Editor’s note: This is the Monday, Dec. 7 edition of the Inside the Dodgers newsletter from reporter J.P. Hoornstra. To receive the newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.
The Dodgers enter the Winter Meetings in a tight place. They haven’t signed a major league free agent, yet they have seen their open roster space shrivel since the World Series ended. David Price, who opted out of the 2020 season, was activated from the restricted list. Gerardo Carrillo, Andre Jackson, Edwin Uceta and Zach Reks were added to the 40-man roster, protecting them from selection in the Rule 5 draft. Finally, to address their most glaring deficiency, the Dodgers traded for reliever Corey Knebel. They begin the week with only three open roster spots.
Most noticeably – you did notice this, right? – the Dodgers are the reigning champions of baseball. All of this is relevant to the Winter Meetings, which is not so much an event but a state of mind. The annual gathering was supposed to commence on Monday at the Omni Hotel in Dallas. Instead, all meetings are being conducted virtually. It remains to be seen whether this will actually spur teams to action. Up until the mid-1980s, teams were beholden to an offseason trade deadline. Gathering all the executives and agents under one roof for a week was practical. Now, even the tradition of meeting in one place is gone. It could be a quiet week for the Dodgers.
MLB could catalyze some action by announcing the National League will disallow designated hitters in 2021. It’s odd that this hasn’t happened, but the league and the players’ association reportedly aren’t even discussing the rule yet. Maybe because the clock is ticking to build rosters for next year, or because executives can pivot from a DH-less world into one with a DH with relative ease, NL teams are acting on the assumption they won’t have a DH next year.
Newsday’s Tim Healey reported that “in a memo last week, a source said, Major League Baseball reminded its clubs: The rule changes implemented over the summer in preparation for the sport’s pandemic-shorted season were guaranteed only for 2020, have since expired and won’t necessarily be part of next season.” Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi echoed this thought, via the San Francisco Chronicle’s John Shea: “We’ve been told to plan as if we’re not going to have it,” Zaidi said. “It was really something that was just put in place for 2020 given the unusual nature of the season. … We’re planning and I think assuming it’s not going to be in place. So for one more year, maybe we’re back to old-style NL baseball.”
What does that mean for the Dodgers?
Free agent third baseman Justin Turner, who turned 36 in November, is a more valuable player in a league with the DH rule. That doesn’t make a reunion with the Dodgers unlikely, per se. It merely makes Turner less useful on the field to the Dodgers and 14 other teams in 2021. Maybe that’s why the Dodgers are reportedly among a handful of teams to watch in the market for DJ LeMahieu – a free agent who can play second base, third base and perhaps DH as his age advances, if or when the rules allow. (LeMahieu turns 33 next July.) I can’t verify the substance of that rumor, but I think it presents a window to the broader picture of a National League without the DH.
Turner is among the free agents (Nelson Cruz, Marcell Ozuna, Kyle Schwarber, Daniel Murphy, Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Martinez, Shin-Soo Choo) who figure to be more valuable as hitters than fielders over the life of the contract they’re seeking. Within that group, only Cruz and Ozuna are considered so elite with a bat to inspire aggressive early bidding. They’re the pair who could awaken the DH market from its slumber. Turner’s cause is helped by the fact that he can still play a no-worse-than-competent third base for 100-120 games per season. Yet even he might have to wait for LeMahieu, Ozuna and/or Cruz to set the market before interested teams tender their final offer. That’s even more likely in a world where 15 teams aren’t expecting to have a DH next year. Will the Dodgers outbid the Yankees for DJ LeMahieu? Maybe not. But if the National League doesn’t have a DH in 2021, it makes sense for them to explore that market as long as possible before pivoting to Turner.
The Dodgers’ other in-house free agents (Joc Pederson, Kiké Hernandez, Blake Treinen, Pedro Baez and Alex Wood) seem even less likely to sign this week than Turner. Hernandez gave the Dodgers the luxury of a player who could slot into virtually any position on the field. If he doesn’t claim one of their three remaining roster spots, it would make sense for the Dodgers to pursue someone like LeMahieu who can move around the field with relative ease.
LeMahieu has seen time at all four infield positions in his career. Pederson is considered a more useful corner outfielder than, say, Schwarber, but still limited as a fielder – not the type of player whose market is expected to move quickly. I can envision Treinen going quickly to a team desperate for an elite reliever, but not the Dodgers. Baez and Wood are hitting the market at a poor time and might be left waiting a while.
Last year’s Winter Meetings saw teams make three trades. The most notable of these sent Tommy Pham and Jake Cronenworth to San Diego for Hunter Renfroe and Xavier Edwards. There were no trades during the 2018 Winter Meetings. The 2017 meetings featured six trades. Each year is its own beast. “There might be trades too” is the purpose of this paragraph.
The Rule 5 draft is Thursday. It’s not uncommon for the best team in baseball to have their farm system raided in the Rule 5 draft, so Thursday might be the most eventful day all week for the Dodgers. They aren’t expected to draft anyone. For the drafting team to keep a player selected in the Rule 5 draft, that player must remain on the team’s active roster for an entire season unless he is injured. The Dodgers don’t have the roster space to claim any player who will be useful to them in 2021. Internally, they are bracing for infielder Omar Estevez to be selected by another team. Baseball America lists six other Dodgers (RHP Marshall Kasowski, RHP Brett de Geus, RHP Shea Spitzbarth, RHP Jordan Sheffield, INF Cristian Santana and OF Cody Thomas) as possible selections. MLB.com mentions Sheffield and Kasowski.
The Dodgers, then, could see plenty of players depart the organization this week with few coming in. That’s not necessarily a bad place to be. It might just make for a long week.
— J.P.
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On a train bound for nowhere
- If the shoe fits ― Clayton Kershaw’s foundation wants to put shoes on the feet of underprivileged children.
- Rest in peace ― Former Dodger Dick Allen died Monday. In a COVID-less world, he might have become a Hall of Famer on Sunday.
- Come hither ― Tomoyuki Sugano, the best available Japanese pitcher on the free agent market, will be posted tomorrow.
- Rest in peace, part II ― Jairo Castillo, Dominican Republic-based scout foe the Dodgers, reportedly died from COVID-19.
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