Biggest takeaways from the Dodgers’ trade deadline moves

The 2022 trade deadline has come and gone and the Los Angeles Dodgers did not make a blockbuster trade this time around. Despite having one of the top farm systems in baseball as well as unlimited funds, the Boys in Blue picked their spots instead of making a big trade.

This might seem like a disappointing deadline and it is fair to feel that way. The one thing I would advise you to do is look back at all the massive moves the Dodgers have made in recent years. The top three members of the lineup all came in massive moves. Then look at the MLB standings, as the Dodgers have the best record in MLB.

While it might not have been a monumental deadline, there are still a lot of takeaways to be had.

4 main takeaways from the Dodgers’ trade deadline activity in 2022:

4. Don’t lose sleep over Juan Soto and the Padres… no, seriously, the Dodgers will be fine

The San Diego Padres made arguably the two biggest trades of the deadline by acquiring Juan Soto and Josh Hader. San Diego also acquired Josh Bell in the Soto trade, as well as a standout utility infielder Brandon Drury in a separate deal.

Have the Padres gotten better? Yes, absolutely. Would it have been sweet to see Soto in Dodger Blue? Obviously. I am not going to sit here and pretend that Juan Soto is a bad baseball player because he plays for LA’s NL West rivals.

However, we have done this same song and dance before. The baseball world fell in love with the Padres when they signed Manny Machado, traded for Yu Darvish and Mike Clevinger, traded for Blake Snell, traded for Joe Musgrove, traded for Adam Frazier… the list goes on and on.

What has San Diego won with all of that? Nothing. They won one playoff series, and it was the made-up three-game playoff series in 2020. They still have not advanced past the NLDS since 1998 (before Juan Soto was born) and didn’t even win an NLDS game last time around.

San Diego is a quality baseball team, and any playoff series with them is going to be electric. Juan Soto and a returning Fernando Tatis Jr. do make them better. That does not change the fact that they are 12 back of the Dodgers at the time of this writing and have a 4.87 ERA against the Boys in Blue this season.