MLBbro Trayce Thompson Ends His Slump-Infested Dodgers Season In Trade To White Sox | What’s Next?

 If there was a Major League Baseball sitcom of the term…” Life comes at you fast!”, MLBbro Trayce Thompson would have the starring role, be the director and be on all of the billboards.

 

At the beginning of his second stint with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Tinseltown producers would call this comeback story, box-office gold. While his famous brother Klay was dropping three-point bombs in NBA arenas around the country…

 

 

Trayce was toiling away in the minors to make good. His chance to shine on a consistent basis finally came last year when the Dodgers brought him in after a deal with the Detroit Tigers as a stop-gap option for the injured Mookie Betts.

Instead of being a mere fill-in, Trayce took off and became a vital piece to the team’s turnaround from a 17-game stretch with a below .500 record to dominating the NL West.  

 

Trayce Started With A Bang: Then Things Went Sour 

 

This season, Trayce Thompson went from a Dodgers darling with a three-homer masterpiece on opening night, to getting traded last Friday night to the Chicago White Sox in a deal that included minor league pitchers, Eddys Leonard and Justin Bruihl. In return they received pitchers Joe Kelly and Lance Lynn.

 

MLBbro.com documented Thompson’s struggles after the aforementioned magical opening night…

 

• He hit only one homer since opening night. 

• Through May 22nd, Thompson had a hitless streak through 38 at bats which was tied for the longest streak by a non-pitcher in Dodgers history.

• His batting average was .109, the second worst mark in baseball among hitters with at least 70 plate appearances.

• With a strikeout percentage of 43.6 percent of his trips to the plate, Trayce had the highest rate in the National League at the time.

• Against lefties, Thompson had only two hits in 36 plate appearances.

• Thompson’s struggles contributed to the team’s overall struggles against left-handed pitching. The Dodgers ranked at the time 20th in OPS (.729) and last in batting average (.205).

 

 

All told before landing on the 60-day injured list with a strained left oblique, Thompson ended his hitless stretch at 39 which was the longest by a Dodger in over 100 years. After opening night, he only had eight hits total in 67 appearances at the plate. In the minors however, it did look like our MLBbro had started to get a bit of a rhythm with four doubles and a home run in the last two games for Triple-A Oklahoma City.

  

Thompson goes back to the team that originally drafted him back in 2009. With the White Sox, our MLBbro had a hitting slash of .206/.265/.375 with eight homers and 25 RBI in 92 games.

 

 

Since then, with the Dodgers (twice), Athletics, Cubs, Padres, Thompson has a career batting average of .216 with 44 homers, 123 RBI and a 98 OPS + (Combined on base percentage and slugging) in 333 MLB games.