Andrew Toles hasn’t played baseball since 2018.
But the Dodgers renewed the outfielder’s contract Wednesday, just like they have around this time for the last six years. Like always, Toles has been placed on the restricted list and won’t take up a roster spot.
The Dodgers declined to comment for this story and don’t appear to have ever publicly commented on the situation, but it is widely believed that the team makes this move annually to allow Toles to keep his health insurance while dealing with some serious mental health issues.
Toles was a fourth-round pick for the then-Florida Marlins in the 2010 draft and made his major league debut as a member of the Dodgers in July 2016. He went on to bat .314 with three home runs and 16 runs batted in in 105 at-bats over 48 regular season games and was a standout in the postseason, with a .364 batting average in 22 at-bats during the divisional and conference series.
Toles was off to a solid start in 2017 before tearing his anterior cruciate ligament. He missed the rest of that season and played in only 17 games the following season, the last of which was Sept. 30, 2018.
In 2019, Toles didn’t report to spring training and the Dodgers quietly placed him on the restricted list, as they have done every year since. Following his 2020 arrest on a misdemeanor trespassing charge behind a Florida airport, USA Today reported that Toles had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and had been in and out of at least 20 mental health facilities in the previous year and a half.
At last report, Toles was in the care of his father, Alvin Toles, who told USA Today in 2021: ”We are having challenges, but nothing that God and I can’t handle. Schizophrenia, it’s just so tough. I mean, he can’t even watch TV. He hears voices and the TV at the same time, so it’s kind of confusing.
“I’ve seen him looking at some baseball games on his laptop, but I don’t think he really understands what’s going on. I just want him to have a chance in life. That’s all. Just to be healthy, live a normal life.”