Dodgers: 3 top prospects most likely to be traded this year

Blessed with what we believed to be a perfect (and extremely deep) roster entering 2021, the Los Angeles Dodgers are currently stuck in a divisional dogfight that very few people expected.

Anticipation was, before the season began, that the San Diego Padres had significant mojo, but would be lagging behind LA, and would also be their only competition for the NL West crown. Move over, rivalries of old. The Pads were here to steal the spotlight.

Well … about that …

The San Francisco Giants are, for some reason, not going away, and the Padres remain entrenched behind them, placing the Dodgers in third place (though they’re tied with San Diego in the loss column). We assumed LA would be searching for upgrades at the trade deadline anyway — they always are — but the reinforcements might be more plentiful than we expected.

The bullpen could use some major help — and, as always, it’ll be available come July 31. The Dodgers could use some extra left field depth, too, as Yoshi Tsutsugo hasn’t worked out, Matt Beaty might not be sustainable, and Chris Taylor’s been needed everywhere else.

After all, if this team is willing to take mid-season chances on Tsutsugo and Albert Pujols, it’s clear they don’t feel entirely settled on offense, either.

Based on the recent cost of high-leverage relief arms, we believe the Dodgers will be able to acquire their targets midseason without surrendering their tippy-top prospects; there will be no Mookie Betts-like acquisitions on the market come July 31.

However, we’ve also included a name we believe won’t make it to 2022’s spring training in the organization, and will be the hottest prospect available at this year’s Winter Meetings. You’ve got to give to get.

These 3 Dodgers top prospects could be traded before 2022.

3. Diego Cartaya, C

The Los Angeles Dodgers currently possess a 26-year-old All-Star-level catcher behind the plate, with the quintessential championship-winning backup behind him in Austin Barnes, who’s perfectly well-suited to his role.

In essence, nobody has a more set-in-stone catching situation than the Dodgers. If any team is looking to plunder the top 10 of their farm system in a deal for a quick-fix reliever — say, Kansas City’s controllable Josh Staumont, for instance — Diego Cartaya should be the first place they look.

The 19-year-old Cartaya just slid onto the back end of Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects list (ranking 96th after a midseason update), and has begun his 2021 swimmingly. In eight games at Single-A ball thus far, the catcher has hit a humbling 5 homers with a .419 average, laying waste to the competition. He’s got too much pedigree to be available as a throw-in or centerpiece for a veteran rental, but if the Dodgers are looking to make a slightly bigger deal at this deadline (for instance, one of the struggling Reds’ big bats or bounce back starter Luis Castillo?), Cartaya will inevitably come up in conversation.

After all, he’s behind Smith, Barnes and Keibert Ruiz, and the Dodgers can only justify holding onto a laughable catching surplus for so long before they need to start making difficult decisions. Rival teams should be calling daily trying to pry Cartaya away, and Los Angeles should at least be evaluating their options this summer.

2. Clayton Beeter, RHP

In 2020, the Dodgers managed to draft three consecutive big arms at the top in Louisville’s Bobby Miller, East Tennessee State University’s Landon Knack, and Texas Tech’s Clayton Beeter. All three could be starters, or all three could be ‘pen reinforcements. After a lost year following their selection, we still don’t have the data we need to determine if these collegiate flamethrowers have viable enough secondary stuff to see a lineup three times.

Therefore, we wouldn’t be surprised if the Dodgers dangled whichever one they’re least confident in during this summer’s trade talks.

Beeter has progressed more slowly than Miller thus far (and Knack has barely shown anything, throwing just two innings in his one appearance of the season). Though every pitcher’s development has taken a backseat to conditioning this spring and summer, considering nobody hit their innings quota in 2020, Miller has made five “starts” totaling 14.1 innings pitched, sporting 17 Ks and a 1.26 ERA/0.91 WHIP.

Beeter has been pushed far less thus far; in eight appearances (seven starts), he’s thrown a remarkably low 7.1 innings, striking out 13 with an elevated 1.23 WHIP. Suffice to say, Beeter’s been handled with the special-edition kid gloves, even more so than Miller. It’s hard to glean much from their usage at this point, but Miller outranks Beeter in prospect pedigree, though both have somewhat comparable profiles. While Knack hasn’t shown much, and isn’t quite as clearly on the radar as the rest of his draft class, it seems like the Dodgers are being more careful in deciding when to expose Beeter than when to push Miller.