Dodgers: The great trade deadline dilemma of 2019

For the first time in the last three seasons, the two-time defending National League Champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers, did not acquire any top talent available by the 2019 trade deadline.

The Dodgers’ brass faced a mighty task in fighting with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The rare gold booty our hero-Dodgers’ desired? None other than the World Series Championship.

Did our captain, Andrew Friedman, make the right decision in battle? Why would the evil Pirates hold Felipe Vazquez hostage? Find out this and more, in our latest edition of The Great Trade Deadline Dilemma: 2019.

Daunting right? Please allow me to snap back into reality.

Background

When any team approaches the deadline there’s typically a glaring improvement that needs to be addressed or the front-office feels confident enough with the team remaining in front of them after the long grind of a more than half of the MLB season.

During Spring Training this year, the head of baseball operations, Andrew Friedman, claimed that the 2019 version of the Dodgers were, at the time “without weakness.” I agreed with him then and I still mostly agree with him now.

Back in late-February, I argued that because the regular season hadn’t yet started, the team’s only real measure of assessing talent was through the evaluation of the team on paper. Of course, now that it’s early-August, the same methods of self-evaluation today cannot be the same as they were during Spring Training.

Injuries are inevitable. Personnel changes can sometimes alter a team’s season. Even the in-house stuff, such as the infamous “Joc Pederson experiment” at 1st base, can severely affect the outcome of an entire season.

It’s how the team, management, and the front-office deal with these issues that separates the winners from the losers, especially at this point in the regular season. Fans and management alike look to possible trades to solve a team’s weakness – whether foreseen or not.

The Dodgers’ Weakness

One moderately important issue that loomed large for Dodgers’ brass was, of course, the bullpen. With the best starting rotation in Major League Baseball, Dodger fans and players alike are rightfully concerned with losing games late and blowing leads.

More specifically, the Dodgers acquired lefty specialist Adam Kolarek at the trade deadline which was the only reliever they added.  The club needed left-handed relief after Caleb Ferguson was optioned to AAA and Scott Alexander was transferred over to the 60 day IL.

Of course, Julio Urias is a frontrunner for late-inning work down the stretch. However, as most MLB fans know, not everything is certain.  So it’s fair to assume that Dodger fans wanted another lefty reliever and (of course) an elite one.

Felipe Vazquez

Arguably the best left-handed reliever in baseball short of Aroldis Chapman is Felipe Vazquez of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Vazquez represented a token of near certainty for the backend of the Dodgers’ bullpen.

In the eyes of Dodgers fans, execs, and anyone within ear-shot of the heavily reported rumors, the acquisition of Felipe Vazquez would virtually guarantee the Dodgers a World Series trophy.

Amongst those within ear-shot, none other than the Pittsburgh Pirates. They made it their organization’s mission to charge whoever wanted Vazquez an arm, leg, and who knows what else,  for what nearly everyone already envisioned: the World Series Championship.

Gavin Lux, aka left-handed-hitting Superman, was, without question, the very thing the Pirates had their black hearts set on.

Past history in adding a top closer

In the last World Series that didn’t include the Dodgers (2016), the Chicago Cubs acquired Aroldis Chapman from the Yankees for Gleyber Torres. At the time of the 2016 deadline trade, Torres was undoubtedly revered as the consensus #1 prospect in baseball. Now he’s the crown jewel centered into the proverbial brick of the Yankees’ foundation and therefore, long-term future.

We all know how that move worked for everyone. The Cubbies won their first World Series in over 400 years and the Yanks acquired the #1 prospect in all of baseball. If you happened to look up the definition of a “win-win” situation, both of their smiling faces will be pictured.

I mention the 2016 trade because the similarities of the two are uncanny. Chapman and Vazquez are arguably ranked #1A and #1B, respectively, in a list of top lefty relievers. With that near-identical comparison, Gavin Lux and Geyber Torres (circa 2016) are just as close.

However, I’d rank Lux now ahead of Torres then. Just because mlb.com had Torres ranked #1 in MLB (in 2016) and Gavin Lux is currently ranked #10, doesn’t mean that Torres is automatically better.

The Dodgers Made the Right Decision

According to my argument that Lux is better than Torres and Chapman was better than Vazquez is, it follows that Andrew Friedman and the Dodgers did indeed make the right decision. 

A club’s philosophy when evaluating the importance of future vs. present makes all the difference in the world whether a move is made or not.

I wasn’t in Chicago during the 2016 World Series but I’m extremely confident that the Cubs felt far more pressure to win it all in 2016 and certainly far more pressure then than the Dodgers do right now.

Because of that desperation, Aroldis Chapman wasn’t a frivolous acquisition, he was a necessity.

He wasn’t brought in because the Cubs wanted to “fine-tune” their roster. The Cubs gave up their #1 prospect and the #1 prospect in baseball because, without Chapman, the Cubs weren’t 100% confident they’d win it all and finally give their fanbase what’d been missing over 100 years: the ring.

The 2016 Cubs and the 2019 Dodgers are not in the same boat. The Dodgers have a bevy of future stars simply waiting in the ranks. Dave Roberts is still very young for a manager. From the insertion of Robert Van Scoyoc into the Dodgers’ organization, the hitters have flourished exponentially. The fanbase expects to win, sure, but our fanbase is not the Cubs.

Our fans aren’t rabidly foaming at the mouth for a championship ring. We expect a championship, of course, but the difference between the two is: Dodgers’ fans know that the next 5-10 years are in extremely capable hands throughout all aspects of an organization. If for whatever reason, the Dodgers don’t win it all, there’s not a single iota of doubt that next year won’t be the year.

Dodgers’ fans expect to win this year and for the next decade. That is the major difference between the Cubs’ and Dodgers’ franchises.

Common Misconception

In addition to franchise philosophy, the mere expectation of “going all in” for a World Series Championship at the deadline is as all Dodger fans should know by now-quite frankly asinine.

If the last two attempts at the World Series haven’t taught us anything by now, we’ll never learn. Yu Darvish and Manny Machado were cancerous for the Dodgers. Darvish folded like a cheap suit the moment any pressure came his direction. And Manny Machado acted like a listless teenager whose daddy had taken away his driving and phone privileges for the summer.

In fact, given the chemistry that both teams (2017 & 2018) had before acquiring Machado and Darvish, it makes one wonder just how well we would’ve done without those two.

The 2019 Dodgers have been a force of nature this season. The Dodgers didn’t need another lefty bullpen arm because they’ve been winning all season long without an effective one. Plus the club did acquire a lefty arm in Adam Kolarek.

Time will undoubtedly prove his value but I cannot imagine a scenario where Adam Kolarek will hurt us more than Yu Darvish and/or Manny Machado did.

The Dodgers’ Future (Immediate and Long Term)

Walker Buehler will only get better over the next 5-10 years. Clayton Kershaw has only been better from the second he realized that his stuff isn’t what it used to be. He just passed Sandy Kofax for the third most strikeouts in Dodgers’ history.

Something tells me we haven’t seen the best of this new-Kersh. His season, thus far, has reminded me of Jamie Moyer’s renaissance with the Seattle Mariners back in the late 90’s to early 2000s. Moyer had several solid seasons with the M’s (not all of them of course) and added another 8-10 years to his career once he learned to pitch almost entirely offspeed.

Rich Hill is another perfect example of starting pitchers who find their fountain of youth by soft-tossing. It’s all about deception for pitchers and perception for hitters. Clayton Kershaw can play magician for another 8-10 years so long as his back holds up.

Smart starters realize their limitations, change their approach accordingly, and once they’ve reached that age where they can no longer dial it up, they embrace it. Kershaw may be the smartest pitcher ever to ever play the game. Scary.

Corey Seager will only improve as he moves further away from his surgeries. Cody Bellinger’s ceiling is still a few years from being reached. Will Smith could potentially find himself in next year’s All-Star Game (in LA by the way) and every year after.

In Conclusion

I can name another fifteen reasons why Dodger fans should have the utmost confidence in this organization now and for the next decade. But that’s not the purpose of this article (maybe one in the future).

The Dodgers’ front-office obviously believed that the Pirates’ ask was too much. I think the Pirates ask was too much. Therefore, I believe that the Dodgers’ made the right call. However (as with anything), only time will tell.  All Dodgers’ fans can do from here on out is simply sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.