4 rentals Dodgers need to avoid at trade deadline to better prepare for 2024

Jordan Montgomery

Line up for the Cardinals' fire sale! Everyone will be there. And the Dodgers should be there for the right players. But Jordan Montgomery isn't one of them despite his promising baseline stats (3.37 ERA, 3.59 FIP and 1.24 WHIP in 20 starts).

His peripheral metrics are worrisome, for the most part. He's not inducing a lot of whiffs and his expected batting average and expected slugging percentage aren't where you want them to be. Remember, there's a reason the Yankees traded him at the deadline last year, with the organization claiming he wouldn't be making postseason starts come October. If the Yankees -- a bad team -- feels that way, then the Dodgers should probably take it seriously.

Monty is making $10 million this year, which is both low enough for the Cardinals to demand a decent haul in any trade talks and high enough for a cost-conscious team like the Dodgers to raise an eyebrow (depending on where they stand with the luxury tax threshold).

Another thing? His agent is Scott Boras, so even if the Dodgers acquired him with the plan to extend him, it wouldn't happen. They'd just be surrendering assets to watch him walk to the highest bidder in free agency. No thank you.