Before commercial rumors warm up and the dream scenarios were briefly envisaged, before the Dodgers were linked to a series of big names that all ended everywhere, except in Los Angeles, the front office of the team prefigured what turned out to be a fairly simple and banal commercial deadline on Thursday afternoon.
“This group is really talented,” said managing director Brandon Gomes last week. “I would say it’s better than the team that won the World Series last year.”
“These are really our internal guys, and the fact that these are veterans who have well -established watermark,” echoes the president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, in the middle of a collapse of July who fueled speculations on the deadline on what the team would need.
“I think that the fact that we see the work they have devoted, how much they care, which facilitates the bet.”
Thursday, maintaining faith in their current group is exactly what the Dodgers have done.
The team met its two main needs before the annual deadline for MLB mid-season. In the enclosure of the lifts, he found the right -handed veteran Brock Stewart in a business with the twins of Minnesota. In the outside field, he added Alex, 30 years old, a 30 -year -old man on a defensive level, a 30 -year agreement with the nationals of Washington.
But compared to the burst of successful transactions that have repercussions around them in the National League – from a shopping trip to seven head players by the Padres of San Diego, to an arms race for the enclosure of the LEVEURS between the New York dishes and the phillies of Philadelphia – The movements of the Dodgers were light, dynamic and certainly cross.
They did not make follies for one of the many established farmmen who were treated at high prices in the league. They did not redo their alignment by winning someone like Steven Kwan, nor any other striker with something close to Pedigree All-Star.
In fact, the dodgers barely abandoned a lot at all, the content to complete the margins of their list while separating with little capital of perspective.
The High-A Eriq Swan and Sean Paul Liñan launchers (16th and 20th players classified in their agricultural system by MLB pipeline) were shipped to Washington. But if not, the only other starts were 40 men players, it is unlikely that the team’s end -of -season plans are taking a lot in the end of season plans: James Outman, who went to Minnesota in exchange for Stewart; Dustin May, who was treated at the Red Sox in Boston for a perspective a few months before entering free will; And the receiver of the minor leagues Hunter Feduccia, who was part of an agreement to three teams on Wednesday evening, which allowed the Dodgers with two prospects for pitching and a companion receiver.
The James Outman (33) of the Dodgers famous after hitting a three -point home run in a match against the Miami Marlins in May.
(Marta Lavandier / Associated Press)
Compared to last year – when the Dodgers added Jack Flaherty (their possible starter in match 1 in the World Series), Tommy Edman (the possible series of the National League championship series) and Michael Kopch (a key piece in an enclosure that brought the team to a world title) – all of this seemed to be anticlimatic.
Which, as the two Dodgers executives noted it the previous week, seemed perfectly well by them.
In Stewart, the team obtained an addition at a lower cost in what was an expensive market of the seller’s lifter.
The 33 -year -old man has only two career stops and it is unlikely to solve the problems of ninth round of the Dodgers. But, he has a strong statistical season with 14 selected and an MPM of 2.38, the 14th best of the American league among the lifts with 30 sleeves. He will give Dodgers a solid option against right -handed strikers, who have only an average of .104 and 0.372 Ops against him. And he comes with a familiarity in the organization, well thought out after starting his career with the Dodgers from 2016 to 2019 – before reinventing himself with a quick bullet which is now in the range of 90 MPH greater than 90 MPH.
On appeal, the dodgers have given themselves more versatility in the outside field.
The right -handed striker appeared in only 277 career games during four seasons of MLB with the Nationals and the Cleveland Guardians.
But the old choice of third round has a beautiful 2025 season, highlighted by an average in the stick of .274, 0.756 ops and decent defensive notes (although not very spectacular) with three outdoor fields.
Although the appeal role was not immediately clear, he could take into account a peloton with a recently resident left -wing from Michael Comforto. It also gives Dodgers another option in the central field, in particular, which would allow Andy Pages to spend more time in a more adapted angle field spot.
For these dodgers, the movements checked their two main priorities: add another reliable right -hander in the enclosure of the readers and improve their defensive options in the outside field.
However, what was missing in the deadline of dodgers is the kind of big splashes, so many other contenders disturbed this week. The Padres acquired Mason Miller, Ramon Laureano and Ryan O’Hearn without sacrificing keypieces in the big league. The dishes added Tyler Rogers, Ryan Helsley and Gregory Soto to their already robust enclosure, while the phillies improved theirs with the addition of Jhoan Durán.
Already this year, the rest of the NL followed the pace of what was presented as an apparently invincible Dodgers team. Suddenly, the competition seems even stronger, not only for the club to defend its World Series, but even to preserve the narrow advance of three games, it holds on the Padres in the NL West.
Dodgers, however, consider internal improvement as the key to the rest of the season.
Already, their pitching staff is becoming healthy. Tyler Glasnow, Blake Treinen and (from this coming Saturday) Blake Snell are all back from prolonged injuries. Michael Kopech, Brusdar Graterol, Tanner Scott and Roki Sasaki should also return in the past two months.
Offensively, the club is convinced that the stars of Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Tesocar Hernández will recover on the right track, and that Max Muncy will provide a jolt in his return from the injury next week. All this – coupled with the MVP caliber game of Shohei Ohtani and Will Smith – they believe that the range of ranges capable of repeating a race for the World Series.
“It is always difficult when you are in the middle of a fainting in the performance of the team, because in these moments, you have the impression that we need everything,” admitted Friedman, leading to the deadline, the team undergoing a slide of 10-14 in July. “So, for us, it is, okay, let’s examine in August, September. Let’s look at what our best case scenario is. See, if we have some injuries here and there, what areas are we exposed? What areas do we have the impression of having a depth?”
Apparently, dodgers still loved what they already had, rolling the dice on their current group while other contenders approached all around them.
