Division-by-division Dodgers trade targets: AL Central

As the Dodgers continue to run unopposed at the top of the NL West, the AL Central is one of the evenest divisions in the game.

The Cleveland Indians and the Minnesota Twins both won over 90 games last season, and both have made the playoffs with a limited degree of consistency over the last couple of years, especially when compared to Dodgers rivals like the San Francisco Giants or Colorado Rockies. But outside of these two teams, the rest of the division is in a rebuilding and retooling phase much like the NL West.

The Chicago White Sox may lose first baseman José Abreu to free agency this offseason, and the rest of their offense is young and still needs to prove it is consistent. The Kansas City Royals and Detriot Tigers are even further from contention, and thus are even more unlikely to want MLB-ready pieces from the Dodgers beyond depth pieces who could provide surplus value.

The teams that match up best with the Dodgers for trades may actually be some of the competitors, as while the Twins and Indians both are playoff contenders, they lack the depth pieces the Dodgers have. The non-contenders in the AL Central are mostly prospect-heavy, which could be interesting for a Dodgers front office that loves to restock the system whenever possible.

As the offseason grinds to a slowdown preceding the Winter Meetings, I’ll be going through each division in the MLB and determining potential trade targets (and discounting some along the way) and creating potential trades for them that the Dodgers front office could do.

Thus, in this article, I’ll focus on trade targets from the Indians, Twins, and the rest.

Francisco Lindor, Corey Kluber, Brad Hand

The Indians have plenty of things going for them in 2020. They’ll have a studly closer, a solid bullpen, and a core group of infielders and starting pitching. The main area where the Indians struggle is in the outfield, where one of their everyday second-half outfielders, Yasiel Puig, is probably headed elsewhere.

That makes the Dodgers a solid trade partner, as LA has plenty of depth to deal from in the outfield, from AJ Pollock to less everyday players like Matt Beaty or Chris Taylor.

No matter who the Dodgers have though, the team will certainly be targetting one or all three of the Indians stars I mention above.

Lindor makes a lot of sense for the Dodgers, as I laid out just a last week. Especially if the package headed back to Cleveland involves both infielders and outfielders. To acquire a player of Lindor’s caliber and pedigree, I feel Corey Seager would need to be the centerpiece. But outside of Seager, Taylor may be a piece of significant importance to an Indians team that needs depth.

Beyond Lindor, both Hand and Kluber would make sense as players for the Dodgers to target. Both have been connected to the Dodgers before, with Hand being a trade deadline option and Kluber being an option last offseason.

If the Dodgers had to choose between one or the other, they’d likely lean towards Hand, mostly because his prospect cost and actual monetary cost would be far lower than that of Kluber’s. Hand makes $7 million in 2020 and has a $10 million team option for 2021 before becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2022. He’d add a left-handed edge to the backend of the bullpen, giving LA an Andrew Miller type reliever around the prime of his career.

The only reason to favor Kluber would be that starting pitching is at potentially a historical premium at this point, especially after the Nationals and Astros both reached the World Series thanks to their starting rotations. Adding Kluber would give the Dodgers a big three, especially since they are likely to lose Hyun-Jin Ryu to free agency.

The Rest of the AL Central

Outside of the Indians and Twins, there are few solid targets to be found in the AL Central, at least upon first look, but these teams all have some interesting depth pieces and bullpen arms.

As of today, the White Sox two highest-paid players are relievers (Alex Colome and Kelvin Herrera), which could prove problematic for their pocketbooks, as they seek to sign a major free agent after missing out on Manny Machado last offseason.

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Both Colome and Herrera are set to make $8.5 million or more in 2020, but while Colome is only under contract for this coming season, Herrera, a World Series winner with the Kansas City Royals, has an extra year, as he’s set to hit the market after the 2021 season.

For the Dodgers, Herrera’s postseason pedigree and the extra year make him more exciting, though Colome has as much closing experience and will likely allow the Dodgers to forgo giving up any major prospects to eat his contract.

The Tigers are in a similar situation to the White Sox, with two players making the majority of the payroll, but the Tigers have $55 million locked up instead of less than $20 million. In theory, they’d want a chance to dump some of that salary, making Jordan Zimmerman the perfect player for them to move. The Dodgers could take a shot on Zimmerman, who has a no-hitter and plenty of experience being successful in the National League.

Adding Zimmerman for some mid-level pitching prospects could give the Dodgers the next Brandon Morrow or Wade Davis, as both of these star relievers were converted starters. Adding Zimmerman would mean a significant salary would leave Detroit, which, like the Cincinnati Reds last offseason, could lead to a decent prospect haul, something like Jeter Downs and Josiah Gray, back to LA.

Regardless of which AL Central team the Dodgers ultimately deal with, or not, there are plenty of intriguing pieces to choose from.