2019s series finale (relayed by Sonja Chen<\/a> of MLB.com).<\/p>\n

Roberts didn\u2019t frame it as a benching, saying he envisions Conforto \u201cplaying a lot still.\u201d At the same time, the veteran skipper acknowledged that Kim has earned the opportunity for regular playing time. Kim is a natural middle infielder, but the Dodgers have\u00a0Mookie Betts<\/a> and\u00a0Tommy Edman<\/a> playing at those spots. That leaves center field as the clearest position for Kim to get consistent at-bats.<\/p>\n

Signed to a three-year offseason deal out of Korea, the 26-year-old Kim began his Dodger tenure on optional assignment. Los Angeles called him up in early May. Kim was expected to work as a multi-positional player off the bench. He has thrived in his first look at MLB pitching, running a .382\/.425\/.544 batting line through his first 30 big league contests. He\u2019s obviously not going to continue hitting that well, but he\u2019s putting the ball in play at an above-average rate and has gone 6-6 on stolen base attempts.<\/p>\n

Pages is playing at an All-Star level, while Hern\u00e1ndez remains a middle-of-the-order bat. Getting Kim regular outfield work will come at the expense of Conforto, who is hitting .168\/.305\/.277 in his first season as a Dodger. He has hit below the Mendoza line in each month. Kim\u2019s ability to play up the middle also allows the Dodgers to use Pages in left field. He\u2019d otherwise need to play center when Conforto is in left.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clearly not what the Dodgers envisioned when they signed Conforto to a surprising $17MM free agent deal. It was a fairly sizable bet on his strong finish to the 2024 campaign while with the Giants. He\u2019d been up-and-down through the season\u2019s first couple months before posting an OPS above .840 in both August and September. An injury to any of L.A.\u2019s outfielders or a slump from Kim could reopen everyday work for Conforto, but he may lose some playing time in the short term as they ride the hot hand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dodgers started Hyeseong Kim in center field tonight against San Diego right-hander\u00a0Stephen Kolek. Kim was flanked in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,1393,111,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-114802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-hyeseong-kim","10":"tag-michael-conforto","11":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114708503888514074","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}