Blake DeWitt won the second base job outright this spring, but he has struggled early and may soon be out of a job, writes Steve Dilbeck of the Los Angeles Times. His 0-5 on Wednesday was probably the kicker, as Dilbeck notes that Joe Torre said encouraging things about him before that game, and then yesterday (a) voiced some disapproval of DeWitt’s performance and (b) benched him for the game against the Dbacks (DeWitt did come in late, got a hit and scored the winning run).
The knock on DeWitt at second base had been his defense. Now he could get benched in favor of Ron Belliard, himself no master with the leather. No one said life is fair, I suppose.
I wasn’t a fan of him getting as many plate appearances as he did at third base in 2008, but I figured his bat could hack second and wouldn’t mind if Torre showed a bit more patience with the guy.