{"id":38679,"date":"2025-05-19T12:07:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T12:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/38679\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T12:07:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T12:07:10","slug":"ruthless-dodgers-cut-chris-taylor-after-dumping-austin-barnes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/38679\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruthless Dodgers cut Chris Taylor after dumping Austin Barnes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even winning two World Series titles \u2014 and delivering in some clutch moments along the way \u2014 doesn\u2019t guarantee a roster spot with the Dodgers anymore.<\/p>\n

Backup catcher Austin Barnes learned that earlier this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And on Sunday, veteran utilityman Chris Taylor discovered that reality, too.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers designated Taylor \u2014 who played more than 1,000 games in Los Angeles and secured a pair of World Series rings in 2020 and 2024 \u2014 for assignment to clear a pathway for Tommy Edman\u2019s return from the injured list and for rookie second baseman Hyeseong Kim\u2019s role the rest of the season. <\/p>\n

The move occurred just four days after Barnes was also DFA\u2019d to give top prospect Dalton Rushing a shot in the majors.<\/p>\n

Chris Taylor celebrates after the Dodgers won the World Series in 2024. MLB Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Taylor, 34, had collected just 35 plate appearances this season across 28 games, hitting just .200 with a lowly .457 OPS.<\/p>\n

But from 2017-23, he served as a regular in the Dodgers\u2019 lineup, appearing in 100-plus games in all of the full seasons across that stretch \u2014 and logging 56 during the condensed 2020 campaign \u2014 as both an infielder and outfielder.<\/p>\n

Chris Taylor is pictured before the Dodgers\u2019 game on May 16. Getty Images<\/p>\n

In 2017, Taylor was named co-MVP of the NLCS, and four years later, his two-run homer over the left-field fence \u2014 with two outs in the top of the ninth inning \u2014 helped the Dodgers secure a win in the wild-card game.<\/p>\n

He homered four times in 11 playoff games in 2021, in addition to launching another four balls over the fence during Los Angeles\u2019 run to the title the previous season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a very emotional week for all of us,\u201d Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told reporters Sunday, according to the Los Angeles Times<\/a>. \u201cBarnsey and CT have been in the middle of some huge moments for this organization. Both guys have left an indelible mark on our culture and where we\u2019re at this point. So the decisions were incredibly difficult. The conversations were tough.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chris Taylor hits an RBI double during the Dodgers\u2019 game against the Marlins on May 5. Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\u201cBut with where we are, the division race, the composition of roster, everything, we felt like this was in the Dodgers\u2019 best interest in terms of how to win as many games and put us in a position to best win the World Series this year. Doesn\u2019t mean that was easy. But ultimately felt like it was the right thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dodgers, at 29-17, led the Padres by one game in the NL West entering Sunday\u2019s games, while the Giants (two games) and Diamondbacks (five games) were all within striking distance in MLB\u2019s most competitive division through the first portion of its season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even winning two World Series titles \u2014 and delivering in some clutch moments along the way \u2014 doesn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[628,5,2059,57,4,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-38679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-andrew-friedman","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-chris-taylor","11":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114534419381087288","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38679","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=38679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}