At this point, it’s probably a given that the Los Angeles Dodgers will make at least a few moves at the 2023 MLB summer trade deadline. The big question, though, is whether the team will make a big splash having an immediate impact.
Several weeks ago, many fans felt that it could take a little time for the 2023 version of the Dodgers to develop. However, as the 50-game mark of the campaign approaches, it’s probably safe to say this is one of the most inconsistent teams we’ve seen in recent years. Although Los Angeles is barely holding on to first place in the NL West, it’s still hard to say how the rest of the field will shape up as the season progresses.
Regardless, the 2023 Dodgers certainly don’t have the feel of a club that blew past the MLB tax threshold over the winter to sign veteran outfielder David Peralta as a bench piece.
No question, the club has had its fair share of injuries, with some of the biggest blows being Walker Buehler, Dustin May, Daniel Hudson and most recently, Julio Urias. Even with the struggles to the pitching staff, the biggest problem might be the offense.
It appears like the team might be giving youngsters like James Outman and Miguel Vargas as much time as they need to develop, which is fine. The problem is that a whopping six regular players on the active roster are batting .240 or lower. The team’s combined .233 batting average is good enough for 23rd in the majors and second-to-last in the National League.
And if you really want to talk about inconsistency, Max Muncy could be the first MLB player ever to OPS over 1.000 while batting below the Mendoza line. Even if Gavin Lux is healthy, he wouldn’t be able to save this offense if he had his best year as a professional.
Still, at full health, one would think that front-office boss Andrew Friedman and his crew will be very active at this year’s trade deadline. If Urias and May come back at full force — which might be a big question mark for May — there still might not be enough horsepower in the rotation. There’s no way to tell how effective Syndergaard can be moving forward, and it’s probably safe to assume that Clayton Kershaw will make a visit to the injured list, whether for an actual injury or a phantom rest period.
Right now, the Dodgers are in the middle of the National League pack at seventh place with a 4.29 overall team ERA, and it’s difficult for most fans to remember when the team was anywhere outside the Top 5 in recent years. The combined bullpen ERA is 4.70, which is the worst mark in the National League aside from division rival San Francisco.
As far as additions go at the trade deadline, it’s tough to even guess where to start. Even if Hudson comes back — and an even darker dark horse with Blake Treinen — the club needs some effective relievers. Aside from Evan Phillips and maybe Caleb Ferguson, there’s nobody throwing remotely close to being trustworthy in high leverage spots.
Should the Dodgers wait for Ryan Pepiot and Michael Grove to regain health and see if they have enough firepower to contribute as legit starters down the stretch? Can Mookie Betts catch fire and carry the offense with Freddie Freeman? Can the team count on guys like Chris Taylor, Jayson Heyward and David Peralta to be solid contributors down the stretch?
Or, should the team blow past the salary cap even more and take a chance on a pricy deal at the summer deadline?
We should know in less than 10 weeks.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
Team has been a mystery to me sinse last fall. Went over the tax threshold, but didn’t sign anybody, kind of committed to a youth movement, but not really until injuries forced them. I think they know Outman is not a major leaguer, but he forced his way on the team. They had no outfielders in the system, so signed a few has-beens. Now the worst hitting team in NL. No pitchers in the system, so waiting for the over the hill gang to get off the injury list. Thor signing had potential as a fifth man, but that is not looking good. The career minor leaguers are on the injury list, so we will finally see miller, who only got out of double A because he was embarrassing management. So if we can find a shortstop, catcher, couple of outfielders, get mookie out of his funk and find a few pitchers well be OK. Did I mention the bullpen. Naw. Some other time.
Take your shots Jeff
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Well my friend, I’m not going to disagree with everything you’ve said, but I don’t see where you figure Outman isn’t a major leaguer. If you want to tell me he won’t be a starting outfielder, long term, I’ll disagree with that statement but I won’t laugh at it. But to say he isn’t a major leaguer?
He has as many RBI’s as Freddie Freeman, he has more homers than anyone on the team except Max and he’s hitting 46 points higher than Max. Only two guys have a higher batting average than he does.
Yes, he strikes out way too much but I’m betting he has a decent career. Maybe he’ll never be an All Star, maybe he won’t wind up spending a lot of years with the Dodgers, but he’ll have a career and he’ll be able to tell his kids and grandkids that he was a major leaguer.
Our pitching is totally decimated right now and we’re still in first place. Maybe this is the year we miss the playoffs altogether but I’m going to wait awhile to draw that conclusion.
Dennis, please make a note that on May 21st, Gordon was the first to realize that the Dodgers don’t stand a chance in 2023. 🙂
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Don’t stand a chance? I didn’t say that! They play in the NL west after all. Ok city could win that division. Unfortunately they won’t play half their games against those rubs anymore, only one third now so there goes 20 wins.
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I really have no clue why everyone seems to be writing off SD at this point. Probably just wishful thinking. They have a very good roster and they’re going to turn things around at some point. It’s just a matter of how big a lead they’ll have to make up when that happens.
People underestimate Arizona, although I think they’re still a year away, but they aren’t chopped liver.
So, I’m forced to disagree with you again, Gordon. I don’t think OKC could win this division. 🙂
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Actually Jeff what I was trying to say was the dodgers knew outman would only be a journeyman (and probably wouldn’t be on the opening roster) but he forced his way on to it.
He now has joined a long, long, long list of 6 week wonders. Those darn pitchers don’t take long to seperate the pretenders. But he has power, walks a bit plays ok defence and looks to me like a good solid 210 hitter. But you are right he’ll be around for a while. I mean look how long his brother, Clay Thompson has been around.
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Sometimes those journeymen turn out to be major assets. Look what happened with Justin Turner, just as one example.
As much as I like Trayce as a person, I definitely think Outman will have a better career. Of course, if he (Trayce) gets traded to a team that will let him hit against right handed pitchers instead of forcing him to take all of his AB’s against lefties, he might turn himself around again.
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Oops. Sorry Dennis. How can they be active at the trade deadline. Where would they start.
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Maybe they’ll start by DFAing Miguel Rojas and Trayce Thompson. 😉
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It’s even worse than the guys hitting below .240. Seven including bench guys are hitting below .215!!
No shift was supposed to result in higher batting averages. But here we are with Heyward at .214, Peralta .212, Muncy at .210, Rojas at .202 and Taylor at 191. And Barnes (.092) and Thompson (.109) are useless. Even defensively, Barnes has only thrown out 4 of 40 (10%) base stealers.
And the bullpen? Some of these were so good last year but Vesia, Almonte, Bickford, Jackson have been plain awful the majority of the time, while Phillips, Ferguson, Graterol, Gonzalez, Bruhl and Miller have been good or at least OK most of the time.
I always thought with the roster turn over, that this year would be challenging and to me if there is a silver lining with the rotation injuries, we get a chance to see if Stone, Miller, Pepiot, etc are the real thing. I still think Vargas will be better than Outman and be a solid offensive contributor. I like Outman but his propensity for striking out has really shown up lately.
An always hopeful Dodger Fan, even though there is a lot of negatively in this post.
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Negative (or maybe realistic) but hopeful. I can live with that.
I think our major problem right now is our starting pitching and all the injuries they’ve had. That has put a lot of stress on the bullpen and those guys are having to throw many more innings than they should, and that leads to bad results.
Vesia was sent down last year after having problems, cured himself and was great the rest of the year.
Bickford, as always, is a Jeckyll and Hyde.
Jackson’s worst performance was when they found out he was tipping his pitches. He’s actually had some pretty good outings and last time out went 3 great innings before tiring in his fourth inning.
I’m a big fan of Almonte’s but have no clue what’s going on with him. I think, if he’s not actually hurt, it’s time for a phantom injury. He doesn’t have any options left and I hope they don’t just cut him loose. In any case, they can’t just keep sending him out there.
Things will be really interesting today and tomorrow with Stone and Miller going against the Braves. Not exactly the easiest team to face, so I’m not expecting miracles.
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Well, somethings got to give. Thompson and Barnes are a complete waste of time and a roster spot. Heyward, Peralta, and Taylor are close behind. How long can the Dodgers carry so much dead weight?
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At this point Trayce has little to zero trade value. Maybe if he agreed to go down to AAA or even AA he could get his mojo back. It might be different sticking with him if he constantly was hitting line drives at fielders and being robbed of hits. It’s not. Without looking it up, he must be striking out close to half the time.
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78 plate appearances, 34 strikeouts, 13 walks, 7 hits (of which 4 are homers and 3 of those came in 1 game).
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Writing off SD could be like writing off STL, now hottest team in MLB. I do think their pitching staff has issues but their offense will likely come around. Hopefully our Dodgers will as well. I don’t think we can live on walks and HRs all season. Mookie for instance was a .300 career hitter while with Boston and a .260s hitter since joining LA. Too much emphasis on launch angle for too many players. IMO
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Their pitching hasn’t been great but it’s the offense that’s really been the cause of their poor record. It will definitely come around, although maybe only when they get to the playoffs. That didn’t work out too well for us last year.
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So removing the walks (his only good stat) he is striking out over 50% of at bats.
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I really don’t understand why he’s still on the roster, except that they must think that no one else they have in the system would do any better right now.
If Jonny DeLuca continues to do well at OKC, I think he’ll be the first in line to take Trayce’s spot (unless they make a trade first).
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Well that’s a sad comment on the farm system. DeLuca and pages both went to ok city. What happened to pages? And who’s spot is miller taking on the 40 man.
And why do you keep disagreeing with me. I’ve never been wrong before. Well maybe???
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Just because I always disagree with you doesn’t mean you’re wrong. Although that does make it pretty likely. 🙂
Pages played one game at OKC and went on to the IL. Hurt his shoulder taking a swing. They haven’t said if he was swinging at a baseball or a gnat that was in the batter’s box at the same time he was.
Hasn’t been announced yet who will be lopped off the 40 man to make room for Miller. But they have until tomorrow to figure that one out.
In the meanwhile, they’ve just dfa’d Suero to make room for Stone who starts tonight…………..unless it rains.
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Changing the subject, Barnes should be put on the IL for a “broken bat” and let’s see what the lefty hitting Feduccia can do? Is his D that bad? But as I said in another post Barnes SB percent of .100 is as bad as his batting average.
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Good line, “put on the IL for a broken bat”.
Feduccia has cooled off a bit so that may be part of the reason, but Barnes, no matter how poorly he plays, is somehow considered one of the pillars of this team. I don’t see him going anywhere this year. Eventually he’ll raise his batting average to .180 and the problem will be solved……………..or not.
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IMO, Feduccia should have been brought up, when Smith was on IL, instead of signing Austin Wynns.
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Well Gary.
Austin Wynns is a 36 year old, carreer minor leaguer, with a awful lot of potential. It just didn’t work out. Or it may have had something to do with the 40 man. In any event, Feduccia is obviously not part of the dodgers plans, and is just holding a spot for Cartaya, who now looks like he’ll never get out of Double A
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Pages is on 7 day IL. Wynns had to be put on 40 man just as Feduccia would have but I guess it was easier to just drop Wynns. Too bad because Feduccia deserved the chance. Cartaya is struggling big time in AA.
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Looks like they just recalled some righty pitcher named Taylor Scott.
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Keep developing Bobby Miller a good changeup to go with those hard 4 seam and sinkers and the Dodgers have something here. Kid has a big arm I love his fire on the mound. He’s got that killer mentality on the mound like Buehler does.
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