While the Los Angeles Dodgers have been a beacon of success for the past decade and a half, the team has had several notable contributors that only had brief tenures in Tinseltown.
With a probable lockout looming in the 2026-27 MLB offseason, much of the attention and debate surrounding the matter has centered on the Los Angeles Dodgers – who boast a roster with several of the best players in the world as they embark on a quest to three-peat as champions.
The Dodgers have won both World Series championships since signing Shohei Ohtani to a massive 10-year deal laden with deferred money, allowing the team to continue to stockpile talent, something they did this offseason with a top-dollar signing of outfielder Kyle Tucker.
Yet it’s far more complicated than the Dodgers simply buying championships. One can easily ask the New York Mets about this, who have spent just as much as the Dodgers in recent years only to appear poised to miss the postseason entirely for the second consecutive year.
Much of the Dodgers’ continued success can be attributed to the team’s unmatched player development and farm systems, as well as the front office’s ability to strike gold on reclamation projects – essentially negating any and every injury Los Angeles inevitably deals with each season.
This approach has led to several forgotten and overlooked names making brief stops in Los Angeles, albeit with quite the variety in both usage and results.
While players like Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Max Muncy and Ohtani define this current era for the Dodgers, here’s a look at a handful of players you may have forgotten ever called Chavez Ravine home:
1. Brian Dozier, 2B (2018, 47 regular season games, 11 playoff games)
Primarily remembered as a power-hitting middle infielder for the Minnesota Twins for much of the 2010’s, the second baseman hit the trade market in 2018 as Minnesota embarked on a rather underwhelming campaign.
Looking to shore up the club before another deep postseason run, the Dodgers shipped a three-player package that included Logan Forsythe, Luke Raley and Devin Smeltzer to Minnesota in exchange for Dozier, who had posted an underwhelming 93 OPS+ with 15 home runs with the Twins, though still had a solid track record of hitting for power.
Dozier went on to struggle to an even greater extent with the Dodgers, slashing .182/.300/.350/.650 with nine doubles and five home runs across 47 regular season games with the team. The performance and resume was still enough to get Dozier onto the team’s playoff roster, though things didn’t fare any better in October.
The veteran second baseman went just 2-for-16 with five walks in the playoffs, a postseason that saw the Dodgers return to the World Series only to fall to the Boston Red Sox in just five games.
Dozier played two more seasons in MLB after 2018, catching on the Washington Nationals in 2019 and ultimately winning his first and only World Series as a player with the team. After a brief seven-game stint with the New York Mets in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Dozier retired after nine seasons and 1,144 regular season games in The Show.
2. Jedd Gyorko, IF (2019, 24 games)
A native of Morgantown, West Virginia, Gyorko had emerged during the 2010’s as a quietly effective power hitter, first coming up with the San Diego Padres before posting a 30-home run season with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2016.
After a couple more seasons in St. Louis that saw Gyorko’s production wane, the utility infielder hit the trade market in 2019 and was shipped to the Dodgers alongside cash and international bonus slot money in exchange for minor leaguer Jeffry Abreu and relief pitcher Tony Cingrani.
Following a 38-game stint in St. Louis that saw Gyorko go just 11-for-56 with two home runs and six walks, his performance somehow took a further downturn upon arrival in Los Angeles.
In 24 games with the Dodgers, Gyorko was a ghastly 5-for-36 with just one double and three walks – measuring up to an unheard of 1 OPS+ – coming in at 99 percentage points below the average MLB hitter. Expectedly, Gyorko was left off of the team’s playoff roster and his tenure with the club came to an end at the season’s conclusion.
Gyorko did close his career on a high note however, catching on with the Milwaukee Brewers for the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Gyorko slashed .248/.333/.504/.838 with nine home runs as a Brewer, compiling numbers that more closely represented his production during his prime years.
After his club option for 2021 was declined, Gyorko became a free agent and retired from MLB, ending his career with 121 home runs and a 101 OPS+ across 846 regular season games in eight MLB seasons.
3. Jake McGee, RP (2020, 24 regular season games, 4 playoff games)
A longtime lefty reliever who is most remembered for his lengthy tenures with the Tampa Bay Rays and Colorado Rockies, Jake McGee was one of several weapons in what was a World Series-winning Dodgers bullpen in 2020.
McGee signed with the Dodgers just around a week before MLB action got underway in 2020, and the lefty didn’t underwhelm in his one year playing at an empty Dodger Stadium. Across 24 games and 20.1 innings of work, McGee compiled a 2.66 ERA to go with a video game-like strikeout-to-walk ratio – posting 33 strikeouts to just three walks.
This gave McGee stellar metrics of a 167 ERA+, a 1.67 FIP that makes his already stellar 2.33 ERA look inflated as well as a 0.836 WHIP, the second-best mark of his career.
McGee went on to appear in four playoff games for the Dodgers in 2020, surrendering a home run, a walk and four hits across 2.2 innings alongside four strikeouts.
After 2020, the veteran left-hander caught on as the closer of the surprisingly 107-win San Francisco Giants in 2021, before splitting the 2022 season between the Giants, Milwaukee Brewers and Washington Nationals.
McGee retired from professional baseball after the 2022 season, finishing his career with a total of 7.1 WAR, a 32-28 record and 3.71 ERA with 79 saves and 613 strikeouts over 572.1 innings.
4. Neftalí Feliz, RP (2021, 3 games)
Etched into the record books as the 2010 AL Rookie of the Year who more infamously coughed up the lead in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series, Neftalí Feliz ultimately carved out a long, successful career as an MLB reliever.
Mostly known for his early days with the Texas Rangers, Feliz became somewhat of a journeyman after catching on with the Detroit Tigers midway through the 2015 season. After hopping around with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Milwaukee Brewers and Kansas City Royals from 2016-17, Feliz seemingly disappeared from MLB.
The righty reliever spent the 2018 season with the Reno Aces, the Triple-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks, without ever getting a call to the show. Feliz spent the next couple of seasons only playing in the Dominican Winter League before embarking on a comeback to The Show in 2021.
Feliz started the 2021 season in the Philadelphia Phillies’ system, though a brief return to the big leagues proved to be disastrous – with Feliz surrending four earned runs in a single inning of work spread across two appearances – good for a 36.00 ERA.
The reliever was then released and signed with the Dodgers in July 2021, ultimately making his way into three big league games with the club that season. This stint fared much better than his two games with the Phillies, as Feliz pitched three innings of scoreless ball with one strikeout across his three games with the Dodgers.
Although Feliz hasn’t appeared in MLB since his final appearance with the Dodgers on Sept. 8, 2021, the 38-year-old remains an active professional baseball player – having appeared in five games with Piratas de Campeche of the Mexican League in 2026. Feliz was released earlier this month after surrendering eight earned runs in just three innings of work across five games.
5. Kevin Pillar, OF (2022, 4 games)
A journeyman player remembered by many fans as one of the best defensive outfielders of the 2010’s, Pillar had an extremely brief and forgettable stint with the Dodgers – one that can be entirely attributed to poor injury luck.
Several years removed from his days as a mainstay of the Toronto Blue Jays, Pillar signed as a free agent with the Dodgers on a minor league deal just before the start of the 2022 regular season, and began the campaign in Oklahoma City with the club’s Triple-A affiliate.
Called up to the majors in late May, Pillar appeared in just four games with the team before sustaining what ended up being a season-ending shoulder injury – though Pillar did return to action with Oklahoma City in September of that year.
In his four games as a Dodger, Pillar was just 1-for-12 with a double and a walk, having scored a run and grounded into a double play as well.
Pillar ultimately caught on with the offensive juggernaut that was the 2023 Atlanta Braves, serving as a veteran bench player with the club before making stops with the Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Angels and Texas Rangers in 2024 and 2025 before retiring from professional baseball in July of last year.
In addition to the aforementioned teams, Pillar also suited up for the San Francisco Giants, Boston Red Sox, Colorado Rockies and New York Mets. Pillar retired with 16.1 WAR across 1,234 regular season games in 13 big-league seasons.
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