No. 60: Andrew Toles

This is the latest post for an ongoing media project — SoCal Sports History 101: The Prime Numbers from 00 to 99 that Uniformly, Uniquely and Unapologetically Reveal The Narrative of Our Region’s Athletic Heritage.  Pick a number and highlight an athlete — person, place or thing — most obviously connected to it by fame and fortune, someone who isn’t so obvious, and then take a deeper dive into the most interesting story tied to it. It’s a combination of star power, achievement, longevity, notoriety, and, above all, what makes that athlete so Southern California. Quirkiness and notoriety factor in. And it should open itself to more discussion and debate — which is what sports is best at doing.

The most obvious choices for No. 60:
= Hardiman Cureton: UCLA football
= Clay Matthews Jr.: USC football
= Dennis Harrah: Los Angeles Rams

The not-so-obvious choices for No. 60:
= Chin-Lung Hu: Los Angeles Dodgers
= Andrew Toles: Los Angeles Dodgers

The most interesting story for No. 60:
Andrew Toles: Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder (2016 to 2018)
Southern California map pinpoints:
Dodger Stadium

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Years after his last MLB game, without much hope that he’ll ever play again, Andrew Toles remains more than just in the Dodgers’ hearts and minds. He has what appears to be a contract that keeps him connected with them.

Every year since 2019, the Dodgers, without much attention, let it be known they have retained the outfielder and lead-off hitter as a contracted employee. Without pay. On the restricted list. It was reported that renewed that deal again in March, 2024.

The media makes it appear this happens to guarantee Toles’ health insurance as he continues to deal with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. There’s more to it. It’s there as well to give Toles comfort in that, should he find a way to live with this condition, he will have the psychological approach to this that the team has kept him close to its heart, and he’s still in the process of making a comeback.

If the team doesn’t renew the agreement, there is fear Toles may discover as much go back down a dark hole.

The story

When the Tampa Bay Rays released Andrew Toles in 2015, they sensed something was wrong that they couldn’t fix. He had anxiety issues. They had drafted the Decatur, Georgia, native in the third round of the 2012 selection out of Chipola College in Mariana, Florida, and he had been their 2013 minor league player of the year.

But he was showing signs of erratic frustration, threatening people around him.

The Dodgers did some due diligence and offered Toles a chance to join their organization. It’s a direct result of the fact that the same person who drafted and signed Toles with the Tampa Bay Rays was the same who decided the Dodgers could give him a chance again – Andrew Friedman, who left as the Rays’ director of baseball operations in 2014 to assume that role for Dodgers.

Gabe Kapler, then the Dodgers’ director of player development at the time, emailed Toles to see if he was interested in returning to baseball and participating in the Dodgers’ instructional league. Toles didn’t hesitate.

“We knew Andrew experienced some personal challenges with the Rays when we signed him,’’ said Kapler. “We thought we could create a different environment that might allow him to thrive at the minor league level. There were a lot of people who cared for him and invested in him.”

Friedman knew of Toles’ circumstances, and sensed his father, Alvin, was a good influence on him.

Alvin Toles was once a first-round draft pick of the NFL’s New Orleans Saints, an inside linebacker out of Tennessee. His four-year pro career ended with a severe knee injury during the Saints’ 14–10 victory over the Los Angeles Rams in mid-November of 1988. The team waived him in 1990. Andrew Toles was born two years later.

When his son faced life without baseball after the Rays couldn’t figure out how to take care of his issues, the story goes that Alvin suggested Andrew tag along with him on his job as long-haul truck driver, taking a trip with stops in Alabama, Kansas, Pennsylvania and Delaware. Alvin had a feeling that a few days on the road would help clarify his son’s path.

Nights spent shivering in a cot in the truck, truck-stop showers and a nonstop stream of talk-radio programs left a lasting impression on Andrew.

“No disrespect to those types of jobs, but I was, like, whatever I’ve got to do, I’m going to keep going forward, because this isn’t for me.”

Toles focused on baseball, got himself in shape, but needed another reminder about how the real world worked. He had a job at a local Kroeger grocery store in Georgia, the early shift in the frozen foods section that paid $7.50 an hour.

“I remember thinking, This isn’t for me, either,” he said.

So now with the Dodgers, Toles finally came up to the big leagues in July, 2016. The momentum he generated during that time — including hitting an opposite-field go-ahead grand slam in the ninth-inning of a 10-8 win at Colorado to earn a double-header split – gave the Dodgers an unexpected boost. He was kept for the 2016 and started eight of 11 games in the NLDS and NLCS, going 8-for-22 with two doubles and a .364 average.

After his dramatic grand slam on Aug. 31, 2016, J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group wrote this:

Andrew Toles, the Dodgers’ rookie outfielder, has shown dramatic versatility over his first 33 days on a major-league roster. … a gifted athlete … good baseball IQ, too. … His deadpan sense of humor, hidden behind a perpetually wide-eyed expression and a luxuriant beard, would endear him to any teammate even if he couldn’t hit worth a lick. It just so happens that Toles can hit worth a lick. With the Dodgers down to their final out Wednesday, Toles hit a grand slam to complete a stunning 10-8 comeback victory over the Colorado Rockies.

Out of baseball a year ago … Toles is now batting .397 for the first-place team in the National League West.

“He is a beautiful human,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “He’s just so calm and cool.”

After his grand slam, Toles thumped his chest on his way back to the dugout before being mobbed by his elated teammates. They were eventually able to retrieve the baseball — it was Toles’ first career grand slam and only his third home run — because it bounced back onto the playing field after ricocheting off the bleacher seats.

When Toles hit his first career homer during a recent road game in Cincinnati, he deadpanned that he might lose the baseball because, well, he loses things. How about this one?

“I don’t think I’m going to lose it,” he said.

So now he’s a 24-year-old, starting in left field and batting leadoff in the Dodgers’ 2017 Opening Day lineup that includes Corey Seager, Justin Turner, Adrian Gonzalez and Yasiel Puig. Toles goes 2-for-5. In the first 30 games, he’s hitting .271 with five homers and 15 RBIs, including a .375 average with seven RBIs in his last 11 games.

But in trying to preserve a no-hitter for Julio Urias in the seventh inning, Toles slid into the wall at Dodger Stadium as a drive by Pittsburgh’s Andrew McCutchen landed for a double. Toles came out of the game and an MRI confirmed a torn ACL of his right knee. He was done for the season.

How would he handle this adversity?

As the 2018 season started, Toles was the final cut made by the Dodgers on the eve of Opening Day, relinquishing his spot on the roster to Joc Pederson and Kyle Farmer. At the Dodgers’ Oklahoma City Triple-A affiliate, he hit .306 in 71 games.

A story posted on NBCLA noted: “For the better part of the season, Dodger fans across the country had been pining for Toles, using the hashtag #FreeToles on social media to let the front office know their desire” to see him back.

A chance occurred for him to return in July as Puig went on the DL. Toles went 2-for-3 in his return with two RBIs, playing center field and batting eighth, flanked by Pederson in left and Matt Kemp in right. He helped Clayton Kershaw get the win.

TrueBlueLA.com reported on the game: The Andrew Toles experience is full effect as the outfielder returned with two hits and a two-run double during a five-run fourth inning. He scored a run that inning, beating the throw home from third despite the infield playing in, and again on a two-run single by Justin Turner in the eighth.

Toles said he was “just happy to be here” and was “not going to harp on the wait (to get back) or anything.” Toles also said his Dodge Challenger remains parked in the players’ lot at Dodger Stadium since this spring and is now covered in “spider webs and dust” as teammates have pointed out, sending him photos.

“That thing looks gross,” Toles said.

Roberts said after the game: “Everyone was excited to get him here. Him being here brought a lot of energy. He had a couple knocks tonight, but that big double to opposite way was really good. With Andrew, I don’t know if it really matters where he plays, as far as what level. He plays at a certain speed and doesn’t overthink things.”

Sent back to the minors a week later, Toles returned for a September callup, but the Dodgers seemed to have moved on without him. As they were fine-tuning for what would be their second trip to the World Series in two seasons, Toles only logged six more at-bats that month as a pinch hitter and occasional outfielder.

Still, that offseason, the Dodgers traded outfielders Kemp and Puig. It left a possible starting job for Toles. But when Toles decided to opt out of reporting to spring training with the Dodgers in ’19, it was said to be a “personal issue.” He was put on the restricted list.

The Dodgers then lost track of him.

They got a call from the Phoenix police in early February. He crashed his car and was walking along a desert highway disoriented, and dangerously dehydrated, unaware of his whereabouts. He was admitted to a Phoenix area hospital, and Toles’ mother, Vicky, contacted the Dodgers, seeking help.

“He recognized me in the hospital from our time together in Tampa,’’ said Dodgers medical director Ron Porterfield, who had spent 21 years with the Rays. “He said my name, but he didn’t even know how he got from L.A. to Phoenix. He asked me to take him home. I said, ‘Where are we going?’ He said, ‘To my apartment.’ But he didn’t know where his apartment was.”

Toles spent two weeks in the hospital, with Porterfield finally being granted permission to access his medical records. Toles was mandated by the court to a county facility, and later transferred to a behavioral health treatment center until mid-April. It was the longest stint he had ever spent in the hospital.

The Dodgers and the Toles’ family kept his illness and whereabouts a secret to the outside world.

In June 2020, he was found sleeping behind a FedEx building at the Key West International Airport in Florida, arrested in charged with trespassing, and finally diagnosed at a mental health facility. It was discovered that he had been living on the streets. His family couldn’t get him to come home.

By 2021, Toles was back in the care of his father. 

“We are having challenges, but nothing that God and I can’t handle,” Alvin told USA Today.

USA Today columnist Bob Nightengale followed up with a poignant, insightful column about the whole situation, and more.

“It was a disturbing picture, a police mug shot, spattered across the internet last weekend, revealing a troubled man with a vacant, soulless look. He looked disheveled, with hair that looked like it hadn’t been combed in weeks, if not months. His thick beard was scraggly, covering most of his face, flowing right into his hair.

“When the news came out, the response from the public was very different from the response from my family,’’ Morgan Toles, Andrew’s sister, told USA Today Sports. “When people saw my brother’s mug shot, it was like, ‘Oh, my God! He’s been arrested.’

“You know what my family felt? Relief.

“It’s really crazy to say, but the mug shot, really, was the best thing ever.

“We didn’t know whether he was dead or alive.’’

Just two weeks ago, a similar incident occurred in Kentucky. Toles even spent a month in prison in Hong Kong, wandering the streets after losing his passport, arrested for stealing food at a gas station. He was released after Morgan Toles obtained help from the U.S. Embassy. Yet, when he returned to states, he disappeared again.

“The last time I saw my brother, I don’t even know,’’ Morgan says. “I haven’t heard his voice in, Lord knows how long. The only difference in my brother and the homeless walking the streets in L.A. is that he made money. That’s it. We want to help him so badly. We are doing everything we can. But the loved ones are the ones he runs from. How do you help somebody that doesn’t want to be helped?”

The reality

A post on Psychiatrist.com, noting the Toles story, reports that the average potential life lost for each person with schizophrenia is 28.5 years. Patients with schizophrenic symptoms are at high risk for suicide as well as other medical conditions including heart disease, liver disease, and diabetes. Every person diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 25 carries a total lifetime cost to the economy of approximately $3.8 million. That’s a cost of $92,000 per patient per year.

Bipolar disorder also bears a high economic and personal burden. One analysis estimated the per-person total lifetime costs of BD ranged from $11,720 for a single manic episode to $624,785 for chronic disease. Patients with BD often have numerous other health issues like high blood pressure and drug addiction. Their condition affects their ability to work and care often comes with a huge price tag. 

Fortunately, more people with serious mental conditions are covered by insurance. The national uninsurance rate for adults under age 65 with schizophrenia decreased by 50 percent after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2014. According to this report, the rate of uninsured people with schizophrenia now stands at around 4 percent.

Alvin Toles said his son has been “zombie-like.” His sister says Andrew has been in more than 20 mental health facilities over the past four years.

“Schizophrenia, it’s just so tough,” said Alvin Toles. “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.

“I’ve seen him looking at some baseball games on his laptop, but I don’t think he really understands what’s going on.”

The legacy

From 2016 to ’18, Toles’ Major League Baseball career added up to just 96 games and 249 plate appearances. His. 286 batting average factors into a career 1.9 WAR. He may never play again, but the Dodgers aren’t looking at it that way.

“It’s heartbreaking, literally heartbreaking,’’ said Friedman. “I have a long history with Andrew, and I just wish there was something more we could do to help.”

This is what the organization does.

After the 2017 season, pitcher Tom Koehler signed with the Dodgers, having logged six seasons with Miami and Toronto. He injured his shoulder in spring training. He never got to pitch for the Dodgers. He retired officially and became a certified MLB agent. He applauded the Dodgers’ actions involving Toles.

Who else wore No. 60 in SoCal sports history?
Make a case for:

Hardiman Cureton, UCLA football guard (1953 to 1955):

The first African-American captain for the Bruins was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005, acknowledging his career as an offensive guard and defensive lineman. UCLA teams that the Monrovia High star played on went 26-4, won three Pacific Coast Conference championships and participated in two Rose Bowls. During the 1954 national championship season, Cureton was named second-team All-Coast and honorable mention All-American. As a senior in 1955, Cureton became the Bruins’ fifth-ever consensus first-team All-American. He played nine seasons in the Canadian Football League.  

Clay Matthews Jr., USC football linebacker (1974 to 1977): A first-round pick of the Cleveland Browns, lasting 19 seasons, the former Arcadia High standout may be better known as the older brother of Pro Football Hall of Fame offensive lineman Bruce Matthews and the father of former Trojan All-American linebacker Clay Matthews III.

Dennis Harrah, Los Angeles Rams offensive lineman (1975 to 1987): The 11^th overall pick by the team out of Miami started 144 of his 168 games, making six Pro Bowls.

Scot Schoenweis, Anaheim Angels pitcher (1999 to 2003): The left-handed specialist held San Francisco scoreless in two relief innings during the 2022 World Series.

Have you heard this story:

Edgardo Henriquez, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher (2024 to present): On Aug. 16, 2025 this moment above happened for the 23-year-old, 6-foot-4, 200-pound pitcher.

Chin-Lung Hu, Los Angeles Dodgers infielder (2007 to 2010): The last Dodgers player to wear No. 60 before Toles was this Taiwanese-born second baseman — who has the distinction of having the shortest last name in MLB history (along with Detroit’s Fu-Te Ni). He was the MVP of All-Star Futures Game in 2007 and made his Dodgers debut later that season, hitting a home run in his second at-bat. Also wore No. 14 in ’08. He became a broadcaster’s favorite player when, after reaching base, it could be said, “Hu’s on first.”

Juan Castro, Los Angeles Dodgers infielder (1995 to 1999, 2009, 2010 to 2011): Here’s the deal: Having already established that Andrew Toles and and Chin-Lung Hu wore No. 60 for the Dodgers, we also should note that more than a dozen have also sported these two oddly-paired digits. Including Castro, first when he came up as a 23-year-old rookie in ’95. He kept it one more year in ’96. From 1997 to ’98, he switched to No. 25 — more in line with a regular player — and it was given to prospect Mike Judd. For for the end of ’98, and through ’99, Castro changed again, this time to No. 17, as Bobby Bonilla joined the team and wanted it (in ’98), but then left, and it was bequeathed to Dave Hansen. The Dodgers traded Castro to Cincinnati at the turn of the century. He bounces around, and somehow finds his way back to L.A. as a free agent. Now he’s handed a hallowed No. 14 (worn the previous season by the aforementioned Chin-lung Hu, someday to be retired for Gil Hodges). For the 2010 season, Castro joins Philadelphia. That team releases him midseason, and the Dodgers get him back. And then give him No. 33. But as Castro sticks around for his final season of 2011, he is offered a more suitable No. 3. But then Castro only makes into seven games the first three months and voluntarily retires in July, ’11. Add it up and Castro wore six different numbers with the Dodgers in his eight seasons.

Anyone else worth nominating?