Although the Los Angeles Dodgers looked sharp in the first two games coming back from the All-Star break against the New York Mets, they couldn’t seal the deal in the finale on Sunday. The bats slowed down after running into old friend Max Scherzer, and the team eventually fell in extras, 2-1.
Over the next few weeks, the summer trade deadline will dominate most of the baseball blogosphere. We’ve been talking a lot about it here, but it’s still tough to say whether Los Angeles will make any significant moves because of the organization’s reluctance to trade away any high-level talent.
Even if the club decides to make a major splash, it’s hard to guess which area they might prioritize, as the offense, starting pitching and bullpen could stand for a high-impact addition or two. With many of the sellers across the league demanding major-league ready talent, it’s tough to say how far the Dodgers will go to make an upgrade, especially if the incoming player is only a rental for the remainder of the season.
We’ve seen some really strong production from Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman on offense in the weeks leading up to the All-Star break, but aside from J.D. Martinez, there really hasn’t been much of a supporting cast.
Catcher Will Smith was hitting .317/.419/.540 into the beginning of June, but he has slashed just .214/.349/.408 over his last 29 games and 126 plate appearances since. Similarly, Max Muncy can’t find a way to keep his head over the Mendoza Line, despite a somewhat respectable OBP thanks to his high number of walks. Despite is sure-handedness of defense, Miguel Rojas is OPSing just .560 with a little over 200 AB this year.
In a perfect world, the Dodgers would like their first five or six hitters to have some decent pop, but aside from Betts, Freeman, Martinez and the occasional contributions from Smith, the rest of the lineup flattens out.
Heading into the weekend, the Dodgers were a surprising sixth in the majors with a .331 team OBP, but they were 20th in the league with a .243 team average. Those numbers are a prime recipe for a club that’s great at getting base but struggles to drive runners home — one of the club’s biggest nemesis in recent years.
The thing about the offense is that there’s really no players returning from injury who might upgrade the lineup, similar to how Julio Urias has boosted the rotation. We saw the addition of outfielder Jake Marisnick last week, but adding a 32-year-old journeyman with minimal pop and a .228 career average isn’t going to make much of a difference.
Whatever the case may be, it will certainly be interesting to watch front-office boss Andrew Friedman’s approach as he prepares his club for the stretch run of the 2023 season.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
Think you pretty much nailed it Dennis. Past few Seasons we’ve gone into the trade deadline, needing a starter, bench piece, bullpen addition to bolster a strong lineup with world series ambitions. Lots if good rental additions to a already strong lineup. This year we have holes everywhere and a depleted farm system, so I don’t see the point in chasing rentals. We can’t fill all the holes so let’s roll with what we have. Post season results couldn’t be any worse than the past 10 years. A Seasoned pitcher would be nice ,unless you believe the prospects (one of them) is the solution, and that’s a long shot, but that still leaves the infield and outfield problems. Worse teams than this have beaten us in the post Season so let’s go with what we got.
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Good points, but what they traded for at the deadline last season sucked. Gallo was a total bust. They need so much this year that one trade is not going to fix anything. Their biggest hope is that what they get back, Kersh, Syndergaard, Buehler, and a couple relievers, are in good enough shape to help the team. But I do think they will at least go shopping for one middle of the rotation starter and maybe a RH power bench bat.
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Don’t really need a right handed bat anymore. We have Marisnick!!!
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Oh joy. Not! Marisnick is a place holder nothing more. I expect less out of him than Gallo. At least he added gold glove defense and did hit some homers.
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I think the offense could be better with Muncy batting 6th or lower in the order. Hell, bat him 9th so his high OBP gets him on for Betts and Freeman. 4 and 5 holes are for driving in runs. Walks do not drive in many runs.
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Muncy sucked again last night. His act is getting very hard to watch. Vargas went 4-5 last night in OKC’s win. He is hitting .462 right now. Marisnick to the IL with hammy problems.
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Maybe we should send Max to the Cubs so they can fix him like they did Belli.
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Bob Van Scoyak’s uncle is the hitting coach in Chicago. Never played an inning of baseball past junior high school.
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I assume you’re kidding Schlossman, but with you I’m never really certain. 🙂
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If he cannot turn it around by August 1, he should be dropped in the order, or pulled from the starting lineup. I would start Taylor over him at third at this point.
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I think you might see that today, not as a permanent thing but Doc might just decide to give Max 2 days off (travel day tomorrow).
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I hope so. The Cubs new hitting coach, Dustin Kelly, played 3 seasons in the minors. He was a light hitting infielder. He was drafted by Boston in 2004. He spent 3 seasons, 2018-2020 in the Dodgers system. At low and high A ball. Dustin was the hitting coordinator for two years in the Cubs system before replacing Greg Brown this year. Neither is related to Van Shlock.
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No such luck. He is batting third and playing third. Smith is the DH in the four hole. JD is sitting down, Barnes, the human out machine is catching and hitting, er, taking up roster space in the 9 hole.
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Don’t ever say Doc doesn’t listen to the fans. We’ve been screaming that Max shouldn’t be batting cleanup so he moved him to the 3rd spot. That’s being responsive to the fanbase.
I promise you that Barnes will have a hit today, quite possibly a game winner, and if I’m wrong………………………..
never mind, I’m never wrong.
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If .200 is the Mendoza line, what’s .100. Barnes is awful.
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It’s the Barnes line, of course.
He hit a shot on his second at bat that would have been a homer in 29 MLB parks. The only exception was Baltimore. It was caught on the warning track.
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His throwing arm isn’t much better than his bat.
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That’s why I’ve decided we shouldn’t convert him to a third baseman or right fielder.
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Yay, Muncy actually hit the ball hard. But this loss is all on Julio. Who is the clown wearing his uniform? That guy sucks.
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