NEWSLETTER
I will admit to more than a little bitterness about how the offseason played out. It isn’t just that the Chicago Cubs did not land Shohei Ohtani or Yoshinobu Yamamoto or Tyler Glasnow, all players I’d have really wanted for the Cubs. It’s that the Dodgers landed all three, throwing around enormous dollars in the process, some of it in a way that made a bit of a mockery of contract structuring. Throw in the super-team-ness of it, and I just really don’t like the Dodgers or their offseason.
But we all have to hand it to them for this:
‘Toles, 31, has not played in the majors since 2018. He’s been on the restricted list since March 2019 because of mental health issues. (He was subsequently diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.) There’s no reason to believe he’ll ever take another swing, for the Dodgers or anyone else. Nevertheless, the Dodgers have continued to renew his contract each spring so that he maintains his health insurance. It’s a shockingly decent act in an industry that too often loses touch with humanity.’
Andrew Toles is probably best remembered by Chicago Cubs fans for his time in the outfield with the Dodgers during the 2016 NLCS. More broadly, he was a promising young talent who plausibly had many years of high-level success head of him in the Dodgers organization. Unfortunately, serious mental health needs prevented him from continuing his career, but the Dodgers renew his contract every year anyway. Although he’s on the Restricted List and doesn’t receive salary, the move DOES make him eligible for health insurance.
I expect there is some non-zero cost here for the Dodgers in doing this for Toles, so there is unquestionably a measure of decency and humanity in what they are doing. I respect and appreciate it.
I will still probably root for them to miss the playoffs or bow out in the first round, of course. But they deserve praise for doing the right thing for Toles.
