Dodgers own Padres yet again, this time with the Matt Beaty trade

It’s safe to say that the Los Angeles Dodgers have owned the San Diego Padres recently … in every facet of the sport. The Dodgers swept the Padres in the first matchup between the teams after the Juan Soto trade and have won eight of 10 against San Diego this season.

Los Angeles has a 17-game lead over the Pads in the NL West as San Diego is now the third wild card team in the NL protecting a small lead. Despite all of the hype around the Padres, there’s a world in which San Diego misses the playoffs yet again while the Dodgers secure the best record in baseball.

Before gaining hype with trades for Juan Soto and Josh Hader, the Padres made an inter-division deal back in March in what some believed could come back to bite LA. After the Dodgers designated Matt Beaty for assignment, the Padres swooped in and traded two-way prospect River Ryan to the Dodgers for Beaty.

While Ryan hasn’t played a game at the Major League level yet, the Dodgers have to already like how this trade is panning out.

After all, Beaty isn’t in the bigs, so how can this not be a win for Andrew Friedman?!

The Padres should already be regretting making the Matt Beaty trade with the Dodgers

Friedman and Co. are as savvy as it gets and any executive that does business with LA should be asking themselves if they’re getting the worse end of the deal. Just look at the New York Yankees after the Joey Gallo trade! San Diego obviously thought that wasn’t the case in this trade, but thus far, it certainly has been.

Beaty has played in 17 games with the Padres since the trade and they were as bad as it gets. The former Dodger slashed .107/175/.189 in 40 plate appearances. While it’s a small sample size, Beaty’s OPS+ of six (6!) is the eighth-lowest in the league for players with at least 40 PAs — tied with another failed San Diego project in Robinson Cano.

Beaty had to be put on the 60-day IL with a shoulder injury that he suffered in May, but he has since played in Triple-A games. To be fair to Beaty, in 21 Triple-A games this year, he has a .942 OPS, so that’s promising.

However, the Dodgers still didn’t need Beaty in the slightest. James Outman proved to be a better option in his brief MLB stint and Gallo has been a much better bat since being traded from the Yankees.

And the icing on the cake is River Ryan and his impressive showing on the mound thus far in LA’s system. A 2.63 ERA and 13.4 SO/9 is nothing to scoff at, and knowing the Dodgers, they will maximize him and turn him into a big-league arm. We’ve seen this story play out before.

3 midseason Dodgers pickups that make no sense at all

The Los Angeles Dodgers picked up these three players in the middle of the season and they haven't contributed anything. What was the point?

All for the price of a player that the Dodgers did not need that has done nothing for the Padres.