Dodgers poised to add Terrance Gore to wild card series roster

Dodgers outfielder and speedster Terrance Gore was a part of the team’s workout on Tuesday at Dodger Stadium, and it sure sounds like he will be added to the club’s roster for the wild card series against the Brewers.

Manager Dave Roberts said earlier Tuesday that by the end of the Dodgers workout, everyone will know their roster status. When asked if Gore was on his roster, Roberts said, “There’s a good chance. I don’t know when it’s supposed to be official, but I like what Terrance is doing.”

The 28-player active roster for the series is due by 10 a.m. PT on Wednesday. Roberts in the last week said the Dodgers would carry 12-13 pitchers, which would mean adding at least two position players to the roster that ended the season. Adding a third catcher like Keibert Ruiz is possible, though Roberts over the weekend said it would be more likely in later rounds.

“I think it’s more realistic in a five- and seven-game series versus the three-game wild card series,” Roberts said Sunday.

The Dodgers will need to add Gore to the 40-man roster in order to activate him for the wild card series, but that’s no problem since there are currently two open spots.

Gore was designated for assignment by the Dodgers on July 30, then later sent outright back to the alternate training site at USC after clearing waivers. He played in two of the Dodgers’ first six games of the season, though he didn’t attempt a stolen base. He was used as a pinch runner once, entering on third base with one out but didn’t get driven in. His other game was an inning defensively in center field to end a blowout win.

If Gore is added to the Dodgers’ wild card series roster, this will be his fourth postseason, having also appeared during both Royals World Series runs in 2014-15 and with the Cubs in the 2018 wild card game. All nine of his playoff games have been as a pinch runner, stealing five bases in six attempts. In that 2018 wild card game he also played six innings in left field in a 13-inning game, and struck out in his only two at-bats.

He has the most specific role of any player in baseball. In his 111 major league games in seven seasons, including the postseason, 71 have been as a pinch runner. He’s batted a total of 79 times.

On the bases, Gore has stolen 45 bases in 55 attempts. Those came in 93 stolen base opportunities, defined by Baseball-Reference as plate appearances through which a runner was on first or second with the next base open, giving him a successful steal in 48.4 percent of all opportunities.

For context, in 2020 all of MLB stole 884 bases in 24,289 opportunities, or 3.6 percent of the time. Among the top 35 stolen base leaders in baseball this season (everybody with at least seven steals), only two players had successful steals in at least 20 percent of their opportunities — Adalberto Mondesi (40.7 percent) and Roman Quinn (34.3 percent).

Game times for the remainder of the series were announced by MLB, with every Dodgers-Brewers game this week on ESPN.