Stanford star Tommy Edman is a world champion Los Angeles Dodgers

What a wild year for former Stanford standout Tommy Edman. He spent the first four months of the 2024 season at IL, and before he could even return to the baseball diamond, he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now he is world champion.

It’s one thing to be a member of the team that wins it all, but not only was Edman 1-for-26, he was also named the National League Championship Series MVP in the previous round, and without going 11-for-27 (.407) with a home run, three doubles and 11 RBI, the Dodgers might have had a harder time getting to the World Series in the first place.

The addition of Edman seemed to set the Dodgers defense in place, with the 29-year-old taking over as both LA’s shortstop and center fielder when needed. You may recall that Gold Glove right fielder Mookie Betts actually started the season short for the Dodgers, but after he landed on the IL, the team decided to trade. Adding Edman to that mix certainly helped the team defensively.

In his 37 games played during the regular season, Edman hit .237 with a .294 OBP, six homers, 20 runs, 20 RBI and six stolen bases. Over 16 postseason games, he hit .328 overall between the three rounds, with two homers, five stolen bases and an .862 OPS. It was certainly an impressive run he had and gave the Dodgers a huge boost outside of their big three stars in Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman in the postseason.

In most of the games, he ended up hitting in the bottom third of the lineup, with the exception of the clinching game against the New York Mets in the NLCS, when he hit cleanup, went 2-for-5 with a homer and four RBI and helped secure The Game 6 win.

It’s impossible to say whether the Dodgers would have won the World Series this season had they not acquired Edman at the deadline, but it certainly made their path to the trophy much smoother.