The Dodgers may have picked up a needed outfielder and starting pitcher from the A’s, but who LA traded away just makes this yet another confusing move. After a disappointing 2014 playoffs, the Dodgers hired Andrew Friedman as head of Baseball Ops, as well as Farhan Zaidi as the GM. The LA organization made this move knowing that Friedman being a former Ray, is an expert on growing pitchers in the farm system, and Zaidi is a moneyball guy. With that thought process, the media and MLB analysts gathered the thoughts of thinking that the Dodgers were going to go in the direction of growing players and looking more deeply into stats, instead of signing big money free agents. But, after LA just gave up two of their best pitching prospects (Grant Holmes and Frankie Montas) to Oakland, the direction of the Dodgers is still a head scratcher.
The biggest issue with being the LA Dodgers is that the fan base expects the team to compete every year, especially with the size of the Dodgers’ wallet. A team like LA can’t exactly rebuild, all the while missing the playoffs playing .500 ball. So, since LA has kept up in the playoff race this season, the front office abandoned the new direction, by trading away a couple pieces of the farm system in order to improve the major league roster, and chances of winning it all in 2016. When the season began, the Dodgers had 4 top of the crop pitching prospects all ranked in MLB Pipeline’s top 50, meaning those kids could have been an exact replay of what the Mets did with their 3-4 young pitching prospects (Steven Matz, Noah Syndergaard, Jacob Degrom, etc.) in 2015. Yes, the Dodgers got two good players in return from Oakland (Josh Roddick and Rich Hill), but thats not the point.
Josh Reddick is a nice talent to add to a very shallow outfield, but he is a free agent at the season’s end. Does that mean the Dodgers plan on resigning him? If so, that is yet another example of abandoning the new concept of a big market team growing talent instead of buying it; hence the Yankees. If the Yankees can do it with the fan base supportive of it, why not the Dodgers? Sure, LA hired former Blue Jays GM, Alex Anthopoulos to be the guy in charge of free agent signings since the Dodgers still have to somewhat cater to the title of “Big Market Team”, but they need to obtain those big stars without giving away core pieces in the minors. LA is already dealing with a lot of question marks and holes this season with things like injuries, underperforming starting players, and the shifting of positions like Kendrick playing left field, so why add to the confusion by trading away part of the plan in return for players to help the Dodgers reach the postseason, when LA isn’t going to win the Series anyway?
