Steve Webb
With Betts out indefinitely, the need to look for a external solution at shortstop intensifies
LOS ANGELES, CA — So, how was your weekend? For the Dodgers, it was pretty terrible. Mookie Betts, the position player with the highest OPS in the National League got plunked with a pitch and is now out with a fractured hand. The good news. He won’t need surgery and will be back at some point in the season. The bad news. He’s going to be out for a good long time, at least until after the All-Star break, and maybe until September or even later. At this point, we just don’t know. So, guess what, we need that shortstop we were talking about.
For the time being, Dave Roberts has indicated that the team was going to go with Miguel Rojas as a replacement for Betts at short, and as stop-gap measures go, it’s a pretty solid one. Betts is having a great year, but Miggy is playing very well this year. His slash line of .278/.328/.444 is a vast improvement on last year, and if he qualified, it would put him in the top ten of MLB shortstops in OPS. That’s not nothing. And his slick glove work should not be discounted. His WAR of 1.8 last season was built almost entirely on what he did on the field. If Betts is going to be down on the shorter end of the recovery spectrum, it might serve everyone’s interests just to stand pat.
However, no doubt Andrew Friedman is intensifying his search for an external solution to this problem. Let’s take a look around the league at some possibilities, and see what the likelihood is of the Dodgers making a serious play for them. I’ll break them into categories: Good Shortstops on Good Teams (fuhgettabouttit), Good Shortstops having Bad Years (Possibilities) Good Shortstops on Bad Teams (Best Option).
Good Shortstops on Good Teams
Henderson (BAL), Adames (MIL), Witt (KCR), Correa (MIN), Volpe (NYY), Turner (PHI), Seager (TEX)
Not much to say about these guys. The Dodgers ain’t getting any of them. Not now, not ever. I know that a lot of Dodger fans were all worked up about getting Willy Adames, but they need to lose that fantasy right now. He’s playing on a first place team, one whose record is nearly identical to the Dodgers. They ain’t trading him.
Good Shortstops having Bad Years
Bichette (TOR), Arcia (ATL), Swanson (CHC), Pena (HOU), Kim (SDP), Lindor (NYM)
Of course, Bo Bichette of the Blue Jays is the player who’s getting the most smoke in this group. We’ve discussed it already at length on this site. It’s true, Bichette was an All-Star and the Dodgers could look at him in the same way they saw Trea Turner: a short-term commitment that will not require a huge outlay of cash. His 11 million dollar annual salary is not horrible, and it could plug the shortstop hole until the end of 2025. However, there is a leap of faith in this acquisition. What assurances do we have that the Dodgers’ can coax Bichette out of his current funk and back to playing a consistent level of baseball? It’s true that he’s picked it up a bit in the last month, but his OPS is still south of .700. That’s a flyer I’m not sure the Dodgers want to take right now.
Good Shortstops on Bad/Borderline Teams
DeJong (CHW), Tovar (COL), De La Cruz (CIN), Cruz (PIT), Winn (STL), Neto (LAA)
Paul DeJong is the most attractive option in this group. He’s not a great player, but he’s having a good year (.769 OPS) on a very bad team. His contract is just a one-year $1.75 million deal, and he could slot right into the lineup without having to “fix” anything about him. Plus, the White Sox fire sale is sure to begin soon.
Are any of these options great? No. But you can’t just go to the corner grocery store and pick up another Mookie Betts. To me the best option would be to stick with Miggy at short, spend your trade chips elsewhere and hope Mookie’s bones heal quickly.
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