On the eve of MLB’s annual trade deadline, the Dodgers are akin to a rich shopper at a flea market.
They have plenty of prospect capital in their highly-touted farm system to entice teams with, plenty of needs to fill out their talented but flawed first-place roster, yet few obvious places to look in a deadline season featuring few clear impact players.
As manager Dave Roberts said Sunday, there are many “paths” the team could go down in the next two days, and plenty of available options to bolster their injury-plagued outfit.
Yet, as the clock ticks down to Tuesday’s 3 p.m. PT deadline, there is no clear hierarchy of targets they are after. No one player likely to assuage their growing list of concerns.
Read more: Dodgers avoid sweep against Astros, then continue to wait for trade-deadline action
Instead, people around the sport see the Dodgers as one of the wild card clubs of this year’s deadline: Capable of swinging an unexpected, last-minute blockbuster — or potentially content to make more marginal upgrades to a roster expected to get several key players back from injuries between now and October.
As Tuesday’s deadline nears, here are some possible trade partners to watch for.
The Dodgers and Tigers agreed to a headline trade for pitcher Eduardo Rodríguez last year — only for Rodríguez to veto it by invoking a no-trade clause in his contract.
Twelve months later, the Dodgers and Tigers seem like fitting trade partners again, with Detroit possessing the kind of quality starting pitching the Dodgers have coveted amid a wave of rotation injuries.
This week’s biggest prize for the Dodgers (or any other contending team) would be Cy Young front-runner Tarik Skubal. The 27-year-old left-hander is 12-3 this season with a 2.35 ERA, and would immediately rectify any worries about the team’s frontline pitching options come October.
The only problem: Most industry observers don’t believe that Skubal, who has two seasons of team control left after this year, will be dealt right now. Prying him away would require one of the bigger trade packages seen in recent memory — likely including several top prospects plus young MLB talent — and even that might not get it done.
Skubal isn’t the only Tigers pitcher that would fit for the Dodgers, though.
Right-handed veteran Jack Flaherty might be the best pending free-agent pitcher on the market this year, with a 7-5 record and 2.95 ERA. He would likely still come at a premium cost, but one the Dodgers — who have had interest in Flaherty in the past — could be more willing to match in order to add another potential postseason starter to their roster.
If the Dodgers are looking to package a bat in a potential Tigers deal, Detroit also has Mark Canha, one of several rental outfielders that remain available ahead of the deadline.
Assuming Skubal stays put, White Sox lefty Garrett Crochet could easily assume the role of “best pitcher moved at the deadline.”
The 25-year-old All-Star is 6-8 this year with a 3.23 ERA, and is leading the American League with 160 strikeouts.
He would come with some complications — including potential workload restrictions (he has already doubled his previous career-high for innings) and a reported desire for a contract extension with any team that acquires him (even though he has two years of team control remaining after this season).
However, multiple people with knowledge of the situation but not authorized to speak publicly believe the Dodgers are still interested in Crochet, and see his reported contract preference as only another hurdle to clear in a potential deal — not an unresolvable roadblock that would scare the Dodgers off.
Read more: How trade deadline dynamics have complicated the Dodgers’ pursuit of Garrett Crochet
Still, nabbing Crochet won’t be easy, with the White Sox likely looking to acquire a package of top prospect talent (potentially centered on someone like catcher Dalton Rushing, a top-100 prospect in the sport) in return for the southpaw.
To this point, the Dodgers have yet to match such an asking price.
The White Sox have other players the Dodgers see as fits, namely outfielders Luis Robert Jr. and Tommy Pham.
Robert Jr. is one of the more talented hitters available this week, but is having a down season (.210 average, 12 home runs, .722 OPS) and would come with a history of injuries.
Pham (.266 average, five home runs, .710 OPS) has been an impact postseason performer before, most recently as a deadline addition for last year’s pennant-winning Arizona Diamondbacks team. Whether the Dodgers view him as a big enough upgrade over their current outfield mix, however, remains to be seen.
If the Dodgers want to add another reliever, right-hander Michael Kopech could be moved as well.
If the Dodgers strike out on their starting pitcher targets, they could pivot to bolstering a bullpen that has been overused and increasingly unreliable in recent weeks.
If so, no name would be a better fit than Marlins closer Tanner Scott, a veteran left-hander with a minuscule 1.18 ERA this year.
While Scott will be a free agent at the end of the year, the market for closers has not been cheap in recent days. The Angels got two highly-regarded prospects from the Philadelphia Phillies for Carlos Estévez. The Tampa Bay Rays got three prospects from the San Diego Padres for set-up man Jason Adam.
The Marlins could demand at least that much for Scott, who has 18 saves in 20 opportunities. And while the Dodgers have made a habit of adding bullpen depth at past trade deadlines, they’ve typically shied away from overpaying for any one big-name reliever, wary of parting with too much for a rental bullpen arm.
Nonetheless, the Dodgers have expressed interest in Scott, according to people with knowledge of the situation but not authorized to speak publicly, and could feel renewed urgency to add a lockdown late-inning option like him given Evan Phillips’ struggles the last month.
One name that has gotten buzz in recent days is St. Louis Cardinals utilityman Tommy Edman, as The Athletic first reported.
Edman has yet to appear in the majors this year because of an offseason wrist surgery and sprained ankle during rehab work. But he is currently on a minor-league rehab assignment, and could offer the Dodgers versatility in the field (where he plays second base, third base, shortstop and the outfield) and at the plate (as a switch-hitter with slightly better numbers from the left side).
The Dodgers have coveted Edman in the past, according to one person with knowledge of the situation but not authorized to speak publicly. The Dodgers also have the kind of young, controllable MLB-caliber pitching the Cardinals are believed to be seeking for Edman as well.
Again, the question could be whether the Dodgers feel Edman — who has a nearly league-average .726 OPS in his career — would represent a significant enough upgrade over their current options.
The team’s faith in Max Muncy’s status — the third baseman has missed more than two months with an oblique strain, and still has no defined timeline to return — could also be a factor.
On the pitching side, another name to watch is veteran reliever Giovanny Gallegos. The Dodgers have expressed interest in the right-hander, according to a person with knowledge of the situation but not authorized to speak publicly, after he was designated for assignment this week.
Wild-card team
Given the bunched-up nature of MLB’s wild card standings, it’s still unclear whether several teams will be buyers or sellers over the next few days.
Because of that, the Dodgers’ list of potential trade partners could still change by Tuesday afternoon, leaving currently unknown options as potential last-minute targets.
The Dodgers have long had interest in San Francisco Giants left-hander Blake Snell, who has become a popular deadline name with the club on the fringes of the wild card standings. It’s doubtful, however, that the Giants would trade Snell to their biggest division rival — or if they’ll even move him at all, sitting just 3 ½ games out of the wild card.
The Texas Rangers are another team the Dodgers have watched closely in recent weeks, as they’ve dangled on the edge on AL West contention.
Right now, the defending World Series champions appear more likely to try and stay competitive, sitting just 4 ½ games out of first in their division. But if Texas changes course, pending free agent pitchers like Nathan Eovaldi and Michael Lorenzen could be fits for the Dodgers’ pitching staff (Eovaldi as a potential playoff starter; Lorenzen as a possible swingman in either the October rotation or bullpen).
Elsewhere, the Washington Nationals have a closer, Kyle Finnegan, and outfielder, Lane Thomas, that could suit the Dodgers’ roster.
Yusei Kikuchi of the Toronto Blue Jays and Jameson Taillon of the Chicago Cubs loom as available starting pitching alternatives.
The Oakland A’s have two emerging stars in outfielder/DH Brent Rooker and closer Mason Miller — though may be content to keep both through this deadline.
The Angels also have two burgeoning bats in Taylor Ward and Luis Rengifo, as well as former Dodgers pitcher Tyler Anderson, all on the block; though, like with the Giants, trades between the Dodgers and their Southern California rivals have proven to be a rarity.
Read more: Plaschke: Trade deadline feels like panic time for Dodgers
For several weeks now, the hope among people around the Dodgers organization is that the team can land either an impact player or enough piecemeal acquisitions to round out their top-heavy roster and prime a potential World Series push.
On the eve of the deadline, though, exactly what the club will do — or how urgently it pursues potentially pricy additions — remains to be seen.
“I still believe we need something,” Roberts said Sunday. “I just don’t know where, what it is or who it is.”
In other words, happy trade deadline season.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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