Dodgers Dugout: Doesn’t anyone want to play for the Dodgers?

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell and now the road to the postseason speeds up.

The trade deadline is over, and the Dodgers missed out on the big names they targeted. Justin Verlander apparently wanted to play for Houston (no relation) instead of the Dodgers. Not a huge surprise, because Verlander spurned the Dodgers in the offseason, signing with the New York Mets instead.

Then, Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez, who had the Dodgers listed as one of the 10 teams he wouldn’t agree to be traded to, invoked that clause after a deal was in place for the Dodgers to acquire him. He apparently wanted to stay in the East and be closer to his family in Miami.

Ouch. Doesn’t anyone want to play for the Dodgers?

So, let’s recap who the Dodgers did get, some of whom we wrote about last time.

—Kiké Hernández. Versatile, can’t hit right-handers.

—Amed Rosario. Good hitter, bad fielder.

—Joe Kelly, RH reliever. The Dodgers reunited with their former reliever who famously made the pouty face toward the Astros after throwing inside to Carlos Correa, then striking him out in 2020. Kelly was reacquired exactly three years to the day of the pouty face incident.

Kelly signed with the Chicago White Sox as a free agent after the 2021 season and has been terrible. He had a 5.59 ERA in 74 games with them. However, his Fielding Independent Pitching ERA, a number teams like the Dodgers look at, was 3.14, meaning he was having some bad luck. FIP is similar to ERA, but it focuses only on the events a pitcher has the most control over — strikeouts, walks, hit batters and home runs. It entirely removes results on balls hit into the field of play. If a pitcher has surrendered a high average of balls in play, his FIP likely will be lower than his ERA. Now, you can dismiss that stat as silly, and you might be right, but it is a stat most teams use to evaluate pitchers, so it is relevant to this trade.

If Kelly is pitching to some bad luck, and if coming back to the Dodgers rejuvenates him, then it’s a good pickup. The problem with acquiring guys such as Kelly (and everyone else on this list) is that they are “let’s wait and see” instead of “It’s so great we got him!”

—Lance Lynn, RH starting pitcher. Lynn led the AL in two categories this season: earned runs and home runs given up. He also struck out 144 in 119-2/3 innings. This is a guy who finished third in Cy Young voting in 2021 and had been a solid starter before this season’s epic collapse. His FIP is 5.21, so it’s not a case of bad luck that he has a 6.47 ERA. Even Lynn is at a loss to explain what happened.

“I’ve had some ups and downs this year, for sure,” Lynn said. “When you look at ERA and wins and losses, it’s the worst I’ve had in my career. And then you look at strikeouts per nine innings and stuff like that, and they’re the best I’ve ever had.

“It’s been a weird year, but hopefully we can make sure that the ERA and wins take care of themselves, and we keep the other things going in a positive direction, and maybe a change of scenery will help that. I feel good physically, so when you feel good, you know you can go out there and be capable of a lot of things.”

On Tuesday against Oakland, Lynn pitched seven innings, giving up three solo homers among seven hits while striking out seven and walking one. Good outing, but it was against Oakland. Just last week, a youth summer camp in Oakland brought the kids to an A’s game. The counselors turned their back for a minute, and the kids stormed the field and defeated the A’s, 6-2.

To acquire Kelly and Lynn, the Dodgers sent outfielder Trayce Thompson and minor league pitchers Nick Nastrini and Jordan Leasure. Kelly ($9.5 million) and Lynn ($18.5 million) have team options for next season. Nastrini and Leasure were not considered to be among the Dodgers’ top prospects.

—Ryan Yarbrough, LH starting pitcher. You look at his numbers, 4.24 ERA, 4.29 FIP, 52 hits in 51 innings, and you think “Ho-hum.” But dig a little deeper and you see: a 3.08 ERA as a starter (7.62 in relief) and a 3-1 record with a 2.19 ERA in four July starts. Suddenly the deal makes more sense. Could be a very underrated acquisition. However, he did have a 4.90 ERA in 50 starts spread over 2021 and 2022, so it’s another “Wait and see.”

To acquire Yarbrough, the Dodgers sent two minor leaguers, second baseman Devin Mann and shortstop Derlin Figueroa. Again, neither was listed among the team’s top prospects.

The Dodgers made a series of smaller trades to clear roster spots for the new players:

—RHP Phil Bickford and LHP Adam Kolarek to the Mets for cash.

—SS Eddys Leonard to the Tigers for cash.

—LHP Justin Bruihl to the Colorado Rockies for cash.

So what to think of these trades? Well, it doesn’t really seem to address their needs, the biggest of which is solid, reliable starting pitching. Maybe Lynn will rebound, though the odds seem against it. Maybe Yarbrough will be solid. The Dodgers starting rotation today:

Julio Urías, having his worst season
Tony Gonsolin, having his worst season
Lance Lynn, having his worst season
Ryan Yarbrough, coming off two bad seasons but had a nice July
Bobby Miller, a rookie and future ace but learning on the fly

And in a week or so, hopefully, Clayton Kershaw will rejoin the rotation. But who goes when he comes back? Miller, probably, even though he is probably not the worst pitcher in the rotation.

So there are two ways of looking at this. The pessimistic side says the Dodgers have done nothing to really improve on the mound and can’t win the World Series with a rotation this bad.

The optimistic side says there are no guarantees in the postseason. That the Dodgers made all the right trade deadline moves in seasons past and still didn’t win the World Series, so baseball karma may do the reverse this season. That either Urías or Gonsolin (or both) will rebound to previous form. That Kershaw will come back 100% and remain the excellent starter he has been.

That’s a lot of ifs, though. The Dodgers will make the postseason. We’ll just have to wait and see what kind of team they have when it begins. Anyone guaranteeing that the Dodgers will or can’t win the World Series with this team is selling you a load of rubbish, because baseball history tells us otherwise. As the Dodgers have done with all their trades, we’ll just have to wait and see how the next eight weeks play out. But, on the day after the trade deadline, the Dodgers seem more vulnerable to a disappointing end to the season than at any time in recent memory.

What did everyone else do?

Of course, the Dodgers did not make these trades in a void. A lot of other teams made deals too, teams that have postseason potential. And some of them did better than the Dodgers. Let’s take a look at the NL teams, because the Dodgers will have to make their way through them to reach the World Series.

Arizona: Acquired outfielder Tommy Pham from the Mets for infielder Jeremy Rodriguez.

Pham is hitting .268/.348/.472 and overcame a slow start to put up solid numbers. Rodriguez, 17, signed out of the Dominican Republic for $1.25 million during the spring.

Arizona: Acquired infielder Jace Peterson and from the Athletics for pitcher Chad Patrick.

Peterson is one of those guys who can play everywhere but can’t really hit.

Atlanta: Acquired left-handed reliever Brad Hand from the Rockies for pitcher Alec Barger.

Hand remains a solid reliever, striking out 41 in 35-2/3 innings.

Chicago: Acquired third baseman Jeimer Candelario from the Washington Nationals for shortstop Kevin Made and pitcher D.J. Herz.

Candelario has been a revelation, with 30 doubles and 16 homers.

Miami: Acquired infielder Jake Burger from the Chicago White Sox for left-hander Jake Eder.

Burger can hit mammoth home runs but is hitting only .214. Sort of like the Dodgers acquiring Joey Gallo last season.

Miami: Acquired first baseman Josh Bell from the Cleveland Guardians for second baseman Jean Segura and infielder Kahlil Watson.

Bell has struggled the last season and a half, hitting .219 with limited power.

Miami: Acquired closer David Robertson from the Mets for infielder Marco Vargas and catcher Ronald Hernandez.

Robertson had 14 saves and a 2.05 ERA with the Mets and already saved a game with the Marlins.

Milwaukee: Acquired left-handed reliever Andrew Chafin from Arizona for right-hander Peter Strzelecki.

Chafin has been an effective reliever almost his entire 10-year career and had eight saves for the Diamondbacks this season.

Milwaukee: Acquired first baseman Carlos Santana from the Pittsburgh Pirates for shortstop Jhonny Severino.

Santana is winding down his career and hasn’t been a good hitter since 2019.

Milwaukee: Acquired outfielder Mark Canha from the Mets for pitcher Justin Jarvis.

Canha is a decent hitter with an OPS+ of 102 this season but a career OPS+ of 115.

Philadelphia: Acquired right-handed pitcher Michael Lorenzen from the Tigers for infielder Hao-Yu Lee.

After a couple of subpar seasons, Lorenzen rebounded and has a 3.58 ERA and made the All-Star team.

San Diego: Acquired left-hander Rich Hill and first baseman Ji Man Choi from the Pirates for pitcher Jackson Wolf, outfielder Estuar Suero and first baseman Alfonso Rivas.

Former Dodger Hill is about 70 years old and had a 4.76 ERA for the Pirates. Choi has had an injury-plagued year and is hitting .205.

San Francisco: Acquired outfielder AJ Pollock and infielder Mark Mathias from the Seattle Mariners for a player to be named.

Another former Dodger gets traded on deadline day. Pollock hasn’t hit at all since leaving L.A. after the 2021 season, batting .173 this season. Mathias is a guy who, stop me if you’ve heard this before, can play everywhere but can’t hit too well.

Up next

Wednesday: Oakland (*Hogan Harris, 2-5, 6.07 ERA) at Dodgers (Tony Gonsolin, 5-4, 4.25 ERA), 7 p.m., SportsNet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

Thursday: Oakland (*J.P. Sears, 2-7, 4.09 ERA) at Dodgers (*Julio Urías, 7-6, 4.98 ERA), 7 p.m., SportsNet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

*-left-handed

In case you missed it

Plaschke: Trade deadline debacle! Dodgers, Andrew Friedman fail to improve starting pitching

Dodgers miss on Justin Verlander, get spurned by Eduardo Rodriguez at trade deadline

MLB trade deadline tracker: All the moves by the Dodgers, Angels and everyone else

Dave Roberts understands the shock and heartache players feel at trade deadline

Dodgers’ Lance Lynn happy for clean slate, but ‘you don’t forget the last four months, either’

Nolan Arenado isn’t going anywhere. Cardinals say they aren’t trading him

Amed Rosario helping Dodgers bolster their ‘platoon advantage’ vs. left-handers

And finally

Ross Porter chats with Ted Williams and Mike Piazza. Watch and listen here.