Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
On this episode of Dugout Blues, Jared and I cannot stop smiling at the fact Yu Darvish is officially a Dodger. It’s still surreal.
Yes, it was a successful trade deadline for the Dodgers as, for the second consecutive season, they landed the best pitcher available. Darvish should thrive in Los Angeles, even if it’s just for a few months. It stings a bit to lose Willie Calhoun, but it was the price the Ddogers had to pay to increase their World Series odds this season. A.J. Alexy and Brendon Davis are good Low-A prospects who have relatively high ceilings but also relatively low floors. It was a good deal for both teams, but the Dodgers win out in the immediate.
They also made two other trades. They acquired a once-good reliever in Tony Watson for 6-foot-8 infielder Oneil Cruz and right-handed flamethrower Angel German. Cruz was the prospect I was saddest to see go (and not even that sad), but there’s at least some potential in Watson’s left arm. He was really good against lefties from 2011-16 before struggling mightily (not just against lefties but overall) this season. We’ll see if Rick Honeycutt can work some magic.
The other trade was for an even bigger project in Tony Cingrani. He has been remarkably bad this season against both-handed hitters, but there’s even some hope for him going forward. Scott Van Slyke (meh) is now a former Dodger and Hendrik Clementina is a former Dodger catching prospect. A fair price to pay for a project lefty.
Oh, and the Dodgers are still good. They’ve won eight games in a row, had an incredible walk-off win against the Giants on Sunday night (Kyle Farmer!) and they’re still rolling.
On the farm, Walker Buehler, turns out, is still really good. Despite a poor first start in Triple-A that saw him record no outs, he logged another five scoreless innings and struck out six. There’s a reason the Dodgers didn’t want to trade him. Edwin Rios is hitting again and could be a nice trade chip (as a secondary piece or for a lesser piece). Jeren Kendall is off to a bit of a slow start in Low-A, but he did hit his first home run with the Loons on Sunday, so that’s something. He’s going to be good, but the swing does need some work.
We finish with a Q&A and a lot of excitement over the Darvish trade. Keep the questions coming.
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