Did the Dodgers Make the Right Trades to Patch Their Roster?

On paper the Los Angeles Dodgers have one of the most talented and fear-inducing rosters in all of baseball.

Lead by mega-stars at the plate like Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts and elite arms like Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles might have the most fire power in the entire league.

And with a great group of of all-star caliber performers within their supporting cast featuring names like Will Smith and Teoscar Hernández, they also boast one of the more well-rounded rosters that MLB has.

But no team is perfect. Every team has something that could be better and needs attention, including the mighty Dodgers.

In their case, injuries have been the cause of lot of the holes in both their lineup and their pitching rotation. At the deadline the Dodgers needed to get players who could play up the middle, whether that was second base, shortstop or in center field. Also, like any contender, they needed pitching.

Even though it was clearly a seller’s market, the Dodgers made a series of trades to try to bolster their roster at the deadline. Let’s see how they did at patching up thing for their playoff push.

How Did the Dodgers Address the Injuries in Their Lineup?

The Dodgers have faced a myriad of injuries to their lineup this season, as it has been some time since it has been at full strength.

And many of their injuries have come within the infield, as four of their key infield pieces currently find themselves on the IL.

Betts is the biggest loss, as he was well within the MVP conversation before being hit on the hand with a pitch in mid-June.

In 331 plate appearances before going down, Betts was was hitting .304, with 10 HR, 40 RBI, an .892 OPS, a 156 wRC+ and a 3.4 fWAR.

The Dodgers have also been without their go to man at the hot corner, Max Muncy, since mid-May with and oblique strain.

In 40 games and 167 plate appearances in 2024, Muncy has nine homers and 28 RBI while sporting a .798 OPS, a 119 wRC+ and a 1.1 fWAR.

Chris Taylor and Miguel Rojas were more complimentary pieces to this lineup, but their versatility is something the Dodgers have surely missed.

Rojas has been a solid bat this season while appearing in games at 2B, 3B and SS. At the plate he’s hit .271 with a .722 OPS and a 105 wRC+.

Taylor has not been a strong bat in the Dodgers lineup in 2024. In 189 plate appearances, he’s slashed .167/.277/.265 with a 62 wRC+ and a -0.7 fWAR. But the ability to field all the infield positions, besides 1B, as well as play LF and CF is something the Dodgers have valued for years.

And they did a decent job finding ways to tackle these infield injuries in a way that could compliment both the bench bats in Rojas and Taylor as well as the star bats in Betts and Muncy.

The Dodgers acquired a pair of hitters, Tommy Edman and Amed Rosario, that fit the mold of what they look for in many of their bats outside of their stars, and that’s being able to play multiple position.

While Edman has yet to play in 2024 due to wrist surgery last fall, he still represents a high caliber version of this. Edman offers a solid switch-hitting bat that has sported a 90 wRC+ in four of his five career seasons.

He also brings the element of very strong defense to the table. The 2021 Gold Glove award winner has sported a DEF of 8.4 or higher in his last three seasons, according to Fangraphs defensive ratings, and his plus defense translates wherever you play him including shortstop and center field, which is rare even for the top utilitymen.

Finally, Edman is an efficient base-stealer, adding another dimension to his well-rounded game. There is a reason the Dodgers traded the prospects they did to acquire Edman as part of the three-team trade that landed the Cardinals Erick Fedde.

Edman is currently on a rehab assignment so his return is coming soon, meaning he’ll be able to fill the voids at at short and third, while also accounting for other positions where improvement could afford to be seen such as second base and the outfield.

Rosario is a familiar option in L.A., as they also acquired him in last trade deadline. He acts as a more subdued bench caliber version of Edman, as he’s displayed the ability to play the same infield positions as Edman as well as RF in 2024, albeit not nearly as well.

Rosario is also in the midst of a career revitalizing season at the plate, hitting .307 with a .748 OPS and a 115 wRC+, his best season since 2019 with the New York Mets.

Edman is the caliber of bat that could help out the bottom of the lineup with more regular everyday at-bats even after Betts and Muncy make their returns to the lineup. While Rosario provides a valuable right-handed bat off the bench to take advantage of lefties.

How Did the Dodgers Address Injuries on the Mound?

The Dodgers rotation might have the worst luck in 2024 with so many players being forced out due to injury.

Buehler has struggled a bit since making his return in 2024 sporting a 5.84 ERA in 37.0 innings.

But he’s not far removed from a 2021 season where he posted a 2.47 ERA with a 0.97 WHIP and a 5.5 fWAR.

Yamamoto was terrific to start his MLB career this season, posting a 2.92 ERA, a 1.07 WHIP, a .219 AVG against, 10.22 K/9 and a 2.2 fWAR across 74.0 innings before hitting the 60-day IL.

Both of these guys represented key parts of the 2024 rotation at the beginning of the year and have certainly been missed as the Dodgers rotation sits middle of the pack in fWAR (14th at 7.7) and ERA (11th at 3.93).

Gavin Stone has been phenomenal in 2024 and stepped up in a big way for this rotation. He’s made 19 starts and has posted a 3.34 ERA, a 1.26 WHIP and a 1.7 fWAR.

While Kershaw returning to the rotation to join Stone and the 2024 All-Star, Glasnow is definitely a boost in and of itself, it still felt like the Dodgers were an arm away to really feel comfortable controlling their 4.5 game lead in the AL West and pushing for that bye to the NLDS.

And there are still questions of when Yamamoto will be back, and which Buehler will the Dodgers be getting back.

And while the likes of young talent like Landon Knack and River Ryan have done an admirable job filling in when called upon, they don’t scream of guys that serious World Series contenders like the Dodgers would want to give the ball to to start a postseason game at this stage of their careers.

This is where the trade for Jack Flaherty plays a big factor. Flaherty has been excellent in a real bounce-back season with Detroit Tigers in 2024. He’s posted a 2.95 ERA, a 0.96 WHIP, a .211 AVG against, 11.22 K/9 with a 2.5 fWAR. He’s showing the ace upside he was once projected at in St. Louis in the early stages of his career.

Flaherty not only provides a very high level arm that bridges the gap to when Yamamoto comes back, he also offers insurance if Buehler does not improve when he makes his return to the rotation.

And the way Flaherty is pitching, there’s no doubt that he’s earned the right to take the ball in the postseason, although he’s got a lot more competition on this roster than he did in Detroit.

Doesn’t a postseason rotation of Glasnow, Flaherty, Kershaw and Yamamoto sound like a World Series caliber rotation?

Have the Dodgers’ Positional Weaknesses Been Met?

Infield

As mentioned before acquisitions like Edman and Rosario fill the holes in the lineup left by injuries, but they also help even when the Dodgers are at full strength.

Lux has been the primary second base option for Los Angeles this season, and although he’s not been bad, his season hasn’t been anything to write home about. He’s only hitting .239, with a .656 OPS, an 88 wRC+ and a 0.9 fWAR.

Edman offers a better solution at second base, or if they want to play Betts at second base, they can also put him at shortstop. Rosario gives insurance at every spot in the infield as well.

CF and RF

In the outfield, left field is locked up with the All-Star Hernández, but there is definitely at bats to be had in right and center.

The current outfield options outside of Hernandez and not including the new acquisitions of Edman and Rosario look a little lackluster.

While Heyward currently features as the left-handed platoon option in right for the Dodgers, Rosario could act as a right-handed platoon partner for him. And as a switch-hitter with some experience in RF, Edman could provide his fair share in time there too.

Pages has been decent as L.A.’s center fielder, but at the end of the day he’s been more or less an average hitter in 2024. Edman has shown brig upside in his career, and with plenty of postseason experience under his belt, he can definitely challenge Pages for time in center down the stretch here.

Along with Edman, the Dodgers acquired another outfield option that could push for time in center due to his defense, and that is Kevin Kiermaier.

Kiermaier is one of the greatest defensive players in the last decade. And while he doesn’t offer much with the bat, as he’s hitting .195 this season, his defense immediately makes him the best primary outfield option for L.A.

So if the Dodgers opt to keep him around, given the fact he’s already been placed on waivers once this year, the four-time Gold Glover brings a 90 career outs above average total and a plethora of big league experience for young outfielders like Pages and Outman to the table.

The Bullpen

The Dodgers bullpen sits 15th in the league in fWAR. Not bad by any means, but just average, which is not a word often associated with the Dodgers.

With so many big time relievers on the trade market this year, the Dodgers had the opportunity to get punchy like other teams, such as the Baltimore Orioles, Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres, did ahead of this deadline.

But the acquisition of Michael Kopech from the White Sox, while certainly not nothing, isn’t the type of move that Carlos Estevez to the Phillies or Tanner Scott to the Padres were for example.

In 2024 with the White Sox, Kopech posted a 4.74 ERA, a 1.35 WHIP and a -0.2 fWAR in 43.2 innings out of the ‘pen.

Even though his his fastball velocity sits in the 99th percentile and his strikeout rate sits in the 93rd percentile in the league, Kopech is in just the third percentile in barrel rate, eighth percentile in walk rate and in the 37th and 32nd percentile respectively in average exit velocity and hard-hit rate.

So there are certainly flaws in his game that don’t appear to really push this bullpen out of mediocrity and into a more elite status like a bigger acquisition might have done.

A bigger name would have done wonders in joining the likes of Blake Treinen and Evan Phillips in the backend of the Dodger bullpen, where the latter, Phillips, has been rocky himself with a 4.18 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP in 2024.

Overall Takeaways of the Dodgers Deadline

The Dodgers at the very least addressed every hole in their roster. They added options that clearly upgrade their overall depth with Edman, Rosario and Kiermaier.

And they certainly added a big boost to their injury-ridden starting rotation with the acquisition of Flaherty.

But while they addressed their need for a reliever by bringing in Kopech, there was more opportunities to make a bigger move in the bullpen with the amount of big-time late-inning relievers that were on the market.

It was an overall active showing at the deadline by one of the league’s top contenders, but only time will tell if the Dodgers did enough to get them through the final stretch of the regular season and in a comfortable postseason position to set themselves up for a World Series run in 2024.