3 young Dodgers players teams could buy low on in trade talks

2. Luke Raley

While Luke Raley has never been a Dodgers “top prospect” and has theoretically aged out of projections, every Quad-A slugger who wears the uniform is a candidate for a Max Muncy-like breakout.

Unfortunately, his first extended MLB look didn’t go according to plan in 2021 — but that doesn’t mean the Dodgers should hack him off the roster and allow some other MLB team to cultivate his breakout.

Raley, now 27, floated back from the Twins to the Dodgers’ system between the 2019 season and minor-league baseball’s 2021 reopening, traded in the “three-way” Mookie Betts deal. That reunited him with his initial organization; he was a Dodgers draftee to begin with, but was traded to Minnesota in 2018 for Brian Dozier.

Raley’s best minor-league campaign came in 2021, when he triple-slashed a remarkable .294/.393/.570 (yes, in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League) and bashed 19 homers in just 72 games, knocking in 69 runs. Unfortunately, his cameo with the big-league club belied his ability; he bashed a pair of bombs in 66 at-bats, but hit just .182 and subtracted 0.5 WAR from the Dodgers’ overall ledger (again, a stunning amount to lose in just 66 ABs).

Should LA enter 2022 considering Raley as a key part of their bench? No. He’s not going to be the first line of defense.

But he won’t be nearly as valuable to any other club, who will be looking at a 27-year-old outfielder without a big-league imprint to his name as an ancillary piece in any deal.

The Dodgers might have a special slugger in the upper levels of their system. They shouldn’t let anyone poach him after he put his worst foot forward in 2021.

1. Gavin Lux

The Dodgers are currently in a Gavin Lux-created pretzel. They should not trade Lux for anything less than his true value as a former top-five overall prospect in the game of baseball. However, every time they give him significant playing time, his shine gets a little bit further depleted, and continues to get squeezed out of a starting role.

Lux, freshly 24, finally has the clearest path to playing time he’s ever had in 2022; it’s difficult to find time for a top prospect to worm his way onto an All-Star team, after all. Without Corey Seager, though, there’s a good chance Lux can be the Dodgers’ starting second baseman — with Trea Turner at short and Chris Taylor in the outfield — for a good portion of LA’s games, especially if the Universal DH is introduced and Cody Bellinger/Max Muncy can swap back and forth.

Last year, Lux piled up 1.6 WAR in 335 at-bats, flashing elite athleticism but still presenting unfulfilled promise more often than not. He hit .242 with seven bombs, but posted just an 87 OPS+ in his first extended look at the MLB level. “Average” isn’t good enough for someone of Lux’s caliber, and “below-average” is even further disqualifying.

Too often, Lux’s career has been summed up by the fly ball he struck on the barrel in the NLDS against the Giants that nearly tied the game dramatically in the ninth, but instead fell harmlessly about 20 feet short of where it should have theoretically gone.

If the Dodgers trade Lux, they had better be sure they’re getting equivalent value for someone who could easily pile up 400 effective at-bats this season and slide into Turner’s spot next offseason after he bolts for a $300 million deal.

Somebody’s going to try to trade him in exchange for one of their depreciated assets, though, and that shouldn’t be acceptable.

4 potential Dodgers replacements for Justin Turner after 2022 season

The Los Angeles Dodgers might be replacing Justin Turner after the 2022 MLB season, and these 4 replacements make the most sense.