The wait is almost over. The trade deadline is two days away, and the real question Dodgers fans want to know is will Noah Syndergaard, Edwin Diaz, Felipe Vasquez, or even Shane Greene be wearing Dodger blue?
With the trade deadline just a approaching fast, the Dodgers will be able to start to map out their postseason roster.
While the team will almost certainly bolster their bullpen, and possibly add a starter in the coming days, the postseason roster is already starting to take its form.
Before we try to predict this year’s roster, let’s take a look at last year’s World Series roster for reference.
C: Yasmani Grandal, Austin Barnes
1B: David Freese, Max Muncy
2B: Brian Dozier, Enrique Hernandez
SS: Manny Machado
3B Justin Turner
OF: Cody Bellinger, Chris Taylor, Joc Pederson, Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig
SP (4): Clayton Kershaw, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Walker Buehler, Rich Hill
RP (8): Scott Alexander, Pedro Baez, Dylan Floro, Kenta Maeda, Julio Urias, Alex Wood, Ryan Madson, Kenley Jansen
Barring any trades for an offensive player, it should be fairly easy to predict this year’s position players. With Grandal, Barnes (hopefully), Dozier, Machado, Kemp, and Puig gone, that leaves six spots open on offense for this year’s team.
Will Smith, Corey Seager, Alex Verdugo, and AJ Pollock are locks, and you would assume the team chooses Russell Martin as their second catcher given Barnes’ demotion to AAA Oklahoma City.
Sticking to last year’s slots, that leaves one spot. Given his production and clutch hitting, I lean towards giving it to Matt Beaty, however, it’s not that cut and dry. I wouldn’t be so quick as to rule out Tyler White just yet. He has some time to prove himself worthy of earning a spot on the postseason roster as a right-handed bat off the bench, but I predict it would be hard to leave Beaty off at this point. And then, of course, there’s the possibility that the team does, in fact, call up Gavin Lux and the 2016 first-round draft pick forces the team’s hand and he plays himself onto the roster.
The real enigma right now is what the Dodgers playoff pitching staff will look like.
We know Hyun-Jin Ryu, Walker Buehler, and Clayton Kershaw will be three of the starters, but we aren’t sure who will round out the playoff rotation just yet. Will Rich Hill come back in time and return to form before the postseason? Will it be Ross Stripling, Kenta Maeda or Julio Urias? Will Dustin May or Tony Gonsolin get the chance to prove themselves worthy before September? Or will the team add a starter, possibly Noah Syndergaard or Robbie Ray?
Moving on to the bullpen, the biggest question mark of them all.
Last year the team carried eight relievers, and as of now, the only shoe-ins we know will be in the bullpen for the Dodgers come postseason time are Kenley Jansen, Joe Kelly, Kenta Maeda, and Pedro Baez. I purposely left off Julio Urias and Ross Stripling because there is a possibility one of them will be the team’s fourth starter. However, those two will certainly be on the roster in some capacity, that role is just unclear at this time. It’s possible Maeda is that fourth starter, but the team does love him out of the bullpen, so I’m penciling him in there.
That leaves two open spots. You have to figure Andrew Friedman is going to make a trade for bullpen help in the coming days, and you would hope so because I am not so sure I can give my vote of confidence to awarding those two spots to Yimi Garcia, Caleb Ferguson, Casey Sadler, Josh Sborz or JT Chargois. Dylan Floro and Scott Alexander are also possibilities, but they are currently on the injured list.
Out of that bunch, Sadler and Chargois have performed the best lately, but I firmly believe the team needs to acquire at least one, preferably two bullpen arms in the next few days to at the very least, make it a competition for those last two roster spots.
The Dodgers signed former Red Sox reliever Tyler Thornburg on Monday, but with a 7.71 ERA this season for Boston, he’s going to need to prove himself plenty before even being considered.
The guy I would love to see the team go out and grab is Mets closer Edwin Diaz, who despite his high ERA, still has some of the nastiest stuff in the game. 13 of his 22 earned runs this season came in three outings, and if you took out those three games from his season, his ERA would be just above 2.00.
As Mike Petriello of MLB.com pointed out, the gap between Diaz’s BABIP (batting average on balls in play) and expected BABIP is the 8th largest out of 382 qualified pitchers — meaning the Mets below-average defense and positioning is partially to blame for some his struggles this season. Petriello also points out that his slider has been at the root of his struggles this year, and if he can get a hold on it, he should return to his 2018 dominance where he racked up 57 saves with a 1.96 ERA.
He’s under contract, a cheap one at that, through 2022, and his fastball sits at 97 mph and could be an incredibly valuable weapon to help Kenley Jansen, who’s struggled at times this season, at the backend of the bullpen.
As of today, it’s been reported that the Dodgers are in on Diaz, and given Andrew Friedman’s last two trade deadlines, you can never rule him out of landing a big fish. After poaching away Manny Machado and Yu Darvish the last two seasons, I wouldn’t rule out him putting together a package for BOTH Syndergaard and Diaz.
Blue Jays closer Ken Giles is still on the market, and he’s been having a career year. He did have some postseason demons two years ago when he was with the Astros, but wouldn’t it be oh so sweet to see him overcome those AGAINST those very Astros this year pitching for the Dodgers?
Felipe Vasquez of the Pirates would be exactly what the Dodgers need, a left-handed lockdown reliever, but his asking price seems to be way too steep for Friedman. It’s still being reported the team would ask for two of the Dodgers’ top four prospects (Ruiz, Smith, May, Lux), and for a reliever, that is just simply too much. I don’t see a universe in which Friedman surrenders two of those guys just for a reliever, and he shouldn’t. If they can pry him away offering up a package based solely on Ruiz (looks to be the odd man out with Smith called up), now that would be something to explore.
Rumors linking the Dodgers to Tigers closer Shane Greene have been circulating for weeks now, and he’s definitely someone to keep an eye on in the next two days. He’s posted a 1.22 ERA this season with 22 saves in 37 innings.
Giants closer Will Smith would be a perfect fit, but I don’t see Giants GM and old friend Farhan Zaidi selling much at this point, or Friedman forking up prospects to the rival Giants, either.
Some other names still available to fill out the Dodgers bullpen include:
Alex Colome (CHW), Raisel Iglesias (CIN) Mychal Givens (BAL), Seth Lugo (NYM), Sam Dyson (SF), Reyes Moronta (SF), Justin Wilson (NYM), Daniel Hudson (TOR), Joe Biagini (TOR), Chris Martin (TEX) and Jose LeClerc (TEX).
All that being said, the only real uncertainty for the mapping out the Dodgers postseason roster are those last 2 spots in the bullpen, and who will be the team’s fourth starter. Expect those questions to be answered in the next two days.
As of now, here’s what we have
C: Smith, Martin
1B: Muncy, Freese,
2B: Taylor, Hernandez
SS: Seager
3B: Turner
OF: Bellinger, Pederson, Verdugo, Pollock
+ Beaty/White/Lux???
SP: Ryu, Buehler, Kershaw, ???
RP: Kelly, Baez, Jansen, Maeda, Urias, Stripling, ???, ???
Strap your seatbelts on because this is about to get real interesting.
Featured Image Credit: Jim McIsaac/Getty Images