3 players the Los Angeles Dodgers gave up on too soon

Fans of every team around Major League Baseball can easily pick out certain players from their team's history that left the organization and took off in another uniform.

The good news is that the Los Angeles Dodgers have a storied history of being on the good side of players breaking out.

I mean, just look at a guy like Justin Turner, who was a weak-hitting utilityman for a handful of clubs before joining the Dodgers and becoming one of the best hitters the team has ever had. Or even Zack Greinke, who won a Cy Young Award in Kansas City, but didn't become one of the best pitchers in the game until he came over to L.A.

Chris Taylor was a utilityman without a job in Seattle before he came over to the Dodgers and won over the hearts of fans thanks to the Swiss Army knife toolset he brings to the table.

You get the point. The Dodgers have historically been good at capitalizing on unrealized talent. As we know, they are far from immune from being on the short end of the stick in situations like this. There are actually quite a few players who the Dodgers gave up on too soon that saw their careers reach new heights once they left the club.

It may be difficult for some, but let's take a step back in time and identify some of the hardest pills to swallow in Dodgers history. Let's rip the Band-Aid off and check out three players the club gave up on too soon.

The Dodgers traded away Yordan Alvarez way too soon.

Jeez, this is just an all-time whiff by the Dodgers.

After defecting from Cuba, Alvarez met the Gurriel brothers (Lourdes Jr. and Yuli) and attempted to sign with the Astros. The club was not able to accomodate such a signing, as Yuli had just been brought aboard on a five-year, $47.5M contract.

Instead, Alvarez signed with the Dodgers in June of 2016 for $2M. Just two months later, the Astros circled back around and acquired him in a trade for relief pitcher Josh Fields, who never amounted to much at the big league level. He had a solid career for the Dodgers in parts of three seasons, but his contributions come nowhere close to what Alvarez has been able to accomplish in Houston.

A handful of years later, Alvarez was up in the big leagues with the Astros, laying waste to opposing pitching from the second he put the uniform on. In 2019, he hit 26 doubles and 27 home runs with 78 RBI in just 87 games. His .313 average and 173 OPS+ provided more than enough statistical cushion to earn him the AL Rookie of the Year trophy.

After missing the vast majority of 2020, Alvarez has since returned to the Astros' everyday lineup and continues to be one of the biggest offensive threats in the game. Just last year, he hit 37 home runs with 97 RBI and a 187 OPS+, earning an All-Star Game appearance, Silver Slugger Award and a third-place finish in MVP voting.

The 25-year-old would look so nice in the Dodgers' lineup right now in place of aging veteran J.D. Martinez. There is little doubt Alvarez would've been the face of the Dodgers' lineup at this point, and while we're happy to see him succeed, this one will forever be painful.

Oneil Cruz never got enough of a shot in the Dodgers' organization.

Now 24 years old, Cruz has not yet accumulated the trophies, All-Star Game selections, and overall starpower that Yordan Alvarez has, but he's well on his way.

Originally signing with the Dodgers as an international free agent all the way back in 2015, Cruz played just one full season in the system as an 18-year-old, and didn't seem to find his groove at the professional level. In 2017, he played in a total of 105 games and hit just 11 doubles and 10 home runs, with a .237 average and a whopping 132 strikeouts.

Clearly, the organization had seen enough. Right at the trade deadline in 2017, Cruz, along with another minor league pitcher, was flipped to the Pirates in exchange for left-handed reliever Tony Watson. Watson had quietly been one of the more reliable southpaws in the game for the Pirates over a seven-year stretch, so it's no wonder the always-contending Dodgers wanted him to shore up their bullpen.

The issue is Cruz's inclusion in the trade.

In his very first season as a Pirates prospect, the infielder hit 14 home runs with a .286 average and saw nearly all of his offensive numbers go up. He continued to excel in the high minors for the Pirates until he was finally promoted to The Show in October of 2021.

His performance in 2022 had its fair share of ebbs and flows, but Cruz immediately seemed to be the real deal for the rebuilding Pirates. While he doesn't have a clear defensive position (mostly thanks to his massive 6-foot-7 frame not being suited for shortstop), his bat has been solid for the Pirates and he's been a human highlight reel both at the plate and in the field (with his absolute cannon of an arm) in the early goings of his big league career.