Dodgers Superstar Gets Brutally Honest After Chris Taylor, Austin Barnes Release
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ clubhouse was shaken over the past couple of weeks as two major veterans, Chris Taylor and Austin Barnes, were let go due to roster size issues.
Barnes and Taylor have long been key figures in the clubhouse, experiencing the ups and downs of recent years marked by consecutive playoff appearances and two World Series wins.
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Although the Dodgers want to retain all players, talented newcomers like Dalton Rushing and Hyeseong Kim have secured positions on the active roster, compelling the team to face challenging roster choices.
Freddie Freeman, one of the more experienced players on the Dodgers roster, captured how the roster moves have impacted the team after moving on from two big presences.
“A lot of people don’t understand, there’s a lot of things that go on. Losing people over the course of a year, it stinks,” he said.
“It does suck. There’s no way around it. If you say you’re not sad when you lose friends, you’re not a human. You just get going. You’re going to be a little sad, but that can’t be the reason you go 0 for 4 now.”
“It’s hard. It really is,” Freeman added. “But you do understand that it’s a business and you have to keep going. When you do lose two respected veterans in the clubhouse, you’ve got to be a grown boy and understand the reasoning. You can be sad that you lost a friend – you can still be in contact with that friend. But we’ve got to keep going. I think we’ve got a good group of guys that will keep this machine going.”
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The Dodgers should still have other locker room veterans who can carry on the leadership legacy created by Taylor and Barnes, with Kike Hernandez, Mookie Betts, and Clayton Kershaw among the many still able to command respect.
The team also now gets to roster players who have a significantly higher ceiling than the two veterans they let go, and reward their level of play in the minor leagues with a boost up the roster.
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