Gavin Lux thoughts

Throughout 2019, I have had the opportunity to talk to two of the Dodgers minor league team’s play-by-play broadcasters and two baseball prospects writers. We talked about several players but no matter what minor league level they covered, Gavin Lux always came up in our conversations.

Here is a collection of those comments from those stories. Note that interviews were slightly edited for clarity.

Interview with ESPN’s Keith Law (dated 2/28/2019)

When asked if he sees Gavin Lux as a shortstop or second baseman, Law said “Shortstop, no doubt shortstop for me,’ Law said, “I know the Dodgers may move him around for other reasons, but to me he is absolutely a shortstop.”

“I thought he would be a shortstop in the draft, the question was would he get strong enough to make quality contact,” Law said, “last year he really did that.”

Law doesn’t want to under sell Lux’s power potential. “Projections like this are not that precise,” Law said, “and the Dodgers are as launch-angle conscious as any organization too, so if they think there is 18 homer power in there, they are going do what is required to help him get to it.

“He’s a good enough hitter and now strong enough that I feel like he will surprise people with home run totals in the majors,” Law said, “people may look at him and see a shortstop and say he’ll hit ten homers and then he’ll hit 17.”

Interview with Baseball America’s Kyle Glaser (dated 3/22/2019)

Was getting stronger the key to Gavin Lux becoming a top Dodger prospect?

“I was talking to evaluators over the previous year and watching some video, I kind of had an idea in my head of what Gavin Lux would look like,” Glaser said. “And then I out and saw him, I was like whoa, this is way more physically impressive than I had expected, given how scouts had described him previously and watching some video from him from the Midwest League.”

“He was strong but it was a lithe strong. He had put on a lot strength while maintaining his speed and his athleticism,” Glaser said. “There’s real, real impact in his swing and the Dodgers had said repeatedly he did make a bit of a bat path adjustment but the overwhelming driver of his success was just that physical maturity. Some of it is nature taking its course, he was still was a teenager, only just now hit his 20s.”

“Some of it is the work he put in,” Glaser said. “I wrote about a little bit about that at midseason. He put in the work and you have to applaud him and the results on the field followed.”

Interview with Great Lakes Loons broadcaster Brad Tunney (dated 7/31/2019)

Q: In 2017, Gavin Lux made his full-season debut with the Loons, looking back now, what are your thoughts about his time as a Loon and how he improved to get to the doorstep of a major league career?

BT: “It’s funny looking back at it ... Lux hit .240 with the Loons and was really not all that impressive. So it’s crazy to think he has turned himself into one of the best prospects in all of baseball. But the thing is, when he was here, there wasn’t a harder worker in the building in maybe my five years here. Lux internalized all of the information the Dodgers presented him and did the most with it. He got in the cage early and did the most with the hitting coach. He was a sponge of information, so you’re not surprised he has taken off.

Interview with Oklahoma City Dodger broadcaster Alex Freedman (dated 8/2/2019)

Q: Is infielder Gavin Lux having the most impressive beginning to his transition to Triple-A baseball in your time covering the Oklahoma City Dodgers?

AF: “Oh for sure, no doubt. When you do what he’s done for about a month, it’s just incredible. It’s slowing down a little bit. I think folks are kind of adjusting and we’ll see how he adjusts in turn.

“It is just so rare, I don’t think we’ve seen him have a single bad game, which would be fine for a 21 year old to have in Triple-A from time-to-time. What’s impressed me about him is just the plate appearances he’s always puts together, it’s very rarely that he’s looked completely overmatched when striking out.

“He makes some really athletic plays at shortstop and second base, especially turning double plays. Seeing the total package he brings is really impressive. If hadn’t been for Gavin Lux, DJ Peters might arguably have the best start to Triple-A player I have seen in my time at Oklahoma City, but Lux has just been on a whole separate level and that series he had Iowa a couple weeks ago ... it was special.”