3 obvious (and 1 unexpected) trade candidates Dodgers should target at deadline

Lane Thomas

As we know, the Washington Nationals were sellers in 2021, and they could be yet again this year as they're in the midst of their rebuild. They may not have big names to move at this year's deadline like they have in the past, but there's still a valuable asset or two that contending teams, like the Dodgers, could use.

One of those players is 27-year-old outfielder Lane Thomas, who's had a really good year that's mostly flown under the radar. With a slash line of .299/.347/.516, Thomas has been well above average at the plate all season. He bats leadoff for the Nationals, which likely wouldn’t be the case if he were to wear Dodger blue, as the top of the lineup is stacked. But he can still help in a big way.

It’s the bottom of the Dodgers lineup that has struggled this year. Slotting Thomas into the six, seven, eight, or nine hole could help solve that problem. Another ability Thomas possesses that the Dodgers lack is speed. While it doesn’t show in his stolen base numbers (he only has seven on the year), Baseball Savant has Thomas’s sprint speed at 29.2 feet per second, ranking him 33rd in the entire league. The threat of him on the base paths would be something that opposing teams haven’t had to worry about when playing the Dodgers this year. 

Besides the bullpen, the Dodgers don’t need to do anything crazy at this year's deadline. However, being the contenders they are, they should always be looking for ways to improve at reasonable cost, and these players make that a possibility.