Will The Dodgers Need to Be Active at the Trade Deadline?

The Dodgers have some obvious needs to address on the big league roster.

The Dodgers lost 4 of 6 on the just completed road trip and a few season long glaring issues came to a head for Dave Roberts and company. The bullpen has some major weak points that need to be addressed. It's hard to win when you're missing a few guys in your starting rotation. 

Really, the pitching staff as a whole has MLB pundits wondering how active the front office will be at this year's trade deadline. ESPN analyst Bradford Doolittle discussed LA's potentially active deadline

Even in a year of relative transition in Chavez Ravine, the Dodgers remain a pennant-seeking juggernaut with the upward trajectory of a team with a lot of young players. It's also a team with room to improve via trade, and the Dodgers have the prospect depth to make almost any deal happen. It's really a matter of how aggressive they want to get.

The Dodgers are in a tough position. There's a clear need for major upgrades, again, particularly on the pitching staff. But, the help the club needs may already be in house with guys like Daniel Hudson, Julio Urias, Dustin May down the road, Walker Buehler late in the season. Plus there's hope that relievers Blake Treinen and J.P. Feyereisen can give them something toward the end of the season.

So, the team needs time to figure things out. But, with half the league now able to make the playoffs, most teams will be looking to take advantage of what they can on the trade market.

Doolittle agreed with the possible wait and see approach.

As with all contenders, rotation trade candidates have to be pondered but by the end of July, and depending on the hoped-for returns of Julio Urias and Dustin May, the Dodgers will be able to sit out what might be a supercharged sector of the trade deadline.

But that's just for the rotation. The bullpen has been the true Achilles heel for LA, posting a 4.76 ERA over 66 games, 4th worst in baseball. The team ERA is the worst since the franchise moved to LA in 1958.

The worst team ERAs since Dodgers moved to L.A.:
2023, 4.49
1958, 4.47 (Record: 71-83)
1999, 4.45 (77-85)
2005, 4.38 (71-91)
2001, 4.25 (86-76)
2006, 4.23 (88-74)
2007, 4.20 (82-80)
1994, 4.17 (58-56)
2000, 4.10 (86-76)
1961, 4.04 (89-65)
Last year: 4th-best in L.A. at 2.80.

— Houston Mitchell (@latimeshouston) June 12, 2023

The Dodgers keep saying that guys in the bullpen will rebound and figure it out.

“The expectation is the guys that have underperformed up to this point will perform better,” Dave Roberts said. “And it’s my job to keep putting them in the right spots.”

But with more than one-third of the season now completed, what we see just may be what we're getting out of the healthy guys on the active roster.

A few trade names Doolittle threw out were RHP Alex Lange of the Tigers and RHP Scott Barlow and LHP Aroldis Chapman of the Royals. Guys like old friend RHP Joe Kelly and RHP Liam Hendriks could also be available if the White Sox throw in the towel.

The Dodgers have all the talent they might need available to move in a trade. And Andrew Friedman loves a good earth shattering deadline blockbuster.