Former top Dodgers prospect from Yu Darvish trade taking career to Mexico

The Dodgers were clearly shifting into win-now mode when they traded the Rangers three prospects for Yu Darvish, a true rental set to become a free agent at the end of the season, at the deadline in 2017.

LA was 74-31 and 14 games up from the second-place Diamondbacks, but Andrew Friedman wanted to fortify the rotation with an inevitable postseason run on the horizon.

Willie Calhoun, at the time the Dodgers' No. 4 prospect and No. 82 in all of baseball, was the headliner in the return to Texas. Although there were already concerns about his longevity in the field, he rocketed from Rookie ball to Triple-A over just two and a half seasons, batting .298 with a .931 OPS in Oklahoma City over 99 games.

But Calhoun could never make it work in the majors. He made his MLB debut in 2017 and went up and down from the majors to the minors until he was traded to the Giants in June 2022. All told, he batted just .241 with a .707 OPS with the Rangers, and did even worse in just four games in San Francisco before he was DFA'ed.

His play petered out after that in one-year stints with the Yankees and Angels, and now — at 30 — he's still trying to keep his career alive. On Tuesday, he signed a deal with the Tigers de Quintana Roo in the Mexican League.

Former Dodgers top prospect, Yu Darvish trade piece Willie Calhoun signs with a Mexican League team

Darvish did some nice work for the Dodgers after the trade, but his two starts in the World Series against the Astros that year were disastrous. Poor performances in Game 3 and Game 7 allowed Houston to take the lead in the series and then win the whole thing altogether; Darvish pitched just 3 1/3 innings and gave up nine runs (eight earned) for a 21.60 ERA, and calls for his head quickly followed from Dodgers fans.

Clearly, though, the Dodgers ultimately didn't end up being the losers of this trade. They set what was then a record number of wins for the team after their move from Brooklyn, and the Astros' win from that 2017 season is contested for obvious reasons.

Maybe Calhoun actually could've flourished in the majors if he'd stayed in the Dodgers organization, but with the way his career has actually panned out, they were right to deal him.