Dodgers offense getting big lift from unlikely source

The Los Angeles Dodgers are not a team in dire need of offensive support. Their 507 runs scored on the season trail only the New York Yankees, while they sit in the top 5-10 virtually everywhere else around the stat sheet.

Even with that, though, the team has shown a clear need for secondary offense throughout the year. Both within individual games or smaller stretches, there's just a matter of offensive depth needed in order to really shore up the lineup after, roughly, the first five hitters.

They've gotten it in spurts. And from unlikely sources. Miguel Rojas has turned in perhaps the best offensive season of his career. Andy Pages started his career off with a rather torrid stretch. July has seen yet another bat take over in pursuit of secondary support at the plate.

Gavin Lux has long possessed upside on both sides of the ball. While he's showcased strong defense at the keystone this year, he hasn't been able to put it together at the plate with any level of consistency.

His overall numbers on the season illustrate that. His slash includes a .226 average and .276 on-base percentage, while his .109 ISO indicates barely occasional power. In terms of cumulative offensive value, he sports a wRC+ of 75. Well below the threshold for even an average offensive performer.

It's a far cry from where Lux was before last year's injury. He was a 114 wRC+ in 2022, while maintaining respectable average (.276) and on-base (.346) figures. July has seen something more resembling that player, however.

Through 52 plate appearances this month, Lux has hit .250. He's at an OBP of .308 & an ISO of .250. His three home runs for the month exceed his total in the season's first three. As such, he's running at a wRC+ of 127, flipping him well past the threshold.

The Dodgers' five games since the break have seen him start to pick it up even more. He's hit .438 (identical to his OBP) and ISO'd .563. Two of his three homers for the month have come across these last 16 PAs. It's a small sample, but it's also one that Lux hadn't been able to put together at any point prior, over any stretch.

In the first three months of the year, Lux had roughly three multi-hit games a month. He has five this month. Three of those have come in his last four games.

For his part, Lux has noted his confidence is playing a big part in this. That seems appropriate, given the return from such a devastating injury and the psychological components therein. He's working within a more aggressive approach, and it's hard to argue with the results thus far.

Now with a National League Player of the Week win to his credit, the next trick is to spin this into something sustainable. If the Dodgers start to get a version of Gavin Lux closer to 2022, then that secondary offense becomes more consistent in conjunction with the big bats. And the team an even scarier contender as a result.