Let's Make a Deal

Baseball America looks at the draft classes for the NL West:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/baseball-america/id201539011?i=1000679457917

As usual, bullish on the Dodgers and padres. But also took a shot to the Giants draft class.

OK, I asked ChatGPT what a team player is:

A team player is someone who works well within a group, contributing to the collective success of the team rather than focusing solely on individual achievements. Key traits of a team player include:

Collaboration: They communicate effectively and collaborate with others to achieve common goals. They are willing to listen, share ideas, and offer support to teammates.

Adaptability: They can adjust to changing roles, responsibilities, or strategies within the team, showing flexibility in their approach to work.

Respect: A team player values the opinions and contributions of others, creating a positive and inclusive environment. They show respect for diverse perspectives and experiences.

Reliability: They take responsibility for their tasks and are dependable. A team player follows through on commitments and ensures that their part of the work is completed on time and with quality.

Problem-solving: Team players work together to overcome challenges and find solutions. They contribute ideas to address issues and are willing to assist others in resolving problems.

Supportive: They encourage and motivate teammates, fostering a sense of unity and camaraderie. They celebrate others’ successes and provide help when needed.

Conflict Resolution: When conflicts arise, a team player addresses them constructively, striving to maintain harmony and positive relationships within the team.

Overall, being a team player means prioritizing the success of the team over personal gains, ensuring a cooperative and productive group dynamic.

Next week at the Winter Meetings on the last day, the Rule 5 Draft will take place. The Dodgers have already lost Drew Avans as a minor league Free Agent and cold lose more. The Athletic listed these tow as strong possibilities:

Damon Keith, OF, Dodgers

There always seem to be a handful of intriguing power bats from the Dodgers organization in the Rule 5 pool and Keith is definitely one of those this year. A 2021 18th-round pick out of California Baptist, Keith was limited by injuries but hit 16 homers in 75 Double-A games this past season (and one in a rehab Arizona Complex League game for good measure). He’s a three-true-outcomes type with a career .455 SLG and .368 OBP but 396 strikeouts in 327 games. Keith, 24, is limited to the corners defensively but the power could be intriguing enough for a team to call his name.

Ryan Ward, 1B, Dodgers

During the 2022 Rule 5 draft, the A’s took a first baseman named Ryan from the Dodgers with the second pick. Ryan Noda ended up posting a 2.3-WAR season in 2023 before losing his starting job in 2024. Ryan Ward, 26, doesn’t have Noda’s long track record of above-average OBPs, but he does have similar power from the left side. Ward hit a career-high 34 homers in 2024, mostly at the Triple-A level. He’s never had fewer than 21 homers in any of his four full minor-league seasons. He doesn’t give any defensive flexibility, but a team looking for left-handed power might want to give him a shot.

Allegedly, the Dodgers are still in the Soto Sweepstakes and of course, Friedman and Company are not talking to anyone about him, so when all the reporters say that the Dodgers are a ” longshot” this is based upon their own biases and opinions. If Friedman really was will ing to play $600 Million for Soto, he damn sure would pay a little more as well.

Notice: This is based upon my own opinion and biases!

Just saw a fresh report that the White Sox are intent on dealing Luis Robert Jr. this winter because they fear that a slow start would crater his value.

If I ran the woeful White Sox, I’d be thinking the same thing: get maximum value now and let another team take on the risk. . . and the potential reward.

And the Dodgers are certainly positioned to assume the risk on Robert’s upside.

No doubt, Robert is an impressive athlete in the mold of Yasiel Puig–big, powerful and swift–but with a less mercurial (“wild horse”) personality. His arm may be a notch below Puig’s, but he has shown more power with his bat. He had an awful, injury-shortened ’24, but in ’23 Robert clubbed 38 HRs with an OPS over .850 while playing CF at a very high level.

Robert’s ’23 season on a crappy team was much better than Teoscar’s ’24 on a championship team .

And this is important: Robert is still only 27–just one year older than Juan Soto–and is playing on a team-friendly contract for the next two seasons. So he’d make the Dodgers younger and upgrade the defense. (Soto, who would cost a fortune, would make the Dodgers younger but not help the defense.)

So what should the Dodgers offer to the White Sox?

–Dalton Rushing. This may hurt the most, but Rushing is the big slugging prospect the ChiSox reportedly covet. Right now, he is blocked by Will Smith at catcher and by Freddie at 1B, so the Dodgers are considering him for LF. With no clear near-term role, Rushing may have more valuable as a big trade chip.

–Lux. With Mookie moving to 2B, Lux could get a fresh start elsewhere. He’d immediately move into the White Sox starting lineup and might figure out how to hit lefties. He could have another shot at shortstop.

–Pages or Outman. Robert’s arrival would make one of them expendable, and the White Sox would get a new ML-tested outfielder. (I’d give the Sox a choice and prefer they take Pages. Outman’s lefty bat and superior defense make him more valuable to the Dodgers.)

–Ryan Ward. Blocked with the Dodgers, but vulnerable in the Rule 5 draft. He could fit into an OF platoon and see action at DH.

Obviously the deal could include pitching prospects and second-tier position prospects, like Gauthier and Feduccia. (Should we offer Knack and Wrobleski and keep Rushing?) My guess is that the White Sox will want more ML-ready talent than young guys like De Paula, J Vargas and Zyhir Hope–but who knows? The Dodgers have a lot of prospect capital at various levels that would interest Chicago.

Best-case scenario: Roberts stays healthy and fulfills his superstar potential and rules CF for the Dodgers for the foreseeable future at least until he’s the age that Teo is now.

Worst-case: It doesn’t work out and the Dodgers move on. Again, no team is in a better position to assume the risk.

A new, improved lineup card….

Shohei DH

Mookie 2B

Freddie 1B

Teo LF

Muncy 3B

Smith C

Robert CF

Edman SS

Outman/Pages or Taylor RF

Robert would probably benefit from the Dodgers’ attentive team culture, with role models like Mookie and staff working to keep his body healthy. He could bat cleanup, but he may benefit from less pressure because he wouldn’t have to be “The Man” the way he is for the White Sox.

If AF wants to really pig out, he could deal for Robert and sign Adames too. Edman would shift to more of a utility role and perhaps be in platoon in LF.

It’s nice to root for the Dodgers.

Lot of opportunities, but I don’t believe Soto will be part of LA’s future.

Don’t see a trade for Crochet. I do expect the Dodgers to sign Roki Sasaki.

Will they sign Adames? Probably not.

I do believe they re-sign Teo.

I like the idea of trading for Williams. Lux would be a good start to land him.

The one Stat that doesn’t show up in comparisons between of Ohtani and Soto is the sponsorship and advertising dollars the Dodgers receive because Ohtani is in LA. Soto is a really good young player, but not a money generation machine.

I hate to see Buehler go, but if the Dodgers get Sasaki, I just don’t see that happening.

It’s funny that nobody remembers the comments Crochet made at the trade deadline. Didn’t sound like a team guy to me. Only team guys need apply. I was pining for Robert Jr. at the deadline, if he could buy into the team mentality I’ll take him.

The thing about trading pre 2A players is that you really don’t know yet what they’re ceiling is. So be careful AF.

I love the hot stove but so far it’s not even luke warm. I don’t like to throw too much at the wall. So I just calmly wait for the fireworks. Lately the Dodgers have loved fireworks. So patience is a must right now. But I do love you Adames and Soto guys going at it.

Book em

Would love to have Buehler back. You can’t put a price on (nor teach) his bad-ass attitude– you only hope it rubs off on other players. For me, Buehler is in the Kershaw category– he can be a Dodger as long as he wants within financial reason.

Buster Olney is reporting the Dodgers will sign Roki Sasaki.

The Los Angeles Dodgers might not be done adding to their star-studded rotation.

According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, the “widespread industry belief” is that Japanese star pitcher Rōki Sasaki has already chosen where he wants to sign, and that his “most likely” choice is the Dodgers.

Sasaki, who turned 23 on Nov. 23, is joining the MLB for the 2025 season after a dominant four seasons with Nippon Professional Baseball. He qualifies as an international amateur free agent and can receive a limited amount of money on his first contract.

Should he choose to join the Dodgers he would pair up with fellow countrymen Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto on what is shaping up to be one of the strongest pitching lineups in the MLB.

We all love Teo, Hope we sign him. Then hoping that it will age well!!

I think a trade for Crochet is one the Dodgers should make regardless the costs in personnel from the minors. As Mark stated a lot of them are blocked from every getting to the majors with the Dodgers plus they are getting older and losing there value.

I think Mark (?) was against Robert’s being acquired in prior posts, due to his durability. But if he was included in a trade, that would make Edman our primary SS, which in my opinion is more than acceptable as unfortunately Taylor isn’t going anywhere.

While getting Soto would be incredible, Teo is the more realistic option. Somebody who really wants to be here and was a huge plus in the locker room and came through with clutch at bats.

Who still hope to see Buehler back as I think what we saw in the playoffs was the real deal.

I like your trade creativity, especially increasing the Dodger’s international money to land Sasaki. However, I am not a fan of Crochet and I’d be very surprised if the Dodger add another fragile arm to their line-up.

I think the hitting line-up you propose is missing a person to mash left handers like Teoscar did last season, and he was amazingly clutch in in key moments. I think back to the Dodgers trip to play at Yankee Stadium. Teoscar carried the offense and showed me he’s not daunted by the moment.

In the non-clutch category are CT3, Muncy, Outman/Pages. Having three of these players in the everday line-up would be challenging. Yes, Muncy hits opportunistic HRs (i.e. when the game is already decided), and he draws an occassional walk, but going hitless in the World Series tells me all I need to know.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Buster Olney discussed the Juan Soto’s free agency on Thursday, and both came to the conclusion that he could break the record for the largest total money given in a single contract.

“It’s a perfect storm of bidding, and through the use of deferrals, it does not seem out of the realm of possibility that the broad strokes of his deal could be something in the range of $750 million over 15 years,” Olney said.

“It’s an enormous number,” Passan concurred. “It could include deferred money, but less than a year after Shohei Ohtani signed a $700 million contract that shattered the previous record by nearly $275 million, Soto might exceed it.”

Soto is not anywhere near the player Ohtoni is.This will eventually be a huge mistake whoever signs him(Mets).

Per Feinsand:

https://www.mlb.com/news/willy-adames-free-agent-backup-plan-yankees?partnerID=mlbapp-iOS_article-share

Yankees and Mets most likely destinations for Soto.

Adames also mentioned with Yankees (and Giants)

He also says the dearth of catchers could make Rushing a hot trade piece.

Drew Avens just signed as free agent wit A’s, probably can’t trade him to White Sox

I don’t think you can trade for that much International Pool money. There are limits on each trade.

So many options.

Jim Bowden is advocating this:

Dodgers pick up Devin Williams from Brewers

After landing another ace for their rotation in Blake Snell, it’s time for the Dodgers to address the back end of their bullpen. After missing the first four months of last season with stress fractures in his back, Williams returned in late July and dominated. He posted a 1.25 ERA and 0.969 WHIP in 22 appearances with 14 saves and 38 strikeouts over 21 2/3 innings. His arsenal includes arguably the best changeup in the sport. In return for an impact closer like Williams, the Brewers could get shortstop Gavin Lux, who would replace Willy Adames at shortstop and allow Joey Ortiz to play third base. They would also need to get a pitcher back in the deal and perhaps Justin Wrobleski, a 24-year-old lefty who posted a 3.76 ERA in 20 appearances (18 starts) between Double A and Triple A last season, would work for both teams. Williams has one more year of team control while Lux has two. Even if the Dodgers got Williams, they could still re-sign Blake Treinen; as Andrew Friedman, Brandon Gomes and company learned last year, you can never have enough pitching. And to replace Lux, the Dodgers could sign Adames to play shortstop. The rich get richer.

David Vassegh of AM 570 LA Sports reports said, “My understanding, talking to people around the league, they expect Teoscar Hernández to re-sign with the Dodgers. Many people around the league expect Teoscar Hernández and the Dodgers to find their way back to each other, and my understanding is the Dodgers and Teoscar are very much engaged and trying to nail the final details of a contract.” While no deal is official just yet, the possibility of Teoscar Hernández rejoining the Dodgers is already a big win for the team.

If this is true and DV is a reliable source, NO Soto. Better ways to spend $600 million plus to improve the team.Now let’s get Roki Sasaki and piss off the entire MLB world.

Also it is a smart move by the Dodgers to sign Teo before the Soto signing announcement , as the price would go up on Teo for teams that didn’t sign Soto as a fallback.