Out?
This was more like an improvised single.
The Dodgers may not be out on Tuesday, which was a very real possibility considering market conditions. With limited options, they managed to improve their team.
But his most significant problems heading into the trade deadline remain his most significant problems now.
Its rotation is still fragile, even after the acquisition of Jack Flaherty. Their situation at shortstop is still up in the air, even after the trade for Tommy Edman. Their training is still heavy, even after the addition of Amed Rosario.
The Dodgers raised the floor, in the sense that the reinforcements were supposed to keep the bottom from falling out. But if your ceiling is higher now, it will only be by a small increment.
To win the World Series, they will need a lot of things to go right – things that can happen, but also can’t be expected to happen.
President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman once said, “If you are rational about every free agent, you will finish third among all free agents.”
The same applies to negotiations.
The only player who could have transformed the team’s outlook on his own was Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Tarik Skubal, who was unavailable “under any scenario,” according to a person familiar with the Dodgers’ trade deadline discussions. . The Tigers “didn’t say anything about Skubal,” the person said.
See more information: With minutes to spare at trade deadline, Dodgers land starting pitcher Jack Flaherty
In other words, the Dodgers didn’t even have the opportunity to be irrational.
Fair.
But the reason the Dodgers were cornered was because of the chances they wasted earlier in the year. Baseball’s commercial season started earlier than usual this year, and the Dodgers did not participate.
They did not trade for Corbin Burnes, who the Milwaukee Brewers sent to the Baltimore Orioles in February. They did not trade for Dylan Cease, who the Chicago White Sox sent to the San Diego Padres in March.
They also did not sign Blake Snell, who was still a free agent when the Dodgers left for their season-opening series in South Korea.
This isn’t just Monday morning quarterbacking.
As early as December, I was writing columns in which I wondered how 5-foot-9 Yoshinobu Yamamoto would hold up to a 162-game schedule after pitching just once a week in Japan.
In the same columns, I was pointing out Tyler Glasnow’s troubled medical history, specifically how Glasnow never made more than 21 starts or pitched more than 120 innings.
“In short,” I wrote, “the Dodgers invested more than $500 million in a minor pitcher who never stepped on a major league mound and a giant who never stayed healthy.”
The rest of the rotation was also made up of lottery tickets: prospects (Bobby Miller and Gavin Stone), pitchers returning from injuries (Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw) and recovery projects (James Paxton).
See more information: Plaschke: Jack Flaherty gives Dodgers dramatic trade deadline win
As for the latest addition to the rotation, veteran right-hander Flaherty? He has dealt with back issues the past two years and the Athletic reported Tuesday that the New York Yankees withdrew from a preliminary trade agreement with the Tigers after reviewing his medical records.
The front office was equally, if not more, careless at shortstop. Instead of trading for an established shortstop like Willy Adames of the Milwaukee Brewers, they entrusted the position to Gavin Lux, only to find out in spring training that he couldn’t play. Mookie Betts, who hadn’t played shortstop regularly since high school, became a stopgap. But after sitting out the last six weeks with a broken hand, Betts could be asked to move back to second base or right field — leaving the shortstop position in flux again.
The Dodgers are in a better position than they were last week. They added a measure of stability to their injury-ravaged rotation by acquiring Flaherty. They added backfield depth with their trades of Edman and Rosario. They added a potential high-leverage reliever, pitcher Michael Kopech.
But they simply had too many deficiencies to resolve in a single commercial deadline. They have a realistic path to the World Series — after all, they have Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman — but it’s a path that gives them minimal margin for error.
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This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.
