Baseball’s trade deadline is Tuesday, and the Dodger They are once again in danger of overthinking and becoming paralyzed.
They are concerned about the downsides of potential business goals, such as the workload of Garrett Crochet starter for the Chicago White Sox. They are upset by market conditions, which clearly favor sellers. They’re wondering if they can get bigger returns in the future for their most coveted prospects, like double-A catcher Dalton Rushing.
The concerns have reached the point where they threaten to cloud the Dodgers’ view of the chance that is right in front of the team.
That’s what happened last year, when the most significant trade deadline recovery was failed pitcher Lance Lynnor the year before, when your main summer purchase was Strikeout-prone outfielder Joey Gallo.
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Someone should speak up so that something like this doesn’t happen again. Someone should remind the president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman of how the Dodgers are just a few innings away from claiming their spot as World Series favorites.
Someone like Shohei Ohtani.
Ohtani has a platform. He doesn’t always use it, but when he does, he knows how to do it.
Take, for example, how he approached the subject of big leagues playing in the Olympics. The day before the All-Star Game, Ohtani was asked if he would like to play in the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. He said yes and explained how releasing his players for a Major League Baseball Olympic tournament would benefit the entire sport.
Bryce Harper of the Philadelphia Phillies addressed the issue, as did Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees, but Ohtani knew how his voice could affect the conversation and put public pressure on baseball commissioner Rob Manfred.
When it comes to the trade deadline, Ohtani maintained a more neutral stance.
He did not pressure the board to make any moves. He has no plans for that either.
“If you ask me what a certain player looks like from a player’s point of view, I will answer, of course,” Ohtani said in Japanese. “But there won’t be anything I initiate.”
Your position is understandable.
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Not only is Ohtani from a country where chains of command are rarely, if ever, subverted — it’s unheard of for players to make demands of management in Nippon Professional Baseball — but the Dodgers did the right thing with him the winter after signing him .
They signed outfielder Teoscar Hernández, which could be the steal of the offseason. They traded for Tyler Glasnow and signed a contract extension with him. They signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto to the most lucrative deal ever awarded to a non-Ohtani pitcher.
The billion-dollar offseason was an aberration, however.
The Dodgers are generally more cautious than that, as they typically insist on “winning” every deal, whether it be a trade or free agent contract. This puts them at the mercy of the market. When the market doesn’t offer them generous discounts, they settle for the most marginal upgrades, which is how they ended up with Gallo as the prize one year and Lynn the next.
Ohtani’s voice could shake the board’s complacency.
As the team’s best player, Ohtani has the stature to make Friedman listen to him. As the sport’s No. 1 attraction, he has the advantage of being taken seriously by the team’s corporate overlords at Guggenheim Baseball Management. As a player who is deferring more than 97% of his salary, he has the moral authority to question how the Dodgers are spending the $68 million he is lending every year.
If LeBron James can influence the Lakers to call up his son, Ohtani should be able to convince the Dodgers to bolster their roster.
Whether Ohtani exerts his influence could be determined by what the Dodgers do in the coming days and how it affects them in October.
Ohtani is smart enough to understand that the Dodgers won’t forever be in the position they are in now.
Ohtani is 30 years old. Mookie Bets is 31. Freddie Freeman is 34. Will Smith is 29 years old. The Dodgers have each of their four All-Stars signed to long-term contracts, but this may be the only season the team has them all in their prime.
And who knows if Hernández will be around after this season, considering he is on a one-year contract and performed well enough to sign a lucrative multi-year contract as a free agent in the winter.
The special collection of talents can be undone by pronounced deficiencies in the top of the rotation It is bottom of the lineup.
If the Dodgers betray Ohtani’s trust by returning to their usual behavior and wasting the opportunity they have now, who’s to say Ohtani wouldn’t speak out next summer?
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Dodgers manager David Roberts said he noticed how Ohtani’s personality emerged throughout this season, especially after the firing of the interpreter who stole more than $16 million of Ohtani to cover his gambling losses.
“It’s been as quick an assimilation into a team as I’ve ever seen,” Roberts said. “I also feel like I saw him open up, let go, really show his true personality. He quickly became the person he was meant to be.”
Pointing out how Ohtani often shares his observations about opposing pitchers with his teammates, Roberts thinks he could become a leader for the clubhouse.
Ohtani may have to be more than that if the Dodgers strike again at the trade deadline. If he wants to win as much as he says he does, he may need to provide the voice that reintroduces common sense into the team’s decision-making process. That wouldn’t just be best for him. This would also be best for the organization.
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This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.
