When Michael Conforto approached the plate with the bases loaded and two outs against a Los Angeles Angels team with their number, fans of the Los Angeles Dodgers had a pretty good idea of how the at-bat would go.

Originally signed away from the rival San Francisco Giants to play left field after injuries forced a platoon situation in the 2024 playoffs, Conforto has been one of the Dodgers’ least-effective bats so far in 2025, hitting a career-worst .189, including a 3-30 stretch heading into the at-bat. Would he become a hero when LA needed him most to avoid the Dodgers’ longest losing streak to the Angels in franchise history?

Nope, Conforto went down without much effort, and the Dodgers had to go back to the drawing board after wasting arguably their best chance to put the game away.

This at-bat, in addition to his double-play ground out and three-ball strikeout to end Game 1 against the Angels, led veteran Dodgers writer Blake Harris to take to social media and outright ask for Conforto’s release, a sentiment nearly 1,000 fans agreed with.

“The Dodgers DFA’d Freddie Freeman’s best friend who had an OPS of .700,” Harris noted. “They DFA’d a franchise legend in Chris Taylor. The next DFA should be an absolute no-brainer…. but for some reason it isn’t.”

Heading into the trade deadline, the idea of playing Conforto almost every day in left field made sense, as his stock could only go up and maybe, just maybe, some team would view him as a positive asset worth acquiring before July 31.

But with that date passed and the Dodgers adding a player who is roughly comparable on defense but a notable upgrade on offense in Alex Call, it really doesn’t make sense to keep trotting out Conforto every day and expect him to somehow become something he’s not. Even if the Dodgers don’t designate him for assignment, they would be unwise to keep sending Conforto out there expecting different results, especially when Tommy Edman and Hysong Kim return from IL.