Gavin Lux embraces spot at bottom of lineup

There were a lot of notable takeaways from the Dodgers this spring, but one of the biggest was the improvement from Gavin Lux across the board. He was fantastic at the plate and played pretty good defense, essentially earning him an every day spot in the lineup.

“Any time you get results, it’s a nice confidence booster,” Lux said to the media on Friday afternoon. “I don’t base how I feel on results. It’s literally how mechanics feel and how my swing feels. For me, that’s where I’m putting my focus.”

I know he doesn’t read too much into numbers, but his stats were pretty great this spring. In 19 games in March, Lux hit .314 with an OPS of just under .800. He hit a homer, drove in six runs and had four doubles.

Manager Dave Roberts has praised Lux all spring, talking about his improvement and how he expects him to keep progressing as the season goes on.

“I think it means a lot, coming from your manager and someone you respect a lot,” Lux said. “It’s a confidence booster. Any time your manager says that it holds more weight than if someone else said it.”

For Lux, he doesn’t really care too much about what his numbers look like at the end of the season. Obviously he hopes they’re good, but he’s more focused on helping the Dodgers win and being a table setter at the bottom of the lineup. He hopes to grind out at bats and try to make as many plays in the field as possible. His focus is just figuring out a process that works for him with his routine on a daily basis.

Usually when you’re a top prospect in the game, you soon become one of the top hitters in your lineup. Not Lux. With such a stacked Dodgers lineup, he finds himself hitting either seventh or eighth in the lineup. When asked about it, he doesn’t recall a time in his playing career where he’s consistently been at the bottom of the lineup.

“I don’t think I’ve hit too far down in the order,” he said. “It’s a first. But look who’s ahead of me. There’s a lot of really good players and hitters. If I could be a pest at the bottom, that’s what I’m going to do.”

Dodgers news and notes

• Dave Roberts still doesn’t have an ETA as to when we can see either Brusdar Graterol or Joe Kelly return from the Injured List. He did say he could expect Graterol to return before Kelly does. Both players are at the alternate site, but not throwing to hitters yet.
• Austin Barnes is doing fine. He’s still expected to be in the lineup tomorrow.

Today’s lineup