5 Dodgers trade candidates from teams quickly falling out of contention

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.