There Is So Much About to Happen

This is a post that was a lot more impactful when it was written two days ago, before Chase Utley was signed and Hisashi Iwakuma agreed to terms, but it’s still valid. The Dodgers have missed out on Jordan Zimmermann and Jeff Samardzija and Ryan Madson and Darren O’Day and Zack Greinke is off to Arizona and Utley wasn’t very good last year and he got $7 million and OH GOD PANIC THE SEASON IS OVER. Right?

Well, sort of, but not exactly. Losing Greinke is indeed brutal, and the other names there were fits in varying capacities. But, doesn’t this all sound familiar somehow? It reminds you of a time in the distant past when the Dodgers didn’t get the first free agents off the board, and everyone was panicking that the roster they saw in the first week of December was the roster they’d see on Opening Day. That was so long ago, that it was… no, actually, it was last year:

A list of the notable free agents that have been signed so far:

• C Russell Martin
• 1B Adam LaRoche
• 1B/DH Billy Butler
• 3B Pablo Sandoval
• LF/SS/whatever Hanley Ramirez
• OF Michael Cuddyer
• OF Chris Young
• DH Victor Martinez
• SP A.J. Burnett
• RP Zach Duke
• RP Joel Hanrahan

Toss in the Jason Heyward/Shelby Miller and Josh Donaldson/Brett Lawrie trades, and that’s the sum of the offseason’s movement so far. Why am I sharing these lists with you? Because people seem to be freaking out that the Dodgers haven’t done anything larger than trade for Joel Peralta and Juan Nicasio.

Then a few days later, the Winter Meeting began, and there was an orgy of moves. Brandon McCarthy! Brett Anderson! Dee Gordon & Dan Haren for Enrique Hernandez, Andrew Heaney, Chris Hatcher, and Austin Barnes! Then Heaney for Howie Kendrick! Matt Kemp and Tim Federowicz for Yasmani Grandal, Joe Wieland, and Zach Eflin! Then Eflin and Tom Windle for Jimmy Rollins!

Some of those worked out, and some didn’t. The point is, tons of moves were made in December alone, and tons of moves will be made. We’re already seeing that with Iwakuma, who, people, is not Greinke’s replacement. (We always knew they needed two starters.) Maybe that’s as simple as throwing money at Johnny Cueto, Justin Upton, and Ben Zobrist. Maybe the insane Jose Fernandez rumors actually happen. Maybe it’s trading Yasiel Puig and signing Heyward. Maybe it’s trading for Carlos Carrasco or Aroldis Chapman, and maybe a Cincinnati deal includes Brandon Phillips. Maybe Joc Pederson goes or Miller arrives, even if that’s not in the same deal. It’s not hard at all to see a scenario where James Shields heads north up the coast, does it?

Maybe it’ll be some combination of all of that, but more likely, it’s a deal you’ll never see coming. Either way, there will be moves. Lots of them, and you might not like them all, especially if you want to hug every Dodger prospect forever. (If you refuse to move Corey Seager or Julio Urias, understandably, that puts Grant Holmes and Jose De Leon squarely in play.)

The season doesn’t start today. All that matters is the roster in April. The next few days will have a lot to say about what that looks like.