3 former Dodgers trade targets LA must avoid at the 2022 trade deadline

The Los Angeles Dodgers are in a position to add talent at the MLB trade deadline. The same team that looked like an unbeatable force before the season began has looked a lot more human than expected.

Los Angeles certainly is not a bad baseball team and panicking about a team in June that has consistently had a winning percentage above .600 is silly. That being said, there are more holes than expected on the roster that Andrew Friedman and Co. will look to address.

Fans may already be eyeballing certain trade targets that have been tied to the Dodgers in the past. However, the trade market is ever-evolving and there are former trade targets that used to make sense for the Boys in Blue that no longer do.

Here are 3 former Dodgers trade targets that the team must avoid at the 2022 trade deadline:

3. Luis Castillo

Talk about topical. The Dodgers just squared off against Luis Castillo, and if it was a tryout for the right-hander, then he did not pass the test. Castillo’s changeup did not baffle the Dodger bats, as the team managed to get four runs across in five innings. Not terrible, but not any better than who the Dodgers already have on the staff.

Adding a pitcher certainly is not a bad idea with Walker Buehler being on the 60-day IL, but the pitching staff is not as massive a need as some fans may think. Tyler Anderson (who is now officially underpaid) and Tony Gonsolin have been fantastic, while Julio Urías has quietly continued to be an All-Star.

Clayton Kershaw and Andrew Heaney have both pitched really well while healthy, and the team is going to get Dustin May back at some point this season. This is not to mention that whatever pitching prospect the team calls up when they need a spot start that will probably throw six scoreless innings.

Castillo would be the worst starting pitching on the Dodgers’ staff with a 3.71 ERA on the season. Yet he is still a big name, so the cost is not going to be cheap.

2. Whit Merrifield

Earlier in the 2022 MLB season, Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report came up with three hypothetical trade targets for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The “blockbuster” addition that Reuter pitched was the versatile two-time All-Star, Whit Merrifield.

On paper, a Merrifield trade seems like a real possibility during the deadline. The Kansas City Royals are terrible and are not going anywhere this season and could get more value out of moving Merrifield rather than just keeping him.

Now would be the best time to maximize his value, as he has two more years under contract after this season. He is a relatively cheap contract to acquire, and the Royals can get a contending team to overpay for his services for a World Series push this season.

The Dodgers should not be that contender for multiple reasons. First, while the team could really use some outfield depth and Merrifield would check that box, the two-time All-Star has not been good this season.

Merrifield is hitting .232 with a 69 OPS+. That means that he is 31% below league average as a hitter this season. These woes extend beyond this season as well, as he posted a 92 OPS+ (8% below league average) last season.

It is not like Merrifield is young, either. He is 33 years old, so it very well could be a case of him simply being past his prime. At this point in time, Gavin Lux is a better baseball player. The Dodgers would be foolish to trade legitimate assets for Merrifield.