Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Good morning. The Dodgers made a trade with, believe it or not, the Diamondbacks.
The Los Angeles Dodgers acquired OF Alek Thomas from the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for OF Jose Requena. In order to make room on the 40-man roster, the Dodgers designated OF Michael Siani for assignment.
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 12, 2026
Alek Thomas, 26, was designated for assignment by the D’backs last week and the Dodgers jumped at the chance to acquire the center fielder. They sent 17-year-old outfielder Jose Requena to Arizona. I’m sure Bruce, Jared and/or Josh are lamenting this news. Michael Siani — a defensive-first center fielder — was DFA’d to make room for Thomas on the 40-man roster, and that might be just the role he’s gonna be around for.
Thomas has played all 3,384 of his defensive innings in center field and been slightly above average if you take out his rookie season when he was +7 outs above average (+9 for his career). He’s a plus-runner, which fits right into his defense-first profile, because his bat leaves a lot to be desired. He’s a career .230/.273/.361 hitter with a 73 wRC+. For context, Michael Conforto hit .199/.305/.333 with an 83 wRC+ with the Dodgers last season.
There might be some hope for his bat (“might” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here), as his 72 batted ball events last season produced an average launch angle of 11.7 degrees. He had never run a launch angle higher than 4.2 degrees, which he did in 2025. Probably not coincidentally, he achieved a career-high in home runs (nine) and doubles (19). This season, he hut two home runs and nine doubles in 100 plate appearances. Conversely, he saw his BABIP dip to .217, down from .324 last season. It’s a small sample size, but perhaps the Dodgers see something they can fix with him.
Let’s not fool ourselves, though. There’s a reason the D’backs DFA’d him and felt comfortable enough in trading him to the Dodgers. He doesn’t walk (career 4.8 BB%), strikes out a bit too much for a hitter with his batting profile (21.7 K%) and has been in the bottom 7% of MLB in wOBA in three of his five professional seasons (2026 included).
A defense-first center fielder didn’t really appear to be a big need for the Dodgers. Perhaps there’s an injury we don’t know about, or the Dodgers want to try to Max Muncy/Chris Taylor him.
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This was just the third trade between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks in the Andrew Friedman era, and the first since 2022.
Thomas has one more minor-league option year remaining, so he’ll likely report to Oklahoma City. The Dodgers will take on about $1.4 million of Thomas’ $1.9625 salary for 2026.
