How Tommy Edman became one of the Dodgers’ most versatile weapons in 2025 — a season defined by resilience, adaptability, and big-game poise.NL

Tommy Edman was coming off an outstanding postseason run in 2024 for what would be his first full season as a Dodger in 2025. He started the year on a very strong note, at one point contending for the home run leaderboard in April, but ankle issues slowed him down throughout the majority of the season. He wasn’t able to replicate the same postseason success he had the year prior, but he played a significant role in helping the Dodgers repeat as champions.

Edman was the first player in the 2025 regular season to hit a home run, doing so against Chicago Cubs southpaw Justin Steele during the Tokyo Series. Edman, alongside teammate Shohei Ohtani, both homered in the Tokyo Series finale and in their home opener against the Detroit Tigers, and he was already on pace to register a new career-high in home runs.

Over his first 24 games of the season, Edman already had eight home runs on the year while slashing .272/.303/.576. Only two players had hit more home runs than Edman by April 22; the eventual AL MVP runner-up Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners and Tyler Soderstrom of the Athletics, who coincidentally started the year on a power surge before fizzling out the rest of the way.

Edman struggled to finish the month of April, hitting just .158 with five RBI and a pair of doubles, but as the Dodgers closed out their home series against the Miami Marlins, he was a notable omission from the series finale. He was placed on the injured list three days later due to right ankle inflammation, and he missed the Dodgers’ next 16 games, with Hyeseong Kim being called up in his absence.

Once Edman did return to the lineup on May 18, the power that he possessed early in the season almost completely diminished, as he went on to hit just five more home runs through the rest of the regular season, once again tying his career-high of 13.

His overall slashline diminished as well, as his batting average dropped from .252 at the time of his injury to just .223 by the end of the first half and his OPS dropped from .818 down to .671. What Edman lacked offensively, he certainly made up for it defensively when Max Muncy suffered a bone bruise in his left knee, costing him over a month of time.

When Muncy missed three months of the season in 2024, it was Kiké Hernández that got the majority of starts at third base in his absence. When Muncy was out this year, Edman took on the role as the primary third baseman, a position that he had played just 94 games at prior to the start of the 2025 season.

Edman remained consistent on offense relative to his overall slash line on the season to begin the second half, but during the Dodgers road trip in Tampa Bay to begin the month of August, Edman aggravated his right ankle rounding first base in the series finale. He was placed on the injured list the following day due to a right ankle sprain.

Without Muncy and Edman to man the left side of the infield, the Dodgers had players such as Buddy Kennedy fill in the void at the hot corner until Muncy made his return in the middle of August. Edman would return after spending a month on the injured list, and he slouched over his final 11 games of the season to the tune of a .209/.222/.279 slash line.

Once the postseason began, Edman looked to have found his stride at the plate again, as he hit a home run in the first Wild Card game against the Cincinnati Reds and launching another home run against the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 3 of the NLDS. Although the Dodgers offense was silent in the NLCS (outside of Game 4), Edman played a huge role in the series, recording RBI hits in three straight games to help the Dodgers advance to the World Series. In the first three rounds of the postseason, Edman slashed .286/.306/.486 with a pair of home runs and six RBI.

The World Series was not so kind to Edman, as he slumped to a .143/.194/.214 slash line while having his spot in the lineup drop to the bottom third. His bat didn’t play a significant role in the series, but he proved his value on defense. Edman had a pair of game saving plays in Game 3, nailing Isiah Kiner-Falefa at third base in the ninth inning after the ball deflected off of Freddie Freeman’s glove and executing a perfect relay from right field to nab Davis Schneider at home in the 10th inning to keep the game tied. With Andy Pages struggling mightily offensively, Dave Roberts nabbed Edman as the go-to center fielder in the final two games of the series.

Although the overall numbers don’t paint a pretty picture, Edman managed to cut down his strikeout rate and improved drastically on defense with 10 outs above average. His walk rate slipped from 7.2 percent to just five percent, which placed 10th worst among all National League players with at least 350 plate appearances and ranked in just the 10th percentile.

2025 particulars

Age: 30

Stats: .225/.274/.382, 13 HR, 49 RBI, 13 2B, 61 K, 19 BB, 81 wRC+, 1.1 rWAR, 1.2 fWAR, 97 games

Postseason: .222/.254/.365, 2 HR, 8 RBI, 3 2B

Salary: $22,000,000 (Edman received all of his $17 million signing bonus in 2025 and received $5 million in actual salary)

Game of the year

Edman’s best game of the 2025 season came back on April 18 against the Texas Rangers. With Shohei Ohtani away from the team to await the birth of his daughter, Edman stepped up as the leadoff man and collected three hits on the day, something he did just four times all season, while blasting a leadoff home run and scoring twice in the Dodgers’ 3-0 shutout victory.

Roster status

Edman will be entering the second year of a five year, $74 million extension he signed with the Dodgers last offseason. He will earn $12.25 million in 2026, with $2.5 million being deferred in 2035 and 2036 and $1.25 million being deferred in 2037.