If the Dodgers Can Trade for Just One Player, Who Should it Be?
Never in my life has it occurred to me to say something like this: “Yeah, I’d be fine if the Dodgers did nothing at the trade deadline.” Not a single time, never. And while it’s not my recommendation that the club stand pat, I’ll understand the reasoning if that's what happens.
The “depth” card is played in Los Angeles as much as it is anywhere in baseball. More, really. And the 2020 Dodger roster is as deep as most of us can recall. The team literally does not have room for all the talent it possesses. You can ask Tony Gonsolin about that.
The Dodgers have no needs. Think about that; no needs. I’m not even sure they have wants, but I know they have no needs.
It would be nice for lefty-swingers Joc Pederson, Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy to produce normally. Both Joc and Cody had a game’s worth of good at bats Friday at Chavez Ravine (Dodgers 6, Rockies 1), which is encouraging, and Muncy is a big time postseason performer, so I’m not particularly worried about him. More importantly, management isn’t either. With the possible exception of a belated promotion of Gavin Lux, nothing is required to shore up left-side hitting.
The bullpen is almost too good to be believed this year. The relief corps sports a combined 10-4 record (same as the starters), a 1.81 ERA, a 0.977 WHIP, a .183/.262/.261 opponents batting line and 114 strikeouts in 114 2/3 innings. To give you an idea, with as close a match as I could find, Mariano Rivera's 2006 season mark is as follows: 1.80, 0.960, .223/.264/.288, with 55 strikeouts in 75 innings.
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So for the first time in Andrew Friedman’s seven years as the team's big boss, and going back years prior to his arrival, L.A. could, should and probably will stand pat in the relief pitcher department.
They don’t need a starting pitcher. At all. They have to choose the right five — and four in October — but the men are there. Please don’t ask me if I think the Dodgers will make the right calls (yes to Gonsolin, no to Alex Wood; Ross Stripling to the pen if there is room for him) because I don’t know. But I'm hopeful.
To review, Los Angeles is set with lefty-slugging, starting pitching and in the pen. The regulars and their understudies are healthy. So what does that leave? Moreover, per the headline, and since my assignment is to suggest one player the Dodgers should trade or trade for (see SI.com early next week), I shall name one player the Dodgers should trade for. The player is the Royals' Whit Merrifield.
To be clear, the Dodgers do not need Merrifield. But what if they were to reach out and get him anyway? Just what if?
Here's what if: they'd play him at second base, where he would replace Kiké Hernández against right-handers (2020 Merrifield vs. RHP = .293/.356/.494; Kiké = .225/.296/.412). They’d play him in center at times too, with Bellinger moving to first base and Muncy to second. Then they’d marvel at the almost droid-level consistency of the Kansas City veteran’s offensive performance.
Well, they won’t marvel, because if they trade for him it’s because they know precisely what it is they're getting. Because they know that if you look at the splits — almost anywhere within the splits — the Pavlovian response is to drool.
Pick almost any year of Merrifield's career, and especially any of the last four including this one, and you’ll find the home/road, left/right and first half/second half numbers to be almost identical. Yes, like most right-hand hitters, he’s a little better vs. left-handers (.313/.363/.508 lifetime) than right (.291/.339/.428 lifetime), but so what? Look at almost any month of any year and you’ll see a batting average around .300, an on base percentage of .350 or .360 and a slugging percentage around .450. He’s hitting .313/.373/.525 right now.
Please note also that Merrifield is a two-time American League stolen base leader, and whether the Dodgers would choose to use him in that way or not, they'd certainly welcome another excellent base runner to a team full of them.
Two important questions remain: could Los Angeles trade for Merrifield and would they trade for him.
The answer to the first question is yes, definitely. With Merrifield's team-friendly contract (pre-shutdown 2020 salary of $5 million, 2021 salary of $6.75 mil plus incentives, 2022 salary of $2.75 mil plus incentives and a 2023 option for $10.5 mil or a $750,000 buyout) it would require a package of fine young Dodgers, of which there are many. Two, three or possibly four from a list like this, in no particular order: Mitch White, D.J. Peters, Zach McKinstry, Cody Thomas, Victor Gonzalez, Marshall Kazowski, Jacob Amayo, Micheal Busch, Jeren Kendall, Zach Reks or Brayden Fisher. Should KC want someone not on this list (and not named Josiah Gray), and they might, there’s room for discussion.
Would the Dodgers make such a trade? I think they would, perhaps more so this year than they would have before or at some future time. All in.
Will the Dodgers make such a trade? That I can’t tell you. But it wouldn’t be all that difficult to pull off, and it wouldn’t surprise me a bit.
And the baseball world would exclaim, "Oh c'mon, that's unfair!"
Howard Cole has been writing about baseball on the internet since Y2K. Follow him on Twitter.
