LOS ANGELES — For a while last July, it looked like the Dodgers had struck out.
As the club boarded their flight from San Francisco to Arizona on the eve of the trade deadline, it seemed as if their biggest target, Max Scherzer, was headed to San Diego.
Their lone major move to date was taking a chance on Danny Duffy’s elbow bouncing back enough for him to fortify their bullpen. The next-best starter to go at last year’s trade deadline, Minnesota’s José Berríos, would go for a haul. They could take solace in the fact that Corey Seager was bracing for a return from the injured list the following afternoon.
But as the flight was in mid-air, several Dodgers’ phones chimed.
The Dodgers had landed Scherzer after all, as well as an All-Star shortstop in Trea Turner, in one of the most notable trade deadline blockbusters in recent memory — sending their top pitching and position player prospects in Josiah Gray and Keibert Ruiz along with right-hander Gerardo Carrillo and outfielder Donovan Casey.
Even for a front office that oversaw deadline swings for the likes of Yu Darvish in 2017 and Manny Machado the following year, this represented a form of new ground. And while both Scherzer and Turner performed brilliantly as Dodgers — Scherzer posted a 1.98 ERA in his 11 regular-season starts with the club before a dead arm ended his postseason in the NLCS, and Turner has been in the top five among all position players in FanGraphs WAR since the trade (5.9 entering Wednesday) — the question is not just if another Scherzer/Turner swap is out there, but how willing are the Dodgers to pull that off again?
“We’ll get into it,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told The Athletic recently, noting that the chatter around the trade deadline hasn’t quite picked up with the draft still looming in Los Angeles this month (the Dodgers, notably, do not have a first-round selection due to their exorbitant spending past the luxury tax threshold last year).
The executive demonstrated some pause.
“We’ve expended a lot of future talent in the last five, six years,” Friedman said. “Obviously, we’re going to explore anything and everything, but we’re not looking to empty — we have confidence in the group we have here. It’s not something that will be a necessity in our minds.
“If something lines up, great and we’ll be around the backboard. But hopefully it’s something that we can continue to fill internally.”
Do they need to make a trade, particularly with Walker Buehler on the shelf long-term, Dustin May still working his way back and Chris Taylor landing on the injured list on Wednesday with a fracture in his left foot? The Dodgers’ list of injuries just continues to grow, even without factoring in that MVP candidate Mookie Betts is playing through cracked ribs.
For one, there isn’t an obvious candidate for such a superstar-level type of swing — but Turner and Scherzer weren’t all that clear-cut at this point last year, either. Nationals executive Mike Rizzo has said Juan Soto will not be traded. Even if Angels owner Arte Moreno were to shock the world and move Shohei Ohtani at peak value, it’s hard to imagine any way he would move him up the 5 to Los Angeles.
Swinging for the moon just doesn’t seem possible, if even wanted. And while The Athletic’s Keith Law rated the Dodgers’ farm system as the best in baseball before the season, the Dodgers’ ability to sustain winning for the foreseeable future will rely on their ability to turn young prospects into cheap, affordable stars.
“We’ve traded more good young players over the last five years than anybody,” Friedman said. “And at some point, it catches up to you. … It’s important that we have them. We don’t operate in black and white. And so I’m not sitting here saying we’re not going to, but we’ve been really aggressive over the last five, six years.”
Even the logical candidates for this trade period aren’t without questions. Oakland right-hander Frankie Montas — himself one of the “good young players” the Dodgers have traded away during Friedman’s tenure — received a cortisone shot to treat inflammation in his right shoulder this week. Reds right-hander Luis Castillo missed time this spring with a sore shoulder, too. Josh Bell has no logical fit on this roster, nor does Willson Contreras.
So what can the Dodgers address, and how?
The offense
This was perceived as this club’s strength entering the year, fortifying the group with enhanced depth and absorbing the blow of losing Seager by simply adding a former MVP in Freddie Freeman. That signing has worked out on the field — he’s been the second-best first baseman in baseball this year according to FanGraphs WAR.
The offense has put together solid season-long totals, entering Wednesday with the top offense in the National League by wRC+ (115, a cumulative 15 percent better than league average), despite a team-wide drought for much of June that revealed some of the cracks in a group trumpeted as one of the best baseball has seen in some time. Max Muncy, Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger have created a crater in the middle of the Dodgers’ order, though Friedman noted “we’re seeing directionally positive things” with each of the three. (This has been particularly notable with Muncy and Turner, who have each resembled much more of their typical selves over the past pair of weeks.)
“You ideally want that to be as spaced out as possible and have one or two guys going through it, then tag in the next guy or two that kind of go through a swoon,” Friedman said. “We just went through a pretty lengthy stretch where we had three or four guys kind of struggling at the same time. But we still believe in the core talent of those guys.”
The issue is the depth. While Edwin Ríos is working his way back from a hamstring issue, Kevin Pillar is out for the year with a shoulder fracture. Other “floor raisers” the organization brought in such as Hanser Alberto, Eddy Alvarez, Jake Lamb and now Trayce Thompson have gotten or are getting their cracks at sticking on the big-league roster.
But with Taylor on the injured list, and Betts playing through pain, more reinforcements could be needed. Notably, the Dodgers could use another right-handed bench bat or someone they can stick in their designated hitter spot most nights (though keeping that open for days Will Smith doesn’t catch also makes sense).
Some candidates: Cincinnati’s Tommy Pham, Chicago Cubs’ Ian Happ, Cincinnati’s Brandon Drury, Oakland’s Chad Pinder, Seattle’s Dylan Moore, Colorado’s Yonathan Daza, New York’s Miguel Andújar, Arizona’s Jordan Luplow.
And, of course, Miguel Vargas remains an internal option. The Cuban infielder has added left field to his defensive profile, making him a more appealing choice when his bat (an .885 OPS at Triple A) has an everyday home.
“We really believe in the bat,” Friedman said. He added that while he wouldn’t be surprised to see Vargas up at some point this season, doing so would require a chance to get some regular at-bats.
“To play some, it’s tenable. To play once or twice a week, it’s hard. … He’s doing everything he can control to put himself in position and then read and react as we go.”
The bullpen
Daniel Hudson is down for the year. Blake Treinen just started throwing bullpens, but his return isn’t imminent. The hope is one of Treinen, Tommy Kahnle, Danny Duffy or Victor González is healthy enough to be part of a postseason bullpen, and Craig Kimbrel is scuffling.
If there’s a time for the Dodgers to address a pressing bullpen need at the deadline, it might be this year. But targeting a top-shelf reliever comes at a cost.
“I hate trading for relievers at the deadline,” Friedman said. “It’s my least favorite thing to do. The acquisition cost is totally out of whack. So I like to avoid it as much as possible.”
Friedman noted the development of internal options such as Evan Phillips, Alex Vesia and Yency Almonte as choices to plug into the bullpen in the interim. The club’s shown ability to find those three — via waiver claim (Phillips), preseason trade (Vesia) and minor-league signing (Almonte) — suggest they feel they can create more of those types of arms rather than shop in that market over the next month. Some of those market options were laid out here.
The rotation
Walker Buehler’s return could change everything for the Dodgers in October. So could the looming return of Dustin May. The Dodgers, even without them, hold the best rotation ERA in baseball (2.68 entering Wednesday) with potential All-Stars in Tony Gonsolin, Julio Urías, Clayton Kershaw and even Tyler Anderson, who didn’t crack the Dodgers’ Opening Day rotation. They’ll have enough starters to get through, particularly if they hang onto Ryan Pepiot past the deadline. But having the type of impact starter to make a Buehler- or May-like impact is something the Dodgers may look to add.
The thing is finding that level of starter. Maybe it could be Frankie Montas. Maybe it could be Luis Castillo. If the Giants continue to slide, maybe even Carlos Rodón pops up on the trade market and reshuffles how things play out.
The Dodgers will be involved, even if a Scherzer-like name doesn’t emerge.
“We’ll know a lot more in a month,” Friedman said.
(Photo of Max Scherzer in 2021: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)