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Dodgers of the Decade: Center Field

The captain of the outfield, will it be Bellinger, Kemp, Pederson or Ethier

MLB: Los Angeles Dodgers at New York Mets Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

Today we have our second article this week as we now move to center field.

Our poll closed last night for the Dodger of Decade Left Fielder and the winner was Matt Kemp with 57% of the vote.

Unlike left field, there will be at least two players who played a lot of games at center field for the Dodgers in the last ten years.

As you may know, the qualifications to make this ballot is a minimum 100 games played at center field and there is a poll at the bottom of the article where True Blue LA readers will get to vote for their choice.

There were six players appeared in at least 100 games from 2010-2019 at center field and here they are in order of games played there:

  • Matt Kemp played 533 games in center field and won a Gold Glove and finished second in the MVP voting playing center field in 2011. Kemp was also an All-Star during two of his center field seasons in 2011 and 2012.
  • Joc Pederson started his Dodger career in 2014 playing center field. He played 412 games there until moving to both left and right in recent seasons.
  • Kiké Hernández has played 158 games in center field during his career with the Dodgers
  • Andre Ethier played the corner outfield positions for the majority of his career with his only major league team. He did play a total of 144 games in center field from 2012 - 2015.
  • Chris Taylor makes his first of two appearances in the outfield ballots, he has played 128 games in left field. Taylor also has played 119 games in center field.
  • Cody Bellinger closed 2019 in center field and he has played a total of 107 games in center field in his first three seasons in the majors.

Four other Dodgers played at least 62 games in center field in the 2010s. Alex Verdugo played 61 games in center field in 2019 and a total of 75 games in center field in his first three seasons. Yasiel Puig played 67 games in center field, most of that was in 2014. Tony Gwynn, Jr. roamed center field for 65 games from 2011 through 2012. And A.J. Pollock put in 62 games in center field in his first season with the Dodgers.

The statistics that are in the table below are their totals for the Dodgers from 2010-2019. and contain games where they played other positions.

Dodgers of the Decade: Center Field

Player WAR/pos oWAR dWAR G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
Player WAR/pos oWAR dWAR G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
Cody Bellinger 17.4 13.5 2.1 450 1841 1595 292 443 88 14 111 288 228 405 .278 .368 .559 .928
Matt Kemp 12.6 22.4 -9.8 798 3201 2873 445 827 158 15 142 491 277 768 .288 .350 .502 .851
Andre Ethier 12.5 14.7 -4.9 875 3196 2836 359 796 171 17 87 385 308 589 .281 .356 .445 .801
Chris Taylor 11.2 9.6 2.3 453 1648 1474 230 392 100 19 51 194 146 448 .266 .337 .463 .800
Joc Pederson 10.8 11.7 -1.1 705 2379 2032 324 473 108 7 123 287 293 575 .233 .339 .474 .813
Enrique Hernandez 7.5 6.0 1.9 600 1726 1531 219 368 80 8 63 193 166 365 .240 .316 .427 .742
Statistics provided by Baseball-Reference.com

Please vote here:

Poll

Who plays Center Field for the Dodgers of the Decade team

This poll is closed

  • 43%
    Cody Bellinger
    (165 votes)
  • 5%
    Andre Ethier
    (22 votes)
  • 0%
    Kiké Hernández
    (1 vote)
  • 42%
    Matt Kemp
    (160 votes)
  • 5%
    Joc Pederson
    (20 votes)
  • 2%
    Chris Taylor
    (10 votes)
378 votes total Vote Now