3 former Dodgers whose All-Star Game performance debunks LA's trade, free agent criticism

Although Shohei Ohtani couldn't make the trip out to Philadelphia, the Los Angeles Dodgers had six official All-Star representatives. Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy, and Andy Pages started for the National League on Tuesday. Yoshinobu Yamamoto isn't available to pitch, but Justin Wrobleski was on the mound in the later innings.

There were a few familiar faces on the American League roster too — players who the Dodgers either traded or let walk in free agency — in some cases before their full All-Star potential was realized.

The Dodgers have something of a bad rap for overhyping their prospects or homegrown players and then bamboozling teams into overpaying for them (recent examples include Gavin Lux and Dustin May), but these three former Dodgers-turned-All-Stars made it clear that LA simply excels at scouting and developing talent.

Former Dodgers prospect Yordan Alvarez could be an AL MVP frontrunner

Baseball executives don't often admit when they're wrong, but Andrew Friedman got as close to it as possible when reflecting on the Dodgers' August 2016 trade with the Astros, which brought reliever Josh Fields to LA and sent Yordan Alvarez to Houston before the latter had even made his professional debut. Friedman said in 2019, "We obviously wish we would have said yes to other names they asked for before him."

Alvarez established himself as a feared slugger immediately and won Rookie of the Year in 2019. But somehow, he's gotten better. This year, Alvarez leads the AL in hits (111), homers (31), and RBI (70) and leads all of baseball with a 1.059 OPS and could threaten Bobby Witt Jr. for AL MVP with Aaron Judge out of the mix.

Dodgers let Miguel Vargas go, and it was the best decision for both sides

Even Dodgers fans have to love Miguel Vargas' growth with the Chicago White Sox. Since being traded to the South Siders in the middle of their historically awful 2024 season and being caught looking absolutely miserable in a flooding dugout, he's flourished. (It took him a little while, but he got there eventually).

Junior Caminero deserved his starting role at third base for the AL, but Vargas was the obvious choice in reserve as the AL Central-leading White Sox's most valuable player this season. He was never going to get the runway he needed to thrive in LA, and the Dodgers certainly aren't complaining about getting Michael Kopech and Tommy Edman back in that three-way deal.

Cody Bellinger had to leave the Dodgers to succeed

While some Dodgers fans might always feel a little burned by Cody Bellinger's inexplicable downturn in 2021 and 2022, his fight to get back to All-Star form has been admirable. This year marks his first Midsummer Classic appearance since his MVP-winning 2019 season. (We would've loved if it wasn't with the Yankees, but that's out of our hands.)

At ths point, Bellinger might deserve more credit for remaking himself than the Dodgers do for making him in the first place — after all, they did give up on him eventually — but that still probably won't stop certain Dodgers fans from pointing to him and reminding anyone who cares to listen that he made his start in LA.

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