Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES — It sounds somewhat blasphemous to talk about something as mundane as a trade deadline in the wake of the passing of the great Vin Scully, but life goes on, and baseball goes with it. And most importantly, the Dodgers have some seriously unfinished business to attend to in October. After putting together a fantastic 2021 regular season, the Dodgers had their hearts broken in the playoffs as they couldn’t muster the bodies to get them out of the NLCS in Atlanta.
And while the 2020 World Series was cool and all, we know deep in our hearts that it will be nothing compared to one that the team wins on its home turf after a full season of baseball. Not that 2020 is meaningless; it’s just going to be better the next time.
So when the trade deadline came and went and when we were hearing about all these amazing trades go down, there were more than a few Dodger fans who voiced words somewhere along the lines of, “Joey Gallo? The guy who got booed out of New York? That’s it?”
And indeed, it sort of seems like it. There was the McKinstry for Chris Martin trade earlier in the week, but that wasn’t exactly setting anyone’s hair on fire either. Given the blockbuster deals involving Machado and Scherzer and Trea over the last few seasons, this one seemed particularly unimpressive. Especially given the haul that AJ Preller was getting down in San Diego.
Fear not, Dodger fans
But maybe Andrew Friedman knows something you don’t know. Maybe he knows he’s got the horses to win everything in his stable right now. After all, the Dodgers entered play on Wednesday with the best winning percentage in all of baseball, and they trailed the Yanks in that key stat of run differential by just one run. Clearly, they are operating from a position of strength.
AJ Preller is not. He is desperate. San Diego fans are desperate. They have been on the outside looking in for so long that they are willing to give up anything to get into the winner’s circle. The haul that they gave up to get the Juan Soto deal done was substantial. And, if the rumor mill is at all accurate and the Nationals wanted Gavin Lux and a bunch of nearly ready prospects (Miller, Outman, Bush, Pages), then Friedman was right to push away from the poker table. That is a big ask, and the Dodgers don’t play baseball that way.
In the end, the Padres are still the Padres until they prove any different. They’re always going to be that annoying little brother who keeps jumping up and down and yelling, “Look at me! Look at me!”
And even if Friedman got stupid, there was the matter of the clubhouse chemistry to be considered. In a post-mortem interview pointed to just that as a big factor in his decision making this time around.
“I feel good about the team that we have in place and the way that they’ve performed,” he said. “We have a really special dynamic in that room right now, and it’s something that we’re cognizant of and mindful of as we kind of navigated this deadline.”
Plus, the calvary is on the way. Before long, May, Treinen, and Buehler will be back on the roster, making the Garrett Cleavingers and Reyes Morontas of the world a distant memory. This team is stacked.
The Dodgers are going to win the NL West going away this year. They are in a position to win the whole thing. What happened on Tuesday doesn’t change the math on that much at all in my mind.
See you at the ballpark!
