Dodgers @ Royals June 25, 2014: So Clint Robinson Is Here For Some Reason

Well, sure, okay. A few hours ago, I wondered who might get sent down when the Dodgers activated Juan Uribe tomorrow, and I figured that Carlos Triunfel or Jamie Romak were the two most likely options. I didn’t figure that a move to cut one of them would happen today, on the final day of the road trip… and I certainly didn’t expect that Clint Robinson, of all people, would be coming up.

And yet that’s exactly what’s happened, with Romak DFA’d — that sounds worse than it is, because it was needed to open a 40-man spot for Robinson, and it’s all but certain that he’ll clear and just end up back in Albuquerque like Mike Baxter did earlier in the year — and Robinson in town and presumably available for tonight’s game. Robinson’s only four major league plate appearances came in 2012 with the Royals, who drafted him in the 25th round in 2007 and kept him in the system through 2012. He spent last year in Toronto’s system, and has hit .309/.402/.523 in the high-flying climate of Albuquerque this year. Like Dee Gordon and Andre Ethier, he’s a lefty who absolutely cannot hit lefty pitching, which makes total sense for a team that has trouble hitting lefty pitching.

	Dodgers			Royals
	5:10 pm PT			Kansas City, MO
2B	Gordon		RF	Cain
RF	Puig		1B	Hosmer
DH	Gonzalez		DH	Butler
LF	Kemp		LF	Gordon
CF	Ethier		2B	Infante
3B	Turner		3B	Moustakas
1B	Van Slyke		SS	Escobar
C	Ellis		CF	Dyson
SS	Rojas		C	Hayes

In some ways, he’s similar to Romak, in that he’s a minor-league slugger who has been around for a while and hasn’t had much of a chance in the big leagues. But unlike Romak, he’s a lefty who is really limited only to first base, which makes him something of an odd fit on this roster. Adrian Gonzalez never takes a day off, and even when he does — he’s DH’ing tonight — Scott Van Slyke exists. That makes Robinson strictly a pinch-hitter without a position, which, fine, I suppose, but I’m unsure if it’s even worth the effort of swapping the two out.

There’s also this: Uribe is still coming back tomorrow, and it seems to make no sense at all to fly Robinson in just to watch James Shields face Dan Haren tonight. That means that when Uribe is activated, someone else is likely to go. Maybe it is as simple as Triunfel (or, less likely, Miguel Rojas). Or maybe, just maybe, they’ll do the right thing. You’ll notice that Hanley Ramirez is once again not in tonight’s lineup.

That’s the third day in a row that Ramirez isn’t playing short, and the second in a row that he’s not playing at all. We just watched the Giants let the injured Angel Pagan eat up a roster spot for 10 days before finally disabling him today; we’ve seen the Dodgers do that in the past with Mark Ellis. It never works out well, and it’s not going to here. I still don’t quite understand the urgent need to replace Romak with Robinson on the final game of a road trip, but so be it.

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