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There were times during the final month of the regular season, after the Los Angeles Dodgers’ front office fortified their already strong roster with trades, that David Freese, a multi-purpose infielder on a team full of them, looked up and down the bench in wonder.

He was not alone. Over the course of the season, all sorts of combinations of past and current all-stars – Brian Dozier, Matt Kemp, Cody Bellinger, Chase Utley, Joc Pederson and Yasiel Puig – could not crack the starting lineup. The Dodgers were, and are, that deep.

“It’s crazy,” the 35-year-old Freese said. “It’s nice having so much talent.”

Only two Dodgers position players, shortstop Manny Machado and third baseman Justin Turner, get to play every day. The rest of the players are like a fantasy baseball team: interchangeable parts for manager Dave Roberts to piece together to gain any slight edge over an opponent.

It is a deliberate strategy by Dodgers president Andrew Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi. They have valued positional versatility ever since they took over four years ago, and now it is helping them work as many different players into the lineup as possible to get an edge against the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series. The Brewers’ unconventional pitching strategy – de-emphasizing starting pitching by going to their bullpen much quicker in games – has created matchup problems for opponents, but the Dodgers are responding by using almost every hitter they have available over the course of nine innings.

“In a big spot, you can assure you’re going to have a pitcher-batter matchup that you feel good about,” Zaidi said.

With a payroll nearly double that of the Brewers, the Dodgers can afford to have high-priced players sitting on the bench. Their talent, depth and versatility guided them to their sixth consecutive NL West title and third straight NLCS appearance, and helped them even the best-of-seven series at one game apiece as it shifts to Los Angeles on Monday.

“Whether it be defence or a bat in a postseason setting, you have to play the margins,” Roberts said after his team squeaked out a 4-3 victory Saturday.

In that game, it meant starting a lineup entirely of right-handed batters against the Brewers’ left-handed starting pitcher, Wade Miley. Once Miley was pulled after 5 2/3 scoreless innings, it was almost like a shift change at a factory for the Dodgers: Four of the five pinch hitters or substitutes Roberts proceeded to call on as the game played out were left-handed batters, to face the Brewers’ right-handed relief pitchers.

Three of them – Max Muncy, Pederson and Bellinger – contributed to the Dodgers’ rally. And in order to accommodate everyone defensively, Chris Taylor started the game in centre field then switched to left and later to second base. During the regular season, it should be noted, Taylor played a lot at shortstop. He is not alone on this roster of Swiss Army knives.

Another Dodger, Enrique Hernandez, 27, has played every position on the field this year, except for catcher. He even pitched. Because Hernandez, a right-handed hitter, has improved against right-handed pitching, he started more often this season.

Bellinger, 23, is also unusual by normal baseball measurements. In 2017, when he smashed 39 home runs and won the NL Rookie of the Year award, he played primarily at first base. He played Gold Glove-level defence there, too. This year, he easily handled a lot of centre field when the Dodgers needed to shuffle around positions because of Turner’s injury, Muncy’s emergence and the trade for Freese.

In fact, some of the advanced metrics rate Bellinger as perhaps the fastest player on the Dodgers. “I like showing off the athleticism,” he said.

Friedman and Zaidi acquired some players, such as Hernandez, because of their versatility. For some players like Bellinger, who played multiple positions in high school, the Dodgers made a concerted effort to avoid pigeonholing them once they were drafted.

“It makes the game more interesting and fun for guys that are coming up and get to move around,” Zaidi said. “And you’re just a better baseball player if you move around and play different positions and get to see the game from different vantage points.”

Amid all these moving parts, the Dodgers’ offensive power stands out. They led the league in runs and home runs during the 2018 regular season. They set a league record with seven players hitting at least 20 home runs – not including two mid-season acquisitions, Dozier and Machado, who each hit at least 20 home runs combined for their multiple teams this year.

Muncy, a minor league infielder signed last year, led the Dodgers with 35 home runs this season but was not in the starting lineup for either of the first two games against the Brewers. Still, as an in-game substitute, he has already logged five plate appearances in this series.

“From our perspective, being in the starting lineup, to the extent that we can de-emphasize it, that’s a good thing,” Zaidi said. “We have 12 to 13 position players who we think can impact the game. The notion of having eight everyday players, and the same lineup day in and day out, has never been a focus for us.”

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