Dodgers: 3 players who survived trade deadline but won’t be on 2022 roster

2. Brusdar Graterol

Once MLB insiders feel confident enough in your involvement in several trade rumors to publicly drop your name, you know your future with your current franchise might not be so stable.

In 2020, Brusdar Graterol was the impressive additional piece to the Mookie Betts/David Price swap, an electric reliever whom the Red Sox declined to add to their package, citing medical concerns and nearly throwing the entire trade off its axis.

Luckily, the Dodgers stepped in, and Graterol rewarded their front office’s faith and wheeling/dealing skills by posting a 3.09 ERA in the shortened season, followed by three spotless outings in the World Series totaling 2.0 innings.

This season, though, has been a different story entirely, backing up Boston’s worries a year too late (through a series of largely unpredictable mishaps). Graterol got a late start to the campaign after battling COVID-19 in the offseason, then found himself relegated to minor-league duty, optioned amid several injury bounce-backs.

It certainly feels like selling low on Graterol to place him up for grabs following a campaign in which he’s posted an ERA in the mid-6.00s, especially for a team like the Dodgers that can brag about a lot of things, but not possessing a stable bullpen. Kenley Jansen is a free agent following 2021, and every role around him is very much not solidified. Will Friedman really resume trade conversations surrounding Graterol once this campaign ends, all things considered?

It’s hard to sell lower than Graterol’s position at the 2021 deadline, though, and it certainly seemed like the team was ready to hope someone else was in love with his advanced metrics so they could move on. He very well may be taking his bowling ball sinker elsewhere come December.

1. Gavin Lux

Has Gavin Lux shown enough this season that you’re very confident he can adequately replace Seager’s production at 1/25th of the cost?

Not … really. In fact, heading into the trade deadline, we were far more confident Lux would end up in Washington than we were that he would man the left side of the infield for the next several years at Chavez Ravine.

A few years back, Lux likely would’ve been the centerpiece of the Scherzer/Turner deal, but in 2021, he’s not roughly equivalent to any of the pieces surrendered. Add in the redundancy of Ruiz alongside Will Smith and Diego Cartaya, and you had a tailor-made trade that still left Lux, formerly among MLB’s tippy-top prospects, on the outside looking in on his own roster.

Given an everyday role this season and asked to shine, we’ve seen the power and preening on occasion from the middle infielder, who’s still just 23 years old. Those moments of swaggering confidence have been few and far between, though, replaced mainly with below-average defense and a bat that’s been well under the league average (an 80 OPS+ is not going to cut it).

There’s a reason rumors were swirling about Lux’s availability at the deadline, and there’s also a reason no trade came to fruition; he’s not quite the trade target he used to be, and he certainly hasn’t shown enough to be handed the keys to Seager’s role in 2022.

Dodgers: 3 biggest mistakes LAD made this offseason

The Los Angeles Dodgers put together a fairly special team this offseason, but let some old friends go and replaced them in questionable fashion.