Dave Roberts' trade deadline comments definitely don't have Dodgers fans feeling good

Despite being predicted to be one of baseball's biggest buyers at the trade deadline, the Dodgers have seemingly done nothing but sit on their hands through three days of trade activity around them. Two players they were rumored to be interested in — Randy Arozarena and Isaac Paredes — have both since gone elsewhere. Garrett Crochet and Jack Flaherty have yet to be traded, but the Dodgers' non-start to deadline season has left room for doubt that they're actually going to be able to make anything happen.

Dave Roberts didn't give fans much reassurance that the front office knows exactly what they're doing when he told The LA Times, "I still believe we need something. I just don’t know where, what it is or who it is."

Now, we know that the manager doesn't get much of a say, if any, in who the front office decides to chase, but Roberts holding his hands up and claiming ignorance isn't exactly a great sign. At best, it could be a slight breakdown in communication between him, Brandon Gomes, and Andrew Friedman (which still isn't good). At worst, it's a hint that the front office is scrambling and is well behind other teams in their collective chases for second-half help.

Dave Roberts said he doesn't know "where, what it is or who it is" regarding Dodgers trade deadline targets

We can definitely solve Roberts' quandary for him. The Dodgers need starting pitching, relief pitching, infield and outfield help. Basically, they need everything, but they've gotten nothing so far. It's impossible to say what's going wrong in the front office — it could be that the Dodgers were never actually that interested in Arozarena or Paredes despite a lot of talk to the contrary. We can never put it past the Dodgers to have tricks up their sleeve, but the best we can hope now is that they're lying in wait.

But it's still not a good sign that Roberts seems both out of touch with the higher-ups in the organization and doesn't see any concrete solutions himself. On Sunday night, he said, "There’s a threading of the needle on who you’re going to bet on, as far as performance versus health, [among the] guys coming back," which also...isn't reassuring!

The Dodgers shouldn't be holding out for their 10+ players on the IL, because there's too much unpredictability in those scenarios to miss out on good opportunities at the deadline. Brusdar Graterol, Ryan Brasier, and Walker Buehler are all down in Triple-A rehabbing, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto is throwing long toss again, but going all-in on just the chance those guys return and standing idle at the deadline just isn't a good a solution.

Get players now, deal with the roster crunch later. And maybe fill your manager in on your thought processes a little more actively so he doesn't drop worrisome soundbites that make the team look bad.