Editorials

Dodgers Rumors: Los Angeles Ready to Trade Prospects?

The Dodgers are armed and dangerous on the trade market, per Ken Rosenthal’s latest.

Rosenthal retaliates previous reports of the Dodgers’ willingness to trade Jose De Leon. He points out the team wouldn’t exactly suffer in losing De Leon with its pitching depth.



“De Leon, who averaged 11.6 strikeouts per nine innings at Triple-A last season, is precisely the type of pitching prospect the Twins should want for Dozier. And while the Dodgers also like De Leon, they would not necessarily miss him in 2017 and beyond.

The Dodgers have 10 — count ‘em, 10 — other starting options on their major-league roster, some who are quite good (Clayton Kershaw, Rich Hill, Kenta Maeda), some who are oft-injured (Hill, Scott Kazmir, Brandon McCarthy, Hyun-Jin Ryu), some who are less established (Julio Urias, Brock Stewart, Ross Stripling).”

Los Angeles is attempting to trade Kazmir and/or McCarthy prior to spring training, Rosenthal said. The Dodgers are keeping tabs on Logan Forsythe and Ian Kinsler, which prevents Minnesota from cornering L.A. Even with that in mind, few contenders need second basemen, as Rosenthal notes, and the Twins could be best off taking a De Leon package now than waiting until the deadline.

The Dodgers have a reputation for being conservative moving prospects, but that label is proving false. In the midseason deal for Josh Reddick and Rich Hill, L.A. gave three players who now rank as Oakland’s No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 prospects in Baseball America’s system rankings. The Dodgers have spent a lot of time assembling a collection of youth. They’re starting to use it for immediate help.

[graphiq id=”4eB5M4XQ8gl” title=”Brian Dozier Career Batting Triple Slash” width=”640″ height=”511″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/4eB5M4XQ8gl” ]

Dozier and the second base situation may not be the end of dealing either. The outfield is crowded, the bullpen needs another upgrade and even with Dozier, the lineup is imbalanced. L.A. will be a very interesting team moving forward, and with the assets in-hand, has the potential to make a splash from today until the 2017 trade deadline.

Andrew Toles could be in a larger role next season

Gabe Burns

Gabe Burns is an award-winning journalist. He serves as a reporter and editor at the DodgersNation news desk. He additionally works as editor-in-chief of The Spectator, Valdosta State University's student paper. Gabe's work has been featured on a number of platforms, including Draft Breakdown and Pro Football Spot. His byline has been cited in media such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune. Aside from covering Dodgers baseball, Gabe enjoys watching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Orlando Magic and Tampa Bay Lightning. He can be followed on Twitter at @GabeBurns_DN.

11 Comments

  1. Alex Wood makes 11 potential starters on Dodgers and both Chase De Jong and Trevor Oaks do not appear to be too far away from competing for a spot in the rotation.  Would like to see O’s Brad Brach pitching the 8th inning for Dodgers — O’s looking for SP help.

  2. Still maintaining that if the Twins are asking for De Leon plus another top 5 prospect from our system (i.e. Calhoun or Verdugo; Bellinger is a non-starter big-time), AND Brock Stewart.  If they start with Stewart plus Calhoun and other lesser pieces, I’d definitely consider it.  De Leon is a no-go for Dozier.  Forsythe is looking more and more like the more attractive option.  Excepting last season, Forsythe is a fairly comparable player to what Dozier was the three years before last season.  He is like a slightly lesser version of Dozier in almost every aspect of his game, except his hit tool.  He will cost a lot less than Dozier as well.  Maybe try to swing a deal for Boxberger and Forsythe.

  3. Ken Rosenthal is just the latest moron MLB reporter to pull a Dodger trade rumor out of his rear end. The Dodger’s need to stay the course with what they have. They’re a young first place team as is.

  4. Resign Utley to 1 year and split time at 2nd with Kike, Taylor and Culberson. Keep prospects because you know some starting pitchers are going to get hurt. Build up the value of prospects. Assess what’s needed come allstar break and trade for available players accordingly.

  5. Brian Dozier would
    certainly benefit the Dodgers as a solid 2B and RH bat for the next two
    years.  IMO, the problem is that he is not the long-term solution to the
    position.  Dozier is a small town outdoors person who loves Minnesota, not
    likely to re-sign with LA.  If the names identified in trade discussions
    are correct (including JDL), that to me is too much for a two year stop
    gap.  The FO wants to get younger, less costly, and build from within for
    the long-term., but is not adverse to signing older veterans as a bridge to the
    prospects.  Maybe the best solution for 2017 is trading for Brandon
    Phillips for one year (who said he will waive his not-trade rights), giving
    Willie Calhoun one more year of AAA development to prove he can be a quality ML
    2B.  It would also give Seager another former GG veteran around 2B to
    continue with his defensive maturation.
    The elephant in the room is
    what to do about the current ML Dodgers being so LH dominant with an inability
    to hit RHP, with their top 3 position player prospects also LH.  The
    Dodgers have two open positions where a RH bat would be helpful; 2B and LF. 
    I am not comfortable with Kike’ Hernandez and Trayce Thompson assuming the lead
    for those two positions.  Cody Bellinger is certainly the heir apparent to
    AGon at 1B.  Seager is a fixture for the long-term at SS, and Joc Pederson
    appears to be a long-term choice for CF.  As much as I want to, I do not
    see both Verdugo and Calhoun as permanent fixtures in the LAD lineup; one but
    not both.

  6. AlwaysCompete Fortunately we have a solid handful of RHB at the lower levels in the system: Diaz, Heredia, Mieses, Kiebert Ruiz (switch hitter), Estevez, DJ Peters, to name a few.  I hadn’t really thought of Brandon Phillips as a stop-gap.  He wouldn’t cost too much in terms of prospects I’d imagine.  For one, he is more expensive than any other options brought up thus far (Dozier, Kinsler, Forsythe), he is the oldest, and had the worst year of production out of that group of four.  Maybe a second tier prospect, and a lower-tier prospect or two?  Brendon Davis or Ronny Brito plus a pitcher like Mitchell White or Sopko?  And we’d take on all Phillip’s salary?  I think adding him, and re-signing Utley would give us a very solid tandem up the middle to bridge the gap this year.  Then use the prospects saved in that trade to go for Braun.  Puig, McCarthy or Kazmir, Stewart, Rios seems fair to me.  That was right about what was being discussed at the waiver deadline with the Brewers.

  7. yarritsblake AlwaysCompete  If the Dodgers can keep JDL and Calhoun/Verdugo/Bellinger (a must) then they win with a Dozier non-trade.  I agree with your assessment about Ryan Braun.  I believe he is they key difference to seriously competing against the Nats and Cubs, or just contending.  Phillips/Utley do not solve the long term problem at 2B, but nobody available really does either.  They need to find the next LaMahieu or Altuve or Forsythe, or even Segura.  Maybe Calhoun will be that guy.  And if so, I hope it is with LAD and not Twins/Rays or other unknown trade partner.  Next year will go a long way to determine his future as a LAD 2B.  I also expect to see Brandon Montgomery at Great Lakes and maybe Rancho next year.  He could be a potential long-term possibility, but he is too far down the organizational chain right now.

    I would hate losing Stewart, but in order to get Braun, some young pitcher is going to have to be included, as long as Kazmir or McCarthy are included.  Rios could become a solid hitter, but he is another LH hitter without a position.  His best option right now is 1B, and Bellinger will own that position.  As good as Rios may be, he is the proverbial trade piece that someone is going to want and LAD may not need.

  8. AlwaysCompete yarritsblake Agreed 100% on the Dodgers ideal situation in keeping their top 3 hitters in their system.  Still, with how we are already fairly left-handed batter heavy, it won’t help us to balance the lineup by having them all become regulars here in a year or two.  I hadn’t really heard much about Montgomery.  He wasn’t mentioned over on TrueBlueLA’s prospect list (even going out to the top 60ish).  FanGraphs did mention him recently as a fringe prospect.  I think the fact he is 20, and was drafted so late in the draft last season means he doesn’t have much going for him yet as a prospect.  But if he performs as well as he did last year in 2017 at a more competitive level, we will certainly be hearing a lot about him come this time next year.

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