Dodgers: How realistic are current free agent and trade rumors?

Over the last decade or so, the Dodgers have been ran as more as of a business and less as a franchise whose success affects the happiness of millions.

As a result of this, the team has not acquired many big-time free agents, and they’ve really only invested in homegrown talent, in high-upside plays, and in the stadium and fan experience. These are valid and important ways to continue to make the Dodgers viable as a business, which in turn allows them to keep providing us some shred of meaning and joy.

At the same time, I’m sure many fans would agree that with the warm feeling of a championship in our bellies, we’d worry less about the on-field product of the subsequent few years. This may be true of our fandom, but it certainly would not be a valid business model. The best way to keep fans coming to the ballpark is to stay tantalizingly close to a World Series without actually winning one, that is until the team gets lucky and wins that best-of-seven series that gives way to champagne and parades.

With all of this in mind, the recent trade and free agent rumors surrounding superstars like Mookie Betts, Francisco Lindor, Anthony Rendon, and Gerrit Cole all seem a little bit too far away from the norm to be realistic. Or are they?

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Let’s consider the trades first. When is the last time you remember the Dodgers dealing away top prospects to pull in a year or two of a big-time superstar? You may start to think of Manny Ramirez, Hanley Ramirez, and Adrián González, but none of them came at a significant prospect cost, and none of them were one or two-year rentals.

The most telling and most significant of these deals is the Manny Ramirez trade. I would argue that dealing for Ramirez changed the direction of the franchise for the better. It created a veteran star to take some of the pressure off of young kids like Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier, while also giving Dodgers fans someone to see as a sort of face of the franchise. I remember being Manny for three Halloweens in a row, and I remember going to games and seeing Manny wigs all over the place, and hearing all about home runs being hit into the seats in Mannywood.

Ramirez was the team’s first marketable star of the late-2000s, and his stardom, even so late in his career, coincided with the rise of a crop of youthful studs that helped breed the success the team is still enjoying today.

Certainly, some of the stars mentioned above are marketable. Francisco Lindor immediately comes to mind, as does Mookie Betts. Both are known for their personalities, especially Lindor, and thus both could reasonably slide into a Mannywood type of role with the Dodgers, providing not only great baseball, but also great fan connection and marketable talent to create new fans.

Lindor, nicknamed Mr. Smile, is probably the most likely to be able to fit into this sort of role, both as a veteran team leader and as a superstar of the future. He’s got a few seasons left on his contract, and he plays a premium position, which makes him even more valuable than the 36-year old Ramirez was when he made it to LA.

That added value presents a problem though. Ramirez was not fitting well in Boston, he had money left on his deal that the Boston Red Sox simply did not want to pay, and so they dealt him. Plus, he was a veteran without much remaining star power or personality value to Red Sox fans since their window of competing for a title had seemingly shut. The A-Gon and Hanley Ramirez trades were similar in that the Dodgers dealt for veterans with significant money left on deals that included three-plus years.

Lindor does not fit that mold, and with all of the young and extendable talent currently on the roster, it really doesn’t seem like any of the potential targets I listed above are either, but that doesn’t mean that no big moves will get done. The Dodgers certainly need a bat, and a Manny or Hanley type bat from the right side would certainly be appreciated.

Any big personalities that have two-plus years and a significant amount of money left on the deal could be on the table for the Dodgers, and hopefully, players in that sort of situation will avail themselves to Friedman and the front office, but for now, we wait.