Outfielder Rumors: Friedman Wants To Move Somebody, But Likes Crawford a Bit Too Much

The outfield rumors are back with a vengeance. I guess they cease being rumors when your President of Baseball operations admits as much that he wants to move one of the said outfielders. Yasiel Puig is obviously not being moved. I shouldn’t even have to write that. But apparently anyone of the rest of the outfielders is open game, even Matt Kemp.

I don’t see how they are going to move any of them honestly. With their huge bloated contracts, it’s going to be difficult to con some other club into taking them. Kemp is owed over 100 million, Crawford is owed 62.5 million, Andre Ethier is due to collect 56 million. Hard to believe any club would want to take on those contracts, even if the Dodgers pay some of the salary.

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I still don’t think the Dodgers would trade Kemp. I hope not at least. But Friedman is worrying me here. It seems like he wants to keep the injury prone Carl Crawford, and deal Kemp. Here’s what he had to say about Crawford to Ken Gurnick….

"“In my mind, he had a good year,” he said of Crawford. “He’s an incredibly talented player.”"

Oh lord. Where do I begin with this? Of course he doesn’t want to move Crawford. Remember Crawford played for Friedman during their days with Tampa Bay. I was hoping Friedman would be beyond this type of favoritism, but it doesn’t sound like it.

All jokes aside here, I understand the Dodgers need to move an outfielder. They have one too many, and they want to clear a spot for top prospect Joc Pederson. By moving one of the outfielders they can possibly dump some salary, and address a need elsewhere. According to Friedman, this is their plan. Understandable.

But it sounds like he likes Crawford a little too much. If the Dodgers want to trade Crawford, or Ethier, I am fine with that. Even though Ethier has been a favorite of ours over here. But to trade Kemp and hold onto Crawford because you like him from past playing days? Not a good idea.

Even though Kemp has more trade value than Crawford does, the Dodgers should not be trading Kemp. Unless they were to receive some offer they couldn’t refuse, and even then I probably wouldn’t do it.

And this is no knock on Crawford. He’s still a good player that had a good year in 2014. He batted .300, stole 23 bases, and reminded us all that at times he can still not be rusty. You know he goes through these little healthy spurts. I remember he was playing fantastic before he messed up his ankle in May, around the time before Josh Beckett’s no-hitter.

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But there is no way the Dodgers should keep Crawford over Kemp. Not a chance. If they do they will regret it. Not right away maybe but at some point they will. But of course Crawford and Ethier have little to no trade value. Kemp has the biggest trade value but would be the toughest to move because of his contract.

Maybe the Dodgers should just release one of them and pay the rest of the contract? I just can’t see the Dodgers getting any value for these guys. Maybe the Dodgers can just give Crawford his release outright? That would throw the rest of Baseball for a loop. Surprise!

Crawford would probably be the best man to trade. He has more value than Ethier, and his contract is about half as large as Kemp’s is. They can get a decent return for Crawford, but they would have to eat some of his salary. Or take on another bad contract.

That’s another conversation for another day though. But Friedman did mention that he would be willing to take on another bad contract. Lord help us.

Now that I think about this, maybe the Dodgers should just keep the status quo. We know that Crawford will get hurt at some point during the season. Somebody else is going to get hurt too. It’s bound to happen. Then the surplus is a blessing.

Whatever happens we’ll find out how the new guys in the front office handle the hot stove, and this situation. It should be interesting if nothing else.