“We all feel for him” - Dodgers President Andrew Friedman empathizes with Chris Taylor’s struggle amidst challenging season

The Los Angeles Dodgers’ 2024 season hasn’t been what anyone expected, considering their high-profile signings this offseason. The first 25 games they have played don’t bode well for the rest of the season for them.

The team is doing well in terms of strikeouts leading the National League with 226, however, they are dealing with a low batting average and poor performance, especially from the latter part of the lineup.

Among the struggling players is Chris Taylor, who has only gotten 2 hits out of 39 at-bats with a slash line of .051/.208/.051 recording three RBIs, one stolen base with no homer.

On Monday, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman talked about Taylor’s poor performance, as reported by Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register.

“CT is in a real funk. He is such a grinder and such a good baseball player and we all feel for him,” Andrew Friedman said. “What the exact right answer is, I don’t know. But I know that he is doing everything he can to get out of it. I don’t know what the answer is.”

“I have no idea how to answer that right now. I would bet that it’s a moot question, that he will grind and figure out a way out of this,” he added.

Friedman didn’t give a specific time frame for how long the Dodgers will wait for Chris Taylor to improve. However, some days back, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts mentioned that they give veteran players 100 at-bats before reassessing their performance.

Chris Taylor is currently in the third year of a four-year contract worth $60 million he signed in 2021 with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

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Dave Roberts confident in Chris Taylor and Dodgers’ bottom lineup crew

The main issue in Los Angeles Dodgers' offense is in their underperforming group in the lower lineup which includes Chris Taylor, Gavin Lux, James Outman and Kike Hernandez, who have been playing from seventh through ninth spots.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is not too worried, citing it’s too early to make big judgments.

“They’re grinding. They’re in it. It’s certainly not for a lack of preparation or effort. Right now it’s just not happening for these guys,” Roberts said (via MLB.com). “I hate to make too much out of 40 at bats. Obviously, they’re going to get better and we’re going to keep running them out there.”

Despite such struggles, the Dodgers still have a good offensive ranking mainly due to players at the top of the lineup like Mookie Betts, Will Smith, Shohei Ohtani and Teoscar Hernandez.