Edwin Rios, a former Dodger, says he was hurt when the team eventually gave up on him .

Former Dodgers infielder Edwin Rios told LA Times reporter Jorge Castillo that not being called up by Los Angeles last year was like a "punched in the gut."Edwin Rios played for

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the Dodgers for chunks of the last four seasons, including belting two home runs in the 2020 NLCS on his route to winning a World Series championship. The 2021 campaign got off to

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a terrible start, and then shoulder surgery derailed the rest of his year. When he first debuted in 2022, he was able to play a few games before being on the disabled list with a

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hamstring issue. His Triple-A Oklahoma City team finished the season without him after Los Angeles sent him there on a rehab assignment.After the season, Rios was made a free agent

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for the first time in his career as LA decided not to tender him a contract for next year.Los Angeles Times reporter Jorge Castillo spoke with him at the Cubs' spring training camp

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about his departure from the Dodgers.In his rehab stay with OKC, Rios posted an OPS of.807, which isn't horrible but is significantly lower than the stats he had generated in

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Triple-A. It was understandable that the Los Angeles Dodgers wouldn't rush to put him back on the active roster after he was healthy, considering he only hit one home run in rehab

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and the team had just acquired Joey Gallo a few weeks prior.Later in the year, his power started to return, and by the conclusion of the year, he had hit nine home runs in 218

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Triple-A at-bats. There was nothing about his performance that compelled the Dodgers to bring him up,as his on-base percentage dipped to.339 and he struck out in 30.3% of his plate

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appearances.The lack of a role to play ultimately worked against Rios. He can play both first and third for the Dodgers, but in 2022, Freddie Freeman was the everyday starter at

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first base, and Justin Turner and Max Muncy shared time at third. Rios's bat would have had to exert more effort to overcome the odds, and it didn't.

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