Dodgers News: LA Not Looking at the Trade Market to Replace Walker Buehler

The Dodgers are always going to be in on the trade market when Summertime rolls around. Regardless of how good their roster might be, Andrew Friedman and his front office team are always looking for ways to improve. And more often than not, they’ve acted on that over the last couple of years. 

But this year could end up being slightly different. The Dodgers just lost Walker Buehler for potentially up to 2 months with a flexor strain. It’s a devastating blow to a team that was already a little shorthanded with their starting staff. 

But according to The OC Register’s Bill Plunkett, turning to the trade market might not be the answer this year. Andrew Friedman spoke about the loss and added that internal options were going to be the primary conversation, at least for right now. 

“We’ll dust that off when trade season really kicks into effect. We’ll get a nice boost when Heaney returns soon and we’ll continue to assess our internal options and begin to layer on external ones to see what makes sense.”

Part of that might be the timing of everything, and part might be that the Dodgers just think they have better options than what is available. Judging the market is incredibly difficult, especially with multiple wild card spots now in play. 

“I feel like the starting pitching market is always difficult. I don’t know that a premium exists in that it’s always got a premium attached to it. I feel like relievers go for way more in July than they do any other time of year.”

He’s right in that there are no premium options out there that are for sure going to be moved right now. If the Dodgers were going to make a trade, it would likely be for a top arm. Otherwise, they have the guys to fill in starts when needed. 

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