Dodgers: Speculating on front office’s 12 ‘elite’ Winter Meetings targets

Yesterday, the 2020 Winter Meetings gave us Stephen Strasburg’s record-breaking deal. Based on recent rumors, the Dodgers may be the next team in the news.

According to both Pedro Moura of the Athletic and Ken Gurnick of MLB.com, the Dodgers have narrowed down their offseason plan to right around 12 potential targets. Moura tweeted that Andrew Friedman’s 12 players are “primarily elite,” while Gurnick tweeted that Friedman feels the bullpen is his most pressing need. Gurnick also mentioned that trades currently in the works will become “crystalize” over the course of the week.

With those two reports in mind, the Dodgers seem to be nearing some big news for the first time this offseason. Realistically, the last big splashes the Dodgers made came via trades for Yu Darvish and Manny Machado in 2017 and 2018, with the Joe Kelly and A.J. Pollock moves of last offseason feeling peripheral in comparison to the names being mentioned this offseason.

Of those dozen players, two obvious targets are the oft-discussed Anthony Rendon and Gerrit Cole. Both of these players are superstars, and both are expected to be some of, if not the most, expensive players at their respective positions in free-agent history. This is especially true of Cole, who analysts expect will make upwards of $300 million over eight or nine seasons. With Strasburg off of the market, Cole’s price should only continue to grow, especially as other starting pitchers in the tier below him begin to be scooped up. Between Rendon and Cole, whoever signs second could very well end up getting the most money, as whichever teams fail to add the first signer will have plenty to spend on the other.

But outside of these two players, there are still plenty of other ‘elite’ options that the Dodgers are likely to be considering. In this article, I’ll identify 10 other potential targets that Friedman and the front office may consider elite, breaking things down by position. I’ll start with pitchers in general before separately heading into hitters.