From in-season pickup to NLCS MVP, Edman on 'crazy trajectory' with LA

LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers have more than $1 billion invested in Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. Teoscar Hernández hit 33 home runs this season and started the All-Star Game. Kiké Hernández has as many postseason home runs on his resume as Babe Ruth. It goes on and on.

And yet, the hitter who hoisted the National League Championship Series MVP Award was L.A.’s unlikely cleanup man, a 29-year-old switch-hitter who stands 5-foot-10, has never touched 60 RBIs in six seasons in the Majors, is better known for his glove and his speed and -- because of a wrist that was slow to heal from offseason surgery and an ankle injury, too -- hadn’t played a single game in 2024 when the Dodgers picked him up at the Trade Deadline. Tommy Edman turned into an offensive force in the NLCS, claiming MVP honors after driving in L.A.’s first four runs in a clinching 10-5 win in Game 6 on Sunday.

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He had a .407 average in the series, a hit in all six games -- including four for extra bases -- and 11 RBIs to match Corey Seager’s club record in any round of the postseason since the stat became official in 1920. To understand how that happens on a team stocked with superstars, it helps to ask the man to whom Edman handed the trophy before going inside to help coat the clubhouse with a layer of champagne.

Edman’s father, John, is a math teacher and baseball coach at La Jolla Country Day School in San Diego, and yes, he planned to be in class on Monday morning.

“When he was a kid, playing baseball was just having fun,” John Edman said. “But he was a good player, he played really hard and he was a great teammate. But honestly, we were just having fun.

“He got better and better. He pushed himself every step of the way and was surrounded by good people every step of the way. And he always kept his love for the game.”

There’s more to love in the days ahead. The Dodgers and Yankees will clash in a superstar-studded World Series that begins Friday night at Dodger Stadium. It’s Ohtani and Betts against Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, sure. But the NLCS was a reminder not to forget about the Tommy Edmans either.

“Early in the year, I never thought I would be in this situation today,” Edman said. “Everything lined up for me to be on this team and have the success that we’ve had. Now we’re going to the World Series. It’s crazy.”

Did he ever envision winning a postseason series MVP trophy?

“It’s something you dream about,” he said. “You prepare for these big moments.”

What about hitting cleanup in a lineup with Ohtani, Betts and others?

“That’s still a little weird to me,” Edman said.

But throughout the series, he fit the part. In Game 1, he delivered a fourth-inning single for the first of three runs in the rally that broke the game open. In a loss in Game 2, Edman had three of the Dodgers’ five hits, including a two-run single that lifted them back within striking distance. In Game 4, he hit a pair of run-scoring doubles in a rout.

But his biggest impact came in the clincher. Against Mets left-hander Sean Manaea, who’d beaten the Dodgers in Game 2 by neutralizing everyone but Edman, Edman delivered a two-run double in the first inning to put the Dodgers ahead, 2-1, and provided the first lead change of a series that hadn’t seen any through the first five games. In the third, Edman mashed his first career postseason home run, a two-run shot.

“It's a crazy trajectory,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I can't say enough about the front office being able to acquire him at the Deadline. What he can do for us on the field, in the clubhouse, it's just amazing.

“I never imagined once we acquired him, he'd be hitting fourth in a postseason game. But I trust him. The guys trust him. He's made huge defensive plays for us and had huge hits. We’re just very fortunate to have a player like Tommy.”

You can add Edman to a list of Dodgers NLCS MVPs with Seager, Cody Bellinger (2018), Chris Taylor and Justin Turner (who shared the honor in 2017), Orel Hershiser (1988), Burt Hooton (1981), Steve Garvey (1978) and Dusty Baker (1977).

And he’s also on the list of 12 postseason series MVPs who were acquired in season. The Braves were the most recent team to pull off such an impact move -- and they made it plural, with Eddie Rosario in the NLCS and Jorge Soler in the World Series in 2021.

“Our front office has wanted Tommy for a very, very long time,” said Max Muncy, one of the Dodgers’ holdovers from the last time they were in -- and won -- the World Series in 2020. “When we got him, everyone got excited.”

The Dodgers tried to swing a trade with the Cardinals for Edman in each of the last two offseasons and came up empty. In July, Dodgers officials got word that the White Sox were close to getting him from the Cardinals in the Erick Fedde trade, so they jumped into the deal, making it a three-team trade that netted Edman along with Sunday’s starting pitcher on a bullpen day, Michael Kopech.

Edman made his Dodgers debut on Aug. 19 as the starting center fielder and started at shortstop the next day. Back and forth he went until the NL Division Series, when the Dodgers lost Miguel Rojas to a groin injury and Edman became the everyday shortstop.

“For Tommy to seamlessly move to shortstop and do what he did really captures just how good of a baseball player he is,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said.

That’s been the Dodger way.

“Part of what we’ve always preached here is depth, right? We’ve always been the deepest team,” said Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler. “So for a guy like that to hit where he did in our lineup, it’s not super surprising. He’s a really good baseball player. We’ve collected a lot of really good baseball players, and we’re starting to play some really good baseball.”

There’s more baseball ahead. Edman’s parents, John and mom Maureen, who grew up a Dodgers fan herself, planned to book flights for the New York leg of the World Series during their drive home late Sunday. They will be back for Game 1 at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.

“He’s so blessed to be a Dodger, so thankful that they picked him up,” John Edman said. “This is nothing that you would have imagined happening, but it’s so cool.”