3 Dodgers prospects entering their final month with team as trade deadline nears

Last year, the Dodgers got away with only giving up two major leaguers (Miguel Vargas and Ryan Yarbrough) at the trade deadline. Instead, they relied heavily on prospects and minor leaguers in their trade packages, including Jeral Perez, Trey Sweeney, and Thayron Liranzo. With how invaluable most of the pieces of their major league roster are this season, it stands to reason they'll do the same at this year's deadline.

The Dodgers have one of the best farm systems in baseball, so there's no shortage of guys they could deal away in the pursuit of their second consecutive World Series victory.

3 Dodgers prospects entering their final month with team as trade deadline nears

Alex Freeland

The Dodgers may want to hold onto top two prospects Josue De Paula and Zyhir Hope, but No. 3 prospect Freeland could be the big ticket item if they go out and get a top-shelf starter (though, to be fair, the pickings seem slim). Freeland is a shortstop and second baseman and is currently in Triple-A, but the Dodgers have nowhere for him to go, with Mookie Betts at shortstop for the foreseeable future and Tommy Edman at second.

Freeland is batting .271 with a .845 OPS through 74 games, and his defense grades even higher than his hitting tools. If the Dodgers are really going to go after Sandy Alcantara, and the Marlins play hard ball despite the fact that Alcantara is having the worst year of his career, they could consider giving up Freeland.

Ryan Ward

Ward isn't a top prospect and never has been, but he's consistently been one of the Comets' best hitters since he was promoted in 2023. Why the Dodgers never want to promote him is a mystery — maybe there's something about his underlying metrics that they want him to keep working on — but they could (and maybe should) give him a chance at a major league opportunity elsewhere.

This year, Ward is batting .299 with a .956 OPS after hitting .258/.860 last year. Again, the lack of hype around him is kind of a mystery. He's been in Triple-A long enough that he could be ready for a quick promotion to the majors after a trade, and it seems pretty obvious that he's just waiting for a shot as a secondary piece.

Jakob Wright

Wright is the Dodgers' No. 27 prospect, per MLB Pipeline this year and is already receiving rave reviews from Baseball America, who rank him at No. 23 and called him "the Dodgers' next sleeper pitching prospect" after he made his professional debut by pitching 3 2/3 shutout innings for the Single-A Quakes this year. He's been almost just as dominant since then, with a 1.10 ERA in 16 1/3 innings.

The Dodgers usually don't like giving up their pitching prospects and Wright is already showing a lot of promise, but positive early returns could make him a more powerful trade chip at the deadline, and the Dodgers' pipeline is absolutely stacked with promising pitching talent.