The Dodgers made a move to unclutter their middle infield logjam on Monday, trading second baseman Gavin Lux to the Cincinnati Reds for outfield prospect Mike Sirota and a Competitive Balance Round A draft pick, the team announced.
Lux, who hit .251 with career-highs of 10 home runs and 50 RBIs last season, has been a potential trade candidate since the season ended.
With Mookie Betts moving back to the infield next season, versatile Tommy Edman signing a contract extension and the addition of KBO All-Star Hyeseong Kim last week, the reigning World Series champions had a glut of middle infielders and the left-handed-hitting Lux, 27, became expendale. Kim, who also hits left-handed, fits best at second base, and the Dodgers also have slick-fielding Miguel Rojas and utility man Chris Taylor in the final year of their contracts.
The Dodgers selected Lux out of high school in the first round of the 2016 draft. He was named Baseball America’s Minor League Player of the Year in 2019 after batting .347 with a 1.028 OPS, 26 home runs and 76 RBIs in 113 games combined at Double-A and Triple-A. Lux was on the 2020 Dodgers team that won the World Series in the pandemic-shortened season, but he became more of a contributor after that. He hit .242 in 2021, then hit a career-high .276 with 33 extra-base hits and a .745 OPS in 2022.
He was expected to be the team’s starting shortstop in 2023 after Trea Turner left as a free agent, but he suffered season-ending tears to the ACL and LCL in his right knee on an awkward slide into third base during a spring training game.
Last year, he went into spring as the team’s starting shortstop but he struggled with throwing errors and was moved to second base well before the season began, with Betts sliding from second to shortstop.
Lux played in 139 games last season, batting .304 with an .899 OPS in the second half after hitting .213 with a .562 OPS in the first half. He hit .176 (6 for 34) with one home run and four RBIs in 12 postseason games. Lux, who has a .252 career average with 28 homers and 155 RBIs in five seasons, had a $1,225,000 salary last year. He is eligible for arbitration this winter and next, then can become a free agent after the 2026 World Series.
In what turned out to be Lux’s last at-bat in a Dodgers uniform, he hit the game-tying sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the eighth inning of Game 5 of the World Series against the New York Yankees last fall. The Dodgers took the lead on a Mookie Betts sacrifice fly two batters later and closed out the win for their first full-season championship since 1988.
Sirota, 21, was ranked as the No. 14 prospect in the Reds’ system, according to MLB Pipeline. He was initially drafted by the Dodgers in 2021, but didn’t sign and went to college at Northeastern University. The Reds selected Sirota in the third round of the 2024 draft (87th overall) but he did not play for a minor league affiliate last year. A grand-nephew of Hall of Fame pitcher Whitey Ford, he is known for his speed and defense with 20-20 potential, according to an MLB.com scouting report.
The compensatory pick the Dodgers received in the deal is 37th overall in next summer’s draft.
