Editorials

Dodgers Rumors: Wealth of Prospects Opens Door to Pitching Help

There seem to be two streams of thought regarding the Dodgers trade today and, by extension, what they might do with all their young pitching talent.

First, they could obviously develop the trio everyone knows about of Julio Urias, Jose de Leon and Frankie Montas as well as guys like Grant Holmes, Yadier Alvarez and Zach Lee. The probability that even half those guys develop into top-end starters, let alone superstars, is almost impossible.



Still, though, that’s quite the stable.


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The second, and easily most popular sentiment is that the Dodgers move a few of those young arms, as well as positional prospects not named Corey Seager, to acquire a high-end starter to replace Zack Greinke.

Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal wrote at length about just that, and the names he brought up will undoubtedly catch a few eyes.

The price on Fernandez eventually will become more tolerable; the Marlins almost certainly will trade him before he becomes a free agent. And sometime in the near future, pitchers such as the Athletics’ Sonny Gray, White Sox’s Chris Sale and Rays’ Chris Archer could be available in trade.

Dodgers fans would probably flip the narrative on how they feel about the job Andrew Friedman and his team have done thus far if one of those guys winds up following Clayton Kershaw in the rotation. Well, okay, there are probably fans out there who would find a way to criticize this front office; but what can ya do?

Elite starting pitching like the names listed above typically comes at an astronomical asking price, as evidenced by the Atlanta Braves’ haul for Shelby Miller. But given all the work this front office has done to stockpile assets, the Dodgers are more poised than maybe any other team to make the kind of deal that once again shifts the balance in their favor.

Rosenthal finishes his column with a pretty clear message:

The Dodgers likely cannot acquire any of those pitchers now, and maybe they cannot acquire Fernandez at an acceptable price.

Eventually, though, the Dodgers are going to strike. One way or another, their prospect buildup will not go to waste.

Technically, the only way gathering high-end prospects tends to go to waste is if said youth doesn’t develop as they make their way to the major league level, which obviously happens (see Lee, Zach to this point), but the chances of all the Dodgers’ young pitchers flopping is pretty unlikely.

Regardless, as they’ve promised since arriving in Los Angeles, Friedman and the rest of the front office have created immense flexibility both with the prospects they’ve collected and the immense resources the Dodgers are always working with.

Now, it’s time to take advantage, one way or the other.

NEXT: Why The Dodgers Were Right To Pass on Johnny Cueto

Staff Writer

Staff Writer features content written by our site editors along with our staff of contributing writers. Thank you for your readership.

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