Dodgers’ offeseason moves and trade deadline showing put nail in 2021 coffin

Hindsight is 20/20. Yes. We get it. But when your “blockbuster” moves are proven this wrong, the criticism and “freezing cold takes” are warranted. Sorry, Los Angeles Dodgers fans.

But you just saw what happened. An 88-win team captured the World Series. Their opponent essentially had no pitching. There were a total of six 2021 All-Stars on the field. The Dodgers had seven and still couldn’t get the job done.

That goes to show something went wrong. This time around, though, we can’t blame it on the team outright choking, which they’ve clearly done in years past. This was the result of poor depth in so many key areas.

First of all, let’s talk about last offseason, when they let both Joc Pederson and Kiké Hernandez go. Initially, this was nothing to worry about. The Dodgers had an outfield of Mookie Betts, Cody Bellinger and AJ Pollock with Chris Taylor taking over the utility spot and Gavin Lux/Zach McKinstry expected to take a leap.

Fast forward to Betts’/Pollock’s injury issues, Bellinger’s all-time bad regular season, and Lux/McKinstry very much not taking the necessary progressions to be everyday players. Fast forward even farther to Pederson and Hernandez becoming postseason legends for their new teams.

How did the Dodgers let 2021 get away from them? A bad offseason and bad trade deadline.

In letting those guys go, the Dodgers used that money (and MUCH more) to sign famous internet troll Trevor Bauer to a record-breaking contract. That’s right. The man with a career 4.00 ERA got a $40 million salary for the 2021 season. And the Dodgers were only bidding against … the New York Mets.

Other moves of note? They brought back Blake Treinen and Justin Turner. They traded for Corey Knebel. They signed Jimmy Nelson. They traded for Sheldon Neuse.

That was it.

Somewhat understandable because they were running back a championship team … but why did they think the contributions of Pederson and Hernandez would swiftly be replaced? We believed their plan at the time (outside of the Bauer signing), now we have a ton of questions.

Let’s look at the trade deadline now. By this point, it was clear the team was lacking outfield and starting rotation depth. They still didn’t have a viable backup first baseman given Albert Pujols’ scant contributions. There was no answer to supplement Bellinger’s lost production, or even a fraction of it.

Trading for Max Scherzer and Trea Turning was amazing … but the deal for Danny Duffy? Signing Cole Hamels, Yoshi Tsutsugo and Steven Souza Jr.? Duffy and Hamels didn’t play a single inning!

And then you look at what the Braves did. They added spark plug contributors in the form of Pederson, Eddie Rosario, Jorge Soler, Stephen Vogt, Adam Duvall and others after losing Mike Soroka, Ronald Acuña Jr. and Marcell Ozuna. That just proves the Dodgers have absolutely no excuse for being left without Bauer, Kershaw, Max Muncy and Dustin May. Bauer was never a contributing Dodger. May has 31 career games under his belt.

Instead, the Dodgers thought it’d be fine to not address their positional depth beyond Trea Turner and then let Scherzer, Walker Buehler and Julio Urías wither away as they were tasked with carrying the ENTIRE starting pitching load from August-October. Don’t see a problem with that? Scherzer is 37 years old. Buehler and Urías blew by their career highs in innings pitched (Buehler was more than 30 over and Urias was more than 100!). Think about how insane that is.

Injuries and unforeseen issues happen to every team. Adjustments are needed. But the Dodgers didn’t make the right ones. Not in the offseason, and not enough at the trade deadline. That sealed the team’s fate in 2021, and there’s proof in this year’s World Series champion, who pummeled LA in the NLCS.

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