Dodgers: 3 waiver trades we wish LAD were able to make in August

1. Daniel Bard

Daniel Bard is a relatively inconsistent option, sure, but the Dodgers continue to throw every member of their 40-man roster to the bullpen wolves as injuries increase. From Jimmy Nelson to Garrett Cleavinger, no one is safe these days. So why not attempt to rob a division rival in the waning months of our hypothetical year?

We understand why the Rockies didn’t trade Trevor Story (ed. note: not really!), but there was even less of an excuse for holding onto Bard, especially since they’d already squeezed so much value out of someone who’d left the game of baseball for nearly a decade before returning in 2020. Mychal Givens left town! Why not Bard, who is under control through 2022, making him all the more appealing?

The swing-and-miss stuff is very much still there from the peak of Bard’s career, as he’s set down 58 men in 45.2 innings pitched. That’s one helpful way to clean up base runners, which Bard provides plenty of, sporting a 1.51 WHIP this season that’ll scare off some potential employers.

Then again … the Dodgers need names with whiff-centric profiles right now. They’re scraping the bottom of the barrel, and they’re not finding anything terribly encouraging. It would’ve been satisfying to steal Bard from an aimless rival that might’ve screwed themselves in the Nolan Arenado talks by avoiding the Dodgers entirely.

If only this whole exercise weren’t make-believe…

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

These Los Angeles Dodgers players probably won't survive the 2021-22 offseason, despite making it past the deadline by a nose.