5 Dodgers trade candidates from teams quickly falling out of contention

It is almost never too early to think about ways in which the Los Angeles Dodgers could improve their roster during the 2023 season. The Dodgers seem to be back on track and sit at the top of the NL West for now, but this is far from a perfect team, as injuries and underperformance have taken their toll (as is the case for any team).

The trickier part is actually making a move when you want to, which is hard, considering every team is still "in it" early in the season, even if only in the "we need the fans to think that so they will come watch games" sort of way. It is also hard to forecast potential future needs with limited trade capital. Put another way, you don't want to trade an important prospect early on for a B-level need/want, only to have a more serious situation come up later and then find you needed that guy you traded away to make a deal happen.

However, we can still take some educated guesses as to both A) which teams are not going to be in the hunt for a playoff spot when trade season gets under way and B) what sorts of players the Dodgers could be interested in when that time comes. Is this list exhaustive? Absolutely not. Are all of these teams going to be out of the playoff hunt and looking to move all of these guys? Again, highly unlikely. That said, here are five players that the Dodgers could target in trades as the season goes on.

5 players Dodgers should be scouting in 2023 trade deadline market

Nick Senzel

Lets get this out of the way: the National League Central is not a good division. At all. The Cardinals' devil magic appears to have worn off, no one in the division made big moves to try and grab the reins this past offseason, and one of the two teams in the division with a better than .500 record, the Pirates, seems to have remembered that they are the Pirates and have lost a bunch of games recently. One team hasn't come close to looking good is the Reds, and it doesn't look like that is going to change for a while.

In Senzel, the Dodgers would get a ton of defensive versatility, which the team values. Senzel has the ability to play second base a bit, which is currently being manned by Miguel Vargas, who is not lighting the world on fire, and possesses a bat that has seemed to come to life somewhat this year. His stock isn't anywhere close to where it was when he was drafted, and he will have 2.5 years of team control attached to his value if/when he becomes available, but he doesn't have the track record to be particularly expensive in a trade and could be a nice fit, especially if LA thinks they can unlock some more from him at the plate.

Alexis Diaz

We are circling back to the Reds yet again because, despite their best efforts, they have still managed to collect some actual talent on their roster. It is actually comical how poorly run and uncompetitive the Reds are year in, year out. Their own owner BEFORE THE SEASON even had a slideshow identifying the Reds as having no chance of making the playoffs each year since 2019. It is very related that said owner's comments (and others like them) have made him decidedly unpopular amongst the Reds fanbase.

However, back to the actual players, Alexis Diaz is getting the nod here, and with good reason, as he would be a big jolt for the Dodgers' bullpen. Through 13 appearances so far this season, Diaz has a 2.45 ERA with 21 strikeouts in 11 innings of work. His fastball/slider combo play off each other well, and he is very hard to impact the ball against. In short, he is a very, very good reliever with high quality stuff that you can run out there confidently in high-leverage situations.

The problem here is that he won't even see his first arbitration hearing until after the 2025 season, so acquiring him could be very pricey with that amount of team control. The Reds may not be good at fielding a team that can win actual baseball games, but they can at least understand that they have a player with value in Diaz. That said, an elite reliever on a team like the Reds, which could be bad for a while, is like having new leather seats in a 1997 Dodge Neon that has skipped a couple oil changes in its lifetime while its paint fades. Relievers are also very volatile in general, so the Dodgers may be able to swing something if the package was rich enough, as it is possible Diaz's value may never be higher for the Reds.

David Bednar

Look, I know that the Pirates were a really fun story to start the season, as they somehow took a team of cheap spare parts and young talent and catapulted into first place in the NL Central. Sure, the Pirates' ownership has been the poster child for teams with rich owners that cry poor and refuse to invest in their rosters, but it was nice to believe for a bit that those players could run back the script of Major League and make some noise.

Unfortunately, the news lately from them hasn't been nearly as good, and it seems likely that they will be out of contention as we approach the trade deadline, even in a division as poor as the NL Central. That brings us to David Bednar, who compares favorably, at least in terms of value, to the aforementioned Diaz. Bednar is having another excellent season so far, with an 0.64 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 14 innings of work.

Relievers are always going to be in demand, and that isn't just speaking of the Dodgers, so Pittsburgh is going to be getting a lot of calls about Bednar. He has a little less team control than Diaz, but that also means that he has more of a track record of performance, which could be enticing if the Dodgers decide they want to make a big play for a closer at the deadline to bolster the bullpen. It is unclear if the Pirates would actually move a guy like Bednar, though, because the team IS more interesting than it has been in a while and Bednar could serve as the backbone of the bullpen (and hometown Pittsburgh hero) for several years at minimal cost.

Shohei Ohtani

Yeah, you probably knew this one was coming, as Shohei Ohtani is going to be the most watched name on the trade market this year, given that he is about to hit free agency and make a HUGE sum of money that could be in excess of $600 million. It is not hyperbole to say that there is not a player like him on the market (as in, one player). He would instantly become most teams' best hitter and best pitcher in one roster spot. He is doing things that we haven't seen since before World War II and it is beautiful.

We'll start with the reasons why this could happen. First, he is incredibly good, as he has slashed .294/.362/.515 this season with seven homers, while also posting a 2.74 ERA with 66 strikeouts in 46 innings of work on the mound. He has won a Rookie of the Year and an MVP award already, and had a really good case to win AL MVP last year, when he finished second. Also, he is on an Angels team that is currently kinda competing, but has a poor track record of actually finishing a complete season well and stands to lose Ohtani for just a draft pick if they don't trade him. Finally, the Dodgers have long been rumored to sign Ohtani and it sounds like the feeling is very mutual, so there would be an opportunity for LA to get an exclusive extension negotiation window before the season ends (and before other bidders can enter the fray).

There are some issues here, though. First, even though the trade would technically be for a rental since Ohtani's contract is up at the end of the season, he is still going to be very expensive in trade capital. Again, there isn't another player out there that gives you the sort of 2 for 1 value that he does, even if it is only for half a season's worth of value.

More importantly, the Dodgers seem more likely to try to get under the luxury tax by the end of the season to reset their penalties so that signing Ohtani in the offseason is more feasible/less painful. They could, in theory, shed a big chunk of change ahead of time via other trades to make room for the remainder of Ohtani's contract in 2023 and still make that plan work, but that could be easier said than done, unless the Dodgers part with some good players to make it worthwhile to other teams.