The Face of Average

Within the next 24 hours, we’ll witness two deciding Game 5s. If that doesn’t excite you, remember that we are on earth at the same time as Shohei Ohtani and a once-every-80,000-year comet. Fix your gaze to the west just after sunset and you might catch them both. What a time to be alive!

Pretty Average

This season, the MLB average slash line was .243 / .312 / .400. That lined up really well with the output of Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson.

When Chicago signed Swanson to a $177-million, seven-year contract prior to the 2023 season, I’m not sure they had the face of league average in mind. Sure, Swanson plays excellent defense. He’s won the NL Gold Glove at shortstop each of the past two years. But, offensively, Dansby’s 2024 batting average of .242, his .312 on-base percentage, and his .390 slugging makes him very average.

Entering the deciding games of the weekend, I’m interested in a couple of the most average players each team is likely to have in their lineups.

At this year's trade deadline, the Guardians were sold on the offensively average stylings of Lane Thomas. But don’t let the basic stats fool you.

For starters, he’s got some thump. In 2023, he hit 28 home runs for the Nationals. He finished this season with a slash line of .237 / .309 / .400. Thomas’ offensive profile might be closer to league average than Swanson’s. In defense of Thomas, he’s a versatile outfielder who stole 32 bases this season and hits well above average against left-handed pitching. He crushes lefties.

Tomorrow, he’ll face the left-handed Tarik Skubal. If Thomas produces against this year’s likely AL Cy Young award winner, he’ll be remembered in Cleveland as anything but average.

Tonight at Dodger Stadium, Padres infielder Jake Cronenworth owns the title of Mr. Average with a Dansby Swanson-like .241 / .324 / .390 slash line. The Dodgers have held San Diego scoreless in their last 15 innings. In a winner-take-all game, though, everyone is starting at zero, right?

Bullpen Communications

During Tuesday night’s game at Petco Park, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts made a mound visit with two outs in the fifth inning. I expected the manager to take the ball from starting pitcher Walker Buehler. If that had been Roberts’ plan, Buehler talked him out of it. Meanwhile, the bullpen door swung open and reliever Anthony Banda took a few steps onto the warning track. Banda quickly stopped and returned to the pen.

It’s not the first time in Roberts’ postseason tenure with the team that the bullpen and the manager have been out of sync. I’ve often heard that the Dodgers front office dictates pitcher usage and in-game decisions. Tuesday night’s mound visit, however, suggests otherwise. (Or some other confusion between dugout and bullpen.) If tonight’s game is still close when Yoshinobu Yamamoto exits, Roberts’ future in Dodger Blue could depend on how he navigates the rest of the game.

It will need to be better than average.