Trade Deadline Outlook: Los Angeles Dodgers

MLBTR kicked off its team-by-team look at the trade deadline in the Bronx and now goes to Hollywood. The Dodgers are the clearest win-now club there is. They are coming off two straight World Series victories and are looking to be just the fifth threepeat in MLB history and the first since the Yankees from 1998 to 2000. That being said, they don’t always go for the jugular at the deadline.

Record: 52-29 (100% playoff probability, per FanGraphs)

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Potential needs: Starting pitching, relief pitching, utility

Despite all their recent success, the Dodgers usually don’t win the deadline. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman has said that he doesn’t like paying the inflated prices that come with the frenzied bidding, particularly for relievers. Though the Dodgers have nabbed the last two titles, their most recent championship followed a very quiet deadline. They actually traded Dustin May to the Red Sox for prospects, which is more of a seller move. Their big additions were complementary pieces like reliever Brock Stewart, outfielder Alex Call and catcher Ben Rortvedt.

They were more aggressive in 2024, however, adding Jack Flaherty, Tommy Edman, Michael Kopech, Amed Rosario and Kevin Kiermaier, though they also traded James Paxton to the Red Sox in exchange for a prospect, a similar move to the May trade.

At the moment, the pitching staff looks like it could use some upgrading, though that’s not really abnormal for the Dodgers. The club is generally willing to sign injury-prone players and then be very patient with their recoveries in the summer. Broadly speaking, they are fine with a guy missing huge chunks of the regular season if he is healthy by October, since that’s what really matters for the Dodgers. They’re not really worried about missing the playoffs, so the regular season games don’t matter nearly as much.

At the moment, 11 arms are currently on the club’s injured list, including big names like Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, Edwin Díaz, Blake Treinen and Evan Phillips. However, each of those guys is expected back in the second half.

At the moment, the Dodgers have Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto at the front of the rotation but things get flimsy after that. Eric Lauer has a 2.54 ERA for the club but a 5.22 FIP and 4.98 SIERA. Justin Wrobleski has a 2.71 ERA but a 3.62 FIP and 4.63 SIERA. Both Lauer and Wrobleski have benefited from very fortunate luck in terms of batting average on balls in play and strand rate. Emmet Sheehan and Roki Sasaki each have ERAs near 5.00.

Upgrading that group could be a target, in theory, but the eventual returns of Snell and Glasnow might address the rotation internally. If the Dodgers expect to have a playoff rotation of Yamamoto, Ohtani, Snell and Glasnow, they won’t feel compelled to make big additions there. Similarly, the bullpen looks like it could use some work right now but the Dodgers probably feel that the returns of Diaz, Treinen and Phillips will negate the need to give up prospects for external additions. Once the rotation is healthier, they could indirectly help the bullpen if someone like Sasaki gets moved into a relief role.

There are dozens of arms they could target but it’s possible they surprise with modest adds. Would anyone have predicted Stewart to be their only pitching acquisition last year? It’s also probably best not to take anything off the table. This is the Dodgers, after all. They could do something big if they really wanted to. For instance, though their playoff rotation already looks good on paper, why not make a run at Tarik Skubal? If they really want the three-peat, they could put their foot on the gas. They could add to their already-strong bullpen by getting Aroldis Chapman.