Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — It’s been a couple of weeks now and we’ve had a chance for the disgust of seeing the Houston Astros* win the World Series in 2022 to die down a bit. The fact that they pretty much steamrolled a lesser Phillies squad while the 111-win Dodgers were sitting at home makes it a bitter pill to swallow indeed, but it’s time to see if there are any lessons that the Dodgers might take from the experience.
Don’t get me wrong. I think that the Astros* won an illegitimate World Series title in 2017, robbing the Dodgers of their rightful prize. However, that 2017 team is now largely scattered to the four winds: AJ Hinch is in Detroit, George Springer is in Toronto, Carlos Correa is God know where (please not the Dodgers). And with the exceptions of Altuve, Bregman, and Gurriel, the 2022 champions look very different from the bad boys of 2017. So, as Dodger fans, we should ask ourselves, “What exactly did this organization do to stay on top these last five years, and is any of it repeatable?”
Lesson One: Build internally
If you look at the Astros* roster, it is strikingly different than other powerhouse teams in recent years. Other than Michael Brantley, Justin Verlander and closer Ryan Pressly, it is a roster empty of big name outsiders. Most of the players that the team came to rely on in the postseason all made their big league debuts with the Houston club: Jose Altuve has been with the team since he was a teenager. Alex Bregman was the 2nd pick of the 2015 draft. Kyle Tucker picked a few players later in that same draft. Jordan Alvarez was a trade acquisition (from the Dodgers) who was obtained for reliever Josh Fields before the Cuban slugger had played a game in the minors.
Finally, World Series MVP Jeremy Pena was a third round pick in 2018, and was so promising that the team didn’t think twice about saying goodbye to Carlos Correa, who was so instrumental in the team’s rise to power. Granted, the Astros* had to tank for several years straight to obtain some of these draft picks, but you have to admit, they do a pretty good job of drafting impactful players. These are guys who have grown up in the organization together. There is an organic quality to their lineup that is hard to replicate with a collection of free agents, no matter how good they are.
The Dodgers have a great minor league system, and great scouts. Maybe we should be holding on to these guys a bit longer instead of trading them away for short term gains at the trade deadline. Giving the state of the Dodgers’ current rotation, wouldn’t it be nice to have a Josiah Gray around? Instead, he was shipped to the Nationals in the Scherzer/Turner deal, and now the Dodgers are on the brink of having neither of those guys in their lineup with no rings to show for it.
Lesson Two: Think internationally
During the playoffs and World Series, much was made of the Houston stable of young pitchers: Christian Javier was part of a combined no-hitter. Framber Valdez was nails in all of his starts, Jose Urquidy didn’t see much action but was reliable out of the pen. And much was also made to how the Astros* obtained these guys. Led by Latino super-scout Oz Ocampo.
For the better part of a decade, Ocampo worked as an “international crosschecker” for the Astros*, which is a key role in the team’s scouting department. Ocampo had a significant part in finding and signing pitchers Valdez, Javier, and Urquidy, as well as relievers Luis Garcia and Bryan Abreu.
So how did Ocampo get these guys, all of whom signed for just a few thousand dollars in bonuses, much less than some of the more highly touted international recruits get? The key was patience. Rather than focus on the 16-year-old phenoms around whom there is a feeding frenzy, Ocampo focused his attention on players who were a bit older, and as such a bit more developed.
“We’re seeing these players at age 18, 19, 20 and 21,” he told reporters during the World Series. “And we’re trying to figure out what they’re going to do at age 25, 26, 27.”
Ocampo has since moved on to assume a prominent role in the Marlins’ front office, but the groundwork he laid in Houston will continue to reap benefits for years to come.
The Dodgers do have a good supply of Latino ballplayers coming up through the minors. Diego Cartaya, Miguel Vargas, and Andy Pages are all in the top five of the Dodgers’ prospect list. This is the product of good international scouting. But maybe the Dodgers need to take a page out of the Ocampo playbook and keep an eye out for hidden gems in the Dominican Republic and other parts of Latin America.
Conclusion
The Astros* Opening Day payroll in 2022 was around $163 million. That’s a lot, but it’s nearly $100 million less than the Dodgers’ roster commitments for last year. Now a lot of that money is coming off the books for the Dodgers before next season. Maybe there is a different way to build a winner than the one the Dodgers have been pursuing.
Andrew Friedman got a team to the World Series without any money when he was working for the Rays. Maybe he needs to start thinking like that GM, and not go chasing after every shiny bauble that he sees in the free agent market. Maybe it’s time to give some of the younger Dodgers a chance to shine on the big stage and not trade them away at the deadline for rental property.
Maybe it’s time to be a little bit more like the Astros*. And yes, I did vomit in my mouth a little bit when I wrote that last sentence.
