The Los Angeles Dodgers have been trying to trade Andre Either throughout the offseason as they were preparing for Carl Crawford, Joc Pederson and Yasiel Puig to take over in the outfield. Well, they didn't find any takers and now the $57 million outfielder has spent most of his time on the bench in 2015.
Ethier has played in seven games, making only 17 plate appearances. He's 4-for-15 with .667 slugging percentage and 1.020 OPS, but he's unlikely to get playing time as long as Pederson keeps up his current work offensively (.286/.375/.500 with six runs scored, one home run and three RBIs).
However, the Dodgers' may only be able to raise Ethier's trade stock if they give him more playing time. The 33-year-old's worst season came in 2014 when played in 130 games (his lowest total since his rookie year back in 2006) and set a career-low for plate appearances with 380. He batted just .249/.322/.370 with 29 runs scored, four home runs and 42 RBIs (all career-lows) and got only six plate appearances in four postseason games.
"Not sure how a $16 million-a-year player can be sitting on the bench for the first three games of the season, but that's what happened to Ethier," writes Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. "The Dodgers are all ears about a deal, offering help on the remaining $56 million of Ethier's contract, but no bites. And it's always tough to deal a guy who isn't playing regularly."
Earlier in the offseason it was reported the Dodgers were willing to pay "about half" of Ethier's contract if a team was willing to make a deal, but even since then nobody has seemingly been interested. The reason being is likely because it would still be a three-year, $28 million commitment for that other club if the Dodgers were to cover half of the financials. Ethier's 2014 numbers do not suggest he's worth nearly $10 million per season.
It's clear Ethier needs sufficient playing to help out his case. Before last season, his career-lows were as follows: batting average (.272); on-base percentage (.350); slugging percentage (.421); runs scored (50); home runs (11), RBIs (52), among others. Perhaps his career decline can be traced back to 2013, but even that year he slashed .272/.360/.423/.783 with 54 runs scored, 12 home runs and 52 RBIs in 142 games (553 plate appearances) on a Dodgers team that ranked 17th in runs scored.
Perhaps the Dodgers will have more of a case to trade Ethier if they can find a way to work him into the lineup more often, because 17 plate appearances in seven games is not going to get him in a rhythm.
