How utility player Tommy Edman's surprise power surge has lifted Dodgers' offense

On April 11, five players held a share of Major League Baseball’s home run lead. Unsurprisingly, Aaron Judge, Mike Trout and Kyle Schwarber were among them. More surprisingly, so was 23-year-old A’s slugger Tyler Soderstrom, a 6-foot-2-inch former top prospect whose ability to barrel a baseball was yielding the best results of his brief career. 

But the biggest outlier on the list came in a much smaller frame. 

"It’s a lot of guys that kind of look the same," 5-foot-9-inch infielder Tommy Edman said, "and then there’s me."

Edman had never hit more than 13 home runs in a season, and he did not enter this year with a goal of transforming into a home-run-hitting sensation. But he already had six just 15 games into the year after some mechanical tweaks that the Dodgers knew they wanted to work on after they acquired him at the deadline last season. 

This winter, he was afforded more time to implement the ideas. 

"When I collapse on the backside, that’s when I get around the ball and lose any sort of power behind it," Edman said. "It’s more just keeping the backside engaged — back hip, back shoulder, everything."

The result is that Edman, who averaged fewer than 10 home runs per season coming into this year, already has eight homers more than a month into the 2025 season. That is tied for the 10th most in Major League Baseball and ranks second on the Dodgers, ahead of superstar teammates Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. 

"It is kind of funny," Edman said after he hit his sixth home run, putting him alongside multiple former MVPs in a tie for first place in the category a couple weeks ago. "But it’s kind of a hot start to the season, and we’ll see how long I can keep it up."

The diminutive utility player could appreciate the humor of his feat. Edman’s production since joining the Dodgers, however, is no joke. 

After years of trying and failing to acquire him from St. Louis, the Dodgers found an opening as a third party last July. The White Sox had the pitcher the Cardinals wanted to pair alongside Sonny Gray for a second-half push. The Dodgers had the prospects the White Sox coveted. A three-team deal was consummated. 

Incoming Cardinals starter Erick Fedde was considered by many at the time to be the headliner of the trade, particularly considering the dearth of impact arms available on the market. Three months later, though, the deadline prizes would be remembered differently. The middlemen became the greatest beneficiaries.

In Michael Kopech, the Dodgers unearthed a vital bullpen piece that would help carry their beleaguered pitching staff through October. 

And in Edman, the eventual World Series champions found their National League Championship Series MVP. 

"It just seems like every game, he does something to help you win," manager Dave Roberts said.

The Dodgers had long admired Edman for the versatility he brings to a roster. His above-average defense at multiple spots made him someone who could play shortstop at a high level one day and center field the next — two positions in which the Dodgers needed more able bodies. 

At the time of the deal, though, Edman had not logged a single inning of action during the 2024 season. He was rehabbing from offseason wrist surgery when he suffered an ankle injury that further delayed his return to play. He did not make his Dodgers debut until Aug. 19, when he recorded a hit and stole a base while starting in center field in his first game. The next day, he started at shortstop and doubled. 

The switch-hitter had always been more productive as a righty, but last year represented an extreme. He finished the regular season hitting league average, right in line with his overall career mark, but he had a staggering 1.299 OPS as a right-handed batter against lefties and a dreadful .523 mark as a left-handed batter against righties. 

The splits would become even more stark in the postseason. 

Against righties, he managed just a .477 OPS. Against lefties, meanwhile, no Dodger was better. 

Accustomed to hitting at the bottom of the lineup, the Dodgers moved Edman up to the clean-up spot in Game 4 of the NLCS — something he had done just twice all season — to face left-handed starter Jose Quintana. He doubled to give the Dodgers an early lead, then later added another run-scoring double to cement a win. Two games later, Edman was back in the clean-up spot against left-hander Sean Manaea. His first two at-bats of the deciding Game 6 were a go-ahead two-run double and a two-run home run. 

The NLCS MVP finished the postseason 11-for-17 with six extra-base hits against left-handed pitchers and parlayed that success into a five-year, $74 million contract extension a month after the season ended. The San Diego native returned home to Padres territory and some good-natured jeering after helping the Dodgers win the World Series. 

"I had a lot of friends who were giving me crap and were not very happy with me," Edman said, "but in the best way possible."

He took some time early this offseason to rest, relax and reflect on the craziness and success of the 2024 season. 

And then he got to work trying to fix the flaws in his left-handed swing. 

"I feel like when I start to fall off left-handed, it's because I'm drifting forward and losing my power and kind of collapsing down," Edman explained. 

Like the officials in his front office, Dodgers hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc had been watching Edman for years and loved what he saw. He noticed some imperfections in Edman’s load and swing he thought he could help with, particularly when Edman was hitting from the left side. 

"He always initiated his load more with his upper half, and it made him kind of load in an uphill position," Van Scoyoc said. "Kind of more loading with his front hip than his back hip.

"It’s a little worse lefty…righty is his throwing side, his coordinated hand’s on top, so he kind of gets away with more. Left hand is not as coordinated, so not as much room for error."

Understanding the issue was a helpful starting point. Perfecting a solution last August was more complicated with so little time remaining on the schedule once Edman was activated. The Dodgers started that process, but making wholesale changes in the middle of a playoff race didn’t seem like the best idea. 

Still, Edman gained a better understanding of how he would need to correct the issue. 

"Part of it is being more upright," Edman said. "When I kind of squat in my legs a little bit more, the tendency is to squat even further down, and then I get too low and my backside collapses. Then there’s a couple other parts. If I turn too early with my shoulders, I end up kind of getting twisted and my hands get behind me, and I collapse."

This winter, he returned home and hit at his high school cages with his father, who’s the head baseball coach at La Jolla Country Day School. He also checked in with the Dodgers’ hitting coaches on occasion. He focused his work on staying taller, keeping his backside more engaged and trying to find a way to create more force with his lower body. 

Edman may not consider himself a power hitter, but he returned in 2025 looking like one — all the more important for a Dodgers offense that has yet to play to its potential. 

The 30-year-old leads the Dodgers in WAR and is hitting the ball harder than he has at any point in his career while still providing elite defense, pacing the club in outs above average. His jump in production as a left-handed hitter (.278/.337/.528) is particularly staggering, and the underlying quality of contact numbers suggest he’s actually performing better than his .818 OPS indicates. 

Edman led the Dodgers in home runs for most of April, and while he ceded that honor to Teoscar Hernandez on Monday, his .523 slugging percentage is the best mark of his career. 

Half of his home runs, and most of his production, have come as a lefty. 

On Monday, Edman came off the bench and won the game for the Dodgers with a two-run walk-off single while hitting left-handed. On Tuesday, he hit a two-run double from the left side, knocked in three runs and stole a base.

In what has started as a career year at the plate for Edman, he has knocked in more runs batting left-handed than any other lefty in the Dodgers’ star-studded lineup. 

He has the same number of extra-base hits as Ohtani. 

"There's a reason we committed to him for a lot of years," Roberts said. "He's a guy who just kind of does whatever you need."

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on X at @RowanKavner.