Dodgers: Four Dodgers who may find themselves on the trade block

Scott Van Slyke, OF/1B

Scott has been a part of the Dodgers organization since his 2012 rookie season. He’s been mainly utilized in a pinch-hitting role and as a backup outfielder or first baseman for his entire career. But has he been a productive one?

In the lone year that Van Slyke had a respectable season (2014), he was an intricate part of the Dodgers bench. That season Van Slyke hit .297 with 11 home runs and 29 RBI in 98 games. Those are quality numbers coming off the bench and taking an occasional spot start for Adrian Gonzalez. But since then? Let’s just say it’s been a whole lot of nothing from Van Slyke.

In his last three seasons (2015-2017) in a bench role with the Dodgers, Van Slyke is hitting .195 with nine home runs and 40 RBI in 365 at-bats. If you add that to the amount of time he’s spent on the DL because of reoccurring injuries, he’s lost his worth to the Dodgers. Yet, Dave Roberts still gave Scotty a roster spot coming out of spring training to open the year.

So why does a trade make sense? Despite his underachieving production with the Dodgers the last three seasons, Van Slyke is still an MLB talent that could prove valuable for another club. Both Van Slyke and the Dodger could both benefit from a change of scenery.

For the Dodgers, they could reasonably get a lower tier minor leaguer to either use as an asset of build up on their farm system. For Van Slyke, he could benefit by possibly having an opportunity to play every day. While I don’t think many teams would value Van Slyke as an everyday first baseman or outfielder, his power upside presence enough of an upside for a team to take a flyer on him.

Van Slyke is 30-years old and soon to be 31. He doesn’t demand much on the payroll and is only under contract until the end of this season. I think he can find a new home and make something out of the back end of his career.

Trayce Thompson, OF

Surprise, surprise, another outfielder. Thompson is an interesting option for the Dodgers. He’s only 26 years-old and has only been in the Dodgers organization for a year and a half.

Thompson was acquired in the three-team trade that landed the White Sox Todd Frazier who they are now reportedly trying to trade. Thompson is still a viable talent within the Dodgers organization, so if the Dodgers were to part ways with him, they should be able to pull in a nice return.

Why would the Dodgers trade Trayce Thompson? Well, supply and demand. When I say the Dodgers have an excess of outfielders, I mean they have a surplus of outfielders. Yasiel Puig, Joc Pederson, Andrew Toles, Rob Segedin, Franklin Gutierrez, Scott Van Slyke, Brett Eibner, and give or take Andre Ethier if you think he’ll ever play another inning in a Dodger uniform. That’s eight outfielders, and I didn’t even start to mention the outfield talent the team has in the minors with Alex Verdugo (3), Yusniel Diaz(6), or even DJ Peters (19).

I’m not saying Trayce Thompson by any means resembles traits of a bad player. The truth is that he hasn’t had enough of a sample size to prove how good he can be. The issue here is, will he ever get the opportunity with the Dodgers organization.

As an MLB ready 26-year old talent, this is another scenario where both parties could benefit from a trade. Although Trayce probably wouldn’t want to live his home state of California, if the Dodgers are looking for something in the open market, they may not have a better MLB ready talent that they could be okay parting ways with than Thompson.

Hyun-Jin Ryu, Starting Pitcher (LHP)

Nothing directly correlated to his performance this season, but I think he makes the most sense out of all the starting pitchers that could be traded. Ryu is only 30-years old and is coming off of three seasons of not throwing a baseball more than ten innings in a season. While, some organizations could see that as a red flag, other could see that as a fresh arm.

We saw the type of pitcher Ryu could be for the Dodgers during his first two rookie seasons.  But those years were long ago and the issue after that has been his inability to stay healthy. Now I think Ryu has a greater chance of being traded by the Dodgers over Brandon McCarthty or Scott Kazmir because he’s younger and his terms of his contract. Ryu has an option due after this season and is only scheduled to be paid a little less than 8M. You add that to the fact that he’s in his early 30’s, it’s way more feasible to create a trade package for Ryu than McCarthy (33) or Kazmir (33) and their collective overpaid contracts.

Ryu provides teams assuming the risk on his health a productive middle of the rotation left-handed pitcher at a respectable price. The Dodgers could bring in a nice return whether it be a bullpen arm that could help with postseason experience or a right-handed bat that could continue to improve their team average against left-handed pitching. The beauty about this trade is that the Dodgers could take Ryu off the books for next season and open up 8M to allocate during the 2018 offseason. I’d hate to see him go, but again it’s another case of supply and demand, the Dodgers certainly have the supply of left-handed starting pitchers and we know there’s a market for left-handed starters.

Kike Hernandez, OF/INF

This is the least likely move out of all the previous names.  But it needs to be said that Hernandez is emerging as a serious asset for the Dodgers, both on the club and as a trade chip for other teams.

Hernandez is the Dodgers super utility guy on their roster and could play virtually anywhere. With the recent emergence of Chris Taylor, it will be up to the front office if they would be willing to offer Kike’s role to Taylor moving forward. This again, like most the problems the Dodgers have, is a good problem for Andrew Friedman to have.

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While I think Taylor has done enough as a hitter to stay with the big leagues club, Taylor’s defense leaves a lot to be desired for the Dodgers to make that large of a commitment to him. Not to mention Hernandez has had a nice start to a  bounce back 2017 season. So I think there’s reason to believe that he has some solid value on the market.

But again, I don’t see this happening. But if it did, one reason why it may be an option for Freidman is because after this season Hernandez will be eligible for arbitration. Although he hasn’t set the world on fire, he’s been reliable and could demand some real money between the 6M to 9M range.

I could see Kike’s name come up in rumors if the Dodgers are trying to land a big trade. A deal that would consist of trading MLB ready talent for big name players who are on noncontending teams. A trade along the line of Trayce Thompson, Kike Hernandez, and a prospects or two for the service of Ryan Braun or Jose Quintana.

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But even so, I wouldn’t get too crazy about including Kike in trade rumors even with a big trade looming. I see Hernandez as a contributing aspect to a championship club. Not everyone on the roster needs to be able to mash 30 home runs or hit .320. But every team could use a personality that keeps the team interested in the long season, and that’s what Hernandez is to the Dodgers.