When Gavin Lux walked off the field at Goodyear Ballpark on Monday, the former Dodgers infielder wore three things.
A bright red Cincinnati Reds jersey; one on the opposite end of the color spectrum from his old Dodger blue threads.
An easy, confident smile; already feeling settled with his new club less than two months removed from an offseason trade that changed the trajectory of his career.
And, perhaps most of all, an unmistakable chip on his shoulder; out to prove plenty of people — some of his old employers in Los Angeles, included — wrong about what he’s capable of on a major league diamond.
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“Always, I think you have that chip on your shoulder,” said Lux, a former first-round draft pick and top minor-league prospect of the Dodgers who spent six seasons on their major league roster (including both its 2020 and 2024 World Series squads) before being dealt to the Reds this offseason in exchange for outfield prospect Mike Sirota and a draft pick.
“I think you always want to prove that you can play on the left side of the infield, you can hit lefties, whatever that chip is,” Lux said. “Every guy has a different chip. For me, I think that’s one of them.”
Indeed, the Dodgers’ hesitancy to play Lux at multiple positions or give him regular at-bats in left-on-left matchups were two of the main reasons they shipped him to Cincinnati in early January — days after their signing of Korean utilityman Hyeseong Kim made the 27-year-old an expendable piece of the roster.
“After that signing, you’re like, ‘Oh, OK, maybe there’s a chance [I could get traded],’” Lux said Monday, after playing against the Dodgers for the first time in the Reds’ 8-1 spring training win.
“Obviously you still don’t really expect it after being in one place for so long. But at the same time, it is a business. They have to do what’s best for them. And I think they did me a solid by getting me to a place that has the expectation of winning. … A place where I think they think I can help.”
When Lux first arrived in the majors in 2019, the expectation was that he’d be a cornerstone piece of the Dodgers’ long-term success, seemingly primed for star-level production as their potential shortstop of the future.
But, despite a monstrous minor league career that vaulted him into discussion as one of the top young talents in the sport, Lux never quite carved out a full-time role in the Dodgers’ lineup.
In 2020, he played just 19 games in the pandemic-shortened season, batting a woeful .175 while spending much of the season at the team’s alternate training site.
In 2021, Lux raised his batting average to .242 but struggled to find a home defensively, posting below-average metrics at shortstop (while temporarily filling in for an injured Corey Seager) before finishing with his short-lived experiments at third base (where he committed two errors in his lone appearance) and the outfield (perhaps most dubiously remembered for a collision with teammate Cody Bellinger that left Bellinger with fractured ribs).
Lux’s best season as a Dodger came in 2022, when he set career-highs in batting average (.276), slugging percentage (.400) and OPS (.745) while playing primarily at second base.
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Alas, when the Dodgers tried to shift Lux back to shortstop in 2023, he blew out his knee a week into Cactus League play, sidelining him for the rest of the year. Then came last spring, when a recurrence of throwing miscues in camp prompted the Dodgers to put him back at second base and move Mookie Betts to shortstop only weeks before the season.
Though Lux shook off a slow start offensively to the 2024 campaign with a blistering second half (he batted .304 with a .899 OPS and seven home runs after the All-Star break), he was never fully trusted with an everyday role, getting just 50 total plate appearances against left-handed pitchers.
And once the Dodgers finalized their three-year signing of Kim — who was a decorated utility infielder in the Korean Baseball Organization, despite questions about how his bat would translate against MLB pitching — it became apparent that Lux might not have a place on the 2025 roster.
The trade with Cincinnati was struck three days later.
“Obviously he’s a really good player and contributed a bunch to our year last year,” said general manager Brandon Gomes, who was the one to call Lux and inform him of the deal this winter.
“But looking at the construction of the roster, [we asked ourselves] are there ways where we’re not going to take a step backwards to be able to add some future value as we’re signing free agents? … It’s that balance of, when it makes sense and you’re not giving up what you feel like is major league wins in that type of way to continue to be able to add to the farm system, it makes a lot of sense.”
While Lux spoke highly of his time with the Dodgers on Monday — when he got a first chance to catch up with former teammates such as Max Muncy, Andy Pages and Teoscar Hernández — he was also looking ahead to his new role with the Reds, who view him as an experienced and versatile player capable of helping them vault into postseason contention.
“Everybody is trying to win,” Lux said of the Reds, who also hired two-time World Series champion Terry Francona as manager this offseason. “It’s a young team, but everybody has the same goals and that’s to win games. There’s a lot of talent. It’s just putting it all together.”
Lux said his role will include playing multiple positions, including on the left side of the infield and the outfield — places where the Dodgers had seemingly lost faith in his glove. On Monday, Lux got the start at third base, where the Reds have a relatively open competition.
“We’re going to kind of figure it out as we go,” Lux said. “I have no problem bouncing around, doing whatever I have to do to help win or just to get at-bats.”
Earning more of those at-bats against left-handed pitching is another task on Lux’s to-do list. And to that end, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts provided his former second baseman with an inadvertent test.
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In Lux’s three trips to the plate, he faced three different left-handed Dodgers relievers: Anthony Banda (who walked him), Tanner Scott (who struck him out looking) and Alex Vesia (who Lux joked gave him a wink after inducing a pop-up).
“He’s gonna probably be upset with me for running all those lefties out today,” Roberts joked, noting the matchups were coincidental.
Turns out, Lux felt exactly the opposite — embracing an early opportunity to show both his current and former clubs what he believes he’s capable of at the outset of this new chapter in his career.
“I need to see guys like that anyways,” Lux said with a laugh. “It is funny, though, getting matched up with three lefties. It is what it is. It’s all fun.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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