Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
While yesterday at the Winter Meetings was quite busy, especially for the Red Sox, the Dodgers had a quiet day in which they didn’t lose anybody they were targeting but didn’t seem to get significantly closer to a deal either.
—–
Perhaps most notable was a quote from Andrew Friedman.
Andrew Friedman: "If you're always rational about every free agent, you will finish third on every free agent."
— Andy McCullough (@ByMcCullough) December 6, 2016
One can take this a bunch of different ways, but I’m choosing to believe it means they’re going to make serious runs at bringing Justin Turner and Kenley Jansen back.
Speaking of which, while there hasn’t been much new on the Kenley front, there’s promising stuff on JT’s market, according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports.
The Dodgers want to keep Turner. He wants to stay in Los Angeles. But it will be interesting to see how his lack of evident options influences the course of the negotiations.
Barring a surprise — and let’s face it, free agency always is full of surprises — the best guess is that Turner will stay with the Dodgers on a good deal, but perhaps a lesser one than he envisioned.
I pray this is what happens. Retaining JT is essential in my view, so any money they could save on his contract would be wonderful.
That said, like yesterday, the Dodgers are still working other options just in case.
On the position player front: Turner still the favorite at third base, but talked to White Sox about Todd Frazier, plus Twins about Dozier.
— Andy McCullough (@ByMcCullough) December 6, 2016
#Dodgers indeed looking at #Twins Dozier either as production hedge if Turner leaves or in conjunction if keep third baseman
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) December 6, 2016
People in two different, non-Twins front offices have told me today that they're convinced Brian Dozier will be traded. Lotta Dodgers steam.
— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) December 6, 2016
Todd Frazier is the same player I’m glad the Dodgers chose to deal away in favor of Frankie Montas, Trayce Thompson, and Micah Johnson (ayyy, throwback to people wanting Frazier over JT) … except now a year older and coming off a down year with just one year of team control left. He put up a .225/.302/.464/.767 line, which worked out to a 102 wRC+, marking the third-straight season in decline on that front. Frazier also showed signs of age on defense, so just about the best thing about dealing for him is that it shouldn’t cost a whole lot. Still, there are better options out there.
Most importantly, Todd Frazier cheated at the Little League World Series.
Brian Dozier, on the other hand, is a player that I’m glad things seem to be moving along. Turner returning and Dozier coming over would make the Dodgers infield formidable in the near future. I’m giddy just imagining it, so it’ll probably never happen.
—–
Taking Frazier out of the equation, there are much more appealing options on the White Sox if when they go into tank mode.
And if the White Sox put everyone on the block, the Dodgers could also pursue Jose Quintana and Disco Dave Robertson.
— Andy McCullough (@ByMcCullough) December 6, 2016
What you need to know about Jose Quintana is…
…yeah. An underappreciated starter due to the shadow of Chris Sale. Would love to get him.
As far as David Robertson goes, I think Dustin is going to write about him soon. While this could be a buy-low candidate due to his down year in 2016, it also could just be a reliever who is about to be 32 declining with a dropping strikeout rate and increasing walk rate.
—–
In this vague tweet, we learn the Dodgers and Royals are talking.
#Dodgers and #Royals engaged in trade discussions but progress is slow, source says. @McCulloughTimes has been on this. @MLB @MLBNetwork
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) December 6, 2016
I’m guessing this is in reference to Wade Davis and Lorenzo Cain, which was covered yesterday.
—–
Yesterday there was talk of Yasiel Puig‘s off-season plan, and today the off-season plans of Kenta Maeda were mentioned.
“That’s one of the things this winter, we talked to Kenta, and he had an outstanding first year,” said Roberts. “But it was more about understanding the toll that it took on him and his body, and to build some mass and to put on some weight to be able to handle the workload.
“So as he was open to the different — to giving them extra days in between certain starts, the extra time. I’d like to think that we can kind of do a little bit less going forward, as he’s already kind of made that jump into Major League Baseball.”
“I know he left L.A. with the mindset to get stronger, with the mindset to put 200 innings on his body,” said Friedman. “It will take getting into the season some to see how it plays out to know. But if we can take another step forward, that’s great.
“He had not done much weight training in Japan. After he signed he spent time with [strength and conditioning coach] Brandon McDaniel and came up with a routine. He was tremendous following it. He hadn’t had as much experience with it, and I anticipate next year will be a little bit more. How it manifests itself, I don’t know, but there’s much more upside than downside.”
It’ll be an important year for Maeda, at least in terms of finding out whether he or the league makes better adjustments to what happened in 2016. The concerns about Maeda were nothing we didn’t hear about Hiroki Kuroda in the past, and that worked out great, so hopefully Kenta follows down the same path.
