It Isn’t Splashy, but Dodgers’ Deal for Rosario Is a Low-Cost Upgrade

Los Angeles dealt a struggling Noah Syndergaard and helped fill its biggest need in one fell swoop.

In search of a trade featuring two players who were considerably more interesting in 2018?

Here you go: The Guardians are sending shortstop Amed Rosario to the Dodgers in exchange for starting pitcher Noah Syndergaard.

It seems like a clear (if small) win for the first-place Dodgers. They fill two needs at once by upgrading what had been the weakest position on their roster with a right-handed hitter who should give the offense a boost against lefties. And they gave up only a struggling pitcher to do it. (Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic reported that the Dodgers will also be sending cash to the Guardians to cover the difference between Syndergaard and Rosario's contracts) Both Rosario and Syndergaard are set to become free agents this winter.

Rosario has hit .265 this season, his lowest mark since 2020 :: Ken Blaze/USA TODAY Sports

Rosario has been having a rather frustrating year. He’s seemingly lost his way on defense—he’s one of the lowest-ranked players in baseball in outs above average—and he’s taken a step back at the plate, too, with an 89 OPS+. But Rosario doesn’t need to be at his best to be an improvement here. All he has to be is better than current Dodgers shortstop Miguel Rojas, which is a low bar. Rojas’s season in Los Angeles has been rather disastrous: While he’s never been an especially strong hitter, he’s never looked quite this bad, on track for the worst season of his career with a 51 OPS+. But when Dodgers second baseman Gavin Lux tore his ACL in March, it complicated this infield situation, even on a roster as known for its versatility as this one. There were limited internal options for shortstop beyond Rojas. That made this a clear spot for the team to address at the deadline. Acquiring Rosario does that—it doesn’t make a big splash, no, but it represents an improvement over Rojas.

He fills another specific need for Los Angeles, too. The Dodgers have been in search of right-handed hitters to boost their offense against lefties. While this hasn’t been an overwhelming weakness, it’s been noticeable: They have a 119 OPS+ against righties this season compared to a 108 OPS+ against lefties. They added one right-handed bat earlier this week in Kiké Hernández. They’ve now added another in Rosario. The shortstop has a rather extreme platoon split this year: He’s posting a 71 OPS+ against righties and a 122 OPS+ against lefties. That more than checks the box here.

Syndergaard, meanwhile, has been largely adrift since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2020. His velocity never recovered, and though he’s tried to tinker with his pitch mix in search of ways to adjust, he’s never quite found success. This year has been especially rough. With a 7.16 ERA (62 ERA+), Syndergaard has looked more lost than ever recently.

And for the Guardians? They’re ostensibly in the playoff hunt—just two games back of the Twins in the AL Central. But the division is so weak that there isn’t much significance to that. Shane Bieber’s injury answered their biggest to-sell-or-not-to-sell question for them. They might try moving a few other players—Aaron Civale, perhaps?—in the days to come. But they’re in something of a strange position. They don’t have much more to sell. They’re certainly not buying. Yet they still have a real chance to make the postseason.

As alluded to in the introduction here, neither of these players is what they used to be. Rosario is not the seriously hyped prospect he once was, and Syndergaard is certainly not the ace he once seemed on the verge of becoming. But even if this move isn’t nearly as sexy as it might have been in an alternate timeline, it’s still a practical, modest upgrade for the Dodgers, who’ve fixed one of their biggest issues at minimal cost.