Undeniably, the biggest question surrounding the Los Angeles Dodgers a few weeks before spring training is how the team will decide to handle the third base spot, at least to begin the season.
Joctober will longer be, at least not in a Dodger uniform, as Joc Pederson’s six-year tenure with the Los Angeles Dodgers officially ended Friday morning.
The announcement for the National Baseball Hall of Fame inductions took place on Tuesday afternoon. For the first time since 2013, no players received 75% of the votes required to be inducted. Curt Schilling was the closest missing out by 16 votes. Behind Schilling, were Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.
Another week closer to spring training, and we might finally start to have some news about what the season will look like, as far as the National League is concerned.
The baseball family lost another great Friday morning when the great home run king Hank Aaron passed away at 86 years old. He finished his career with 755 total home runs, a record that stood until in 2017. Aaron spent most of his career with the Braves and Brewers. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982 in his first year of eligibility. Aaron was also an avid Civil Rights Activist. It has been a tough week for baseball fans, as just couple of days ago we also lost the great Don Sutton.
A name that has been in many trade rumors lately has been Reds pitcher Luis Castillo. There were rumblings recently that circulated through social media that he was on his way to the Yankees, but that rumor turned out to be false.
Before the weekend began, there was quite a bit of news circulating about the Los Angeles Dodgers. The organization landed several of the best international prospects on the market while a few of the arbitration-eligible players settled their respective contracts for the upcoming season. Two other players—pitchers Pedro Baez and Alex Wood—landed contracts with perhaps two of the franchise’s biggest rivals.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have spent this offseason fortifying their bullpen, acquiring guys like Corey Knebel, Tommy Kahnle, and Garrett Cleavinger, while also re-signing Blake Treinen and Scott Alexander.
The offseason period picked up this week for the Los Angeles Dodgers with the arbitration-eligible settlements and the international signings as the headlines.