It seems prudent to expect big moves from the Los Angeles Dodgers at this year’s trade deadline.
With that shortage in mind, one baseball writer sees the Dodgers pulling off a serious haul at the upcoming trade deadline.
On Friday, Bleacher Report’s Tim Kelly predicted that the Dodgers would acquire at least one starting pitcher and at least one reliever ahead of the Jul. 31 deadline to add the depth they’re currently lacking.
“At the time of publication, Tyler Glasnow, Tony Gonsolin, Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki, Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips and Luis Garcia are all on the injured list. Other arms such as Gavin Stone, Emmet Sheehan and Brusdar Graterol were on the IL before the season even began,” Kelly wrote.
“The Dodgers are going to need impact additions in their starting rotation and bullpen, and as one of the best executives of his era, (Andrew) Friedman is likely to succeed in picking the right ones.”
By the postseason, the Dodgers could have a top three of the rotation headlined by Snell, Glasnow, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and a bullpen containing Graterol, Tanner Scott, Michael Kopech, and Blake Treinen. But they’re learning not to count on all of those names being healthy,
It’s also a bit early to project which teams will be sellers, but the Dodgers should at least be familiar with one of them–the division rival Colorado Rockies.
In addition to proving Kelly right, the Dodgers can up the ante by landing the biggest names available at both levels of the pitching staff. We don’t yet know who those names will be, but a good guess might be Nick Martinez and Aroldis Chapman.
