Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
With the Andrew Friedman and Brandon Gomes holding their end-of-season press conference last week, it’s officially time to look ahead to the offseason. We already know about the labor uncertainty that will lead to the owners locking the players out, but we at Dodgers Digest (well, me, I guess) are just going to operate within the current rules, because that’s all we can do for now.
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Coming off a disappointing end to the season — which is wild to be that disappointed for not winning a third consecutive World Series championship — the Dodgers have a little bit of work to do this winter. And, let’s be honest, this work may have come one year earlier had they not pulled out the 2025 World Series in seven games.
One of the biggest items to sort out is Shohei Ohtani and what the Dodgers are going to do with him as a pitcher. I wrote about that more in-depth last week.
Aside from that, the biggest thing the Dodgers need to figure out is the lack of youth and athleticism on the active roster. It was apparent in the NLCS that they were tired from playing so much baseball over the last three years. They have played the equivalent of nearly three additional months of baseball since the start of the 2024 season. That’s a lot for anyone, but especially the dinosaurs the Dodgers employ.
With so many veterans locked into big-money deals, it’s hard to make drastic changes even if they wanted to. The Dodgers aren’t moving off Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy or Will Smith, not only because they’re all still good players, but because moving off them doesn’t make much sense. Freeman and Muncy are going into the final years of their deals, so maybe that’s something that can be discussed a year from now, but Betts is signed through 2032 and Smith is signed through 2033. Not only that, but the Dodgers don’t have any realistic replacements, even if they did move one or both of them. The best middle infielders the Dodgers have who could realistically step in for Betts are Alex Freeland and Hyeseong Kim. In the minors, Noah Miller is a slick fielder, but is lacking with the bat. Elijah Hainline is someone you probably didn’t know existed, and Emil Morales is at least a couple years away. On the catching side, Dalton Rushing underwent elbow surgery and is out nine months or so. And we know how the Dodgers struggled with their third catcher this past season, shuffling among Eliezer Alfonzo, Chuckie Robinson and Ben Rortvedt before settling on Hunter Feduccia, who became the backup once Rushing went down in August.
Thus, part of getting younger and more athletic has to realistically involve playing Tommy Edman less than they already do. The Dodgers would be wise to shift him to a true super utility role — the role Enrique Hernandez has played for the better part of a decade for the Dodgers (save a couple years in Boston). Edman had a great 2024 NLCS and hit a home run in that year’s World Series, but outside of that, he hasn’t done a ton in his time as a Dodger. Making him a true utility guy could actually enhance his value and provide much-needed rest for guys around the diamond.
So, what does getting younger and more athletic look like otherwise? It starts with trading Teoscar Hernandez to open up left field, full-time, for Josue De Paula. Hernandez is going into the final year of his deal, but it’s somewhat complicated due to his 2028 option. From Cot’s Contracts:
“(If) Hernández has surgery for specific injury / 75 days on injured list, 2028 option is guaranteed and Dodgers get 2029 option at $15M”
It’s unclear whether that’s 75 days over the life of the contract or just for the 2027 season, but I’m assuming the former since it isn’t specified otherwise. With his two IL stints in 2025 and ’26, he’s approaching 45 days of IL time. It’s a risky proposition for the acquiring team, but there are incentives the Dodgers can give said team to consummate a deal — i.e., money to cover part or all of the ’28 option or a better prospect return. With right-handed power still a premium in today’s game, Hernandez should have some value to teams on the cusp of being playoff contenders.
Handing left field to a 21-year-old with an extremely suspect glove is risky in its own right for a team with World Series aspirations, but De Paula’s bat is legitimate. So much so that he hit .323/.500/.581 in 42 plate appearances and earned himself a spot in each round of the postseason. He wasn’t expected to play the field (or even run the bases), yet he got one of the 26 spots. That says something. And De Paula has an entire offseason (likely extended offseason) to improve defensively. He’s never going to be Alex Gordon or Steven Kwan out there, but if he can be at least as good as Teo, that’ll be a win.
The rest of the roster, outside of second base, should be buttoned up. So, what happens here? Well, the Dodgers have a few options:
- Promote from within
- Explore free-agent market
- Explore trade market
- Explore trade market, but for shortstops
I’ve already touched on the internal options, and you’re likely already familiar with the important ones, so let’s move onto external options.
2B Free Agents
The free-agent second basemen are less-than inspiring, but let’s take a look anyway.
Ozzie Albies is 30 and has a $7 million club option that Atlanta will surely exercise. At this point, I’m not sure how much of an overall upgrade he’d be, in part since he wouldn’t get to clobber Dodger pitching.
Luis Arraez had a strong bounce-back season with the Giants and Phillies, but how much stock should be put into the single-season defensive turnaround? He went from a career -36 outs above average to +12 this season. Some guy we used to know at MLB.com wrote about it and it seems like it might be legit. He’s not overly athletic, but he’s better than anyone the Dodgers have at second base.
Bo Bichette — someone I thought made sense last year — probably isn’t opting out of the $84 million he’s owed over the next two years. He lacks pure athleticism and is 30, but he’s also a good hitter, when he’s right.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. checks both boxes (younger, more athletic), but I’m not sure the Dodgers would give him the deal he’s likely to land on the open market.
Brandon Lowe is really good, but he’s also going into his age-33 season and should be an attractive free-agent to many teams looking for lefty pop.
Lenyn Sosa accomplishes the “young” aspect of this (27), but his career 78 wRC+ doesn’t move the needle at all.
Gleyber Torres would bring a bit of a different look at the plate (lots of opposite-field hits), but he’s also 30 and should be attractive to other teams, a la Lowe. Other than them, no one else really makes a ton of sense — not even old friend Gavin Lux.
2B Trade Market
This is where getting younger and more athletic likely comes from.
The Marlins are reportedly listening on their middle infield duo of Xavier Edwards and Otto Lopez — both of whom could be a significant upgrade, but they’re also likely to cost a good amount in prospects. They both can play either middle infield spot, too, which is a plus.
Ketel Marte would be a dream, but there’s no chance the Diamondbacks make a deal that big with the Dodgers.
Bryson Stott — a free agent after the 2027 season — could be interesting. He’s not super young (29), but he’s solid with the bat, glove and he can steal bases.
Brendan Donovan, another player I thought could make sense last year, isn’t overly athletic or young (almost 30), but his bat is solid and would give a different look in the lineup than we’re used to seeing from the Dodgers.
SS Trade Market
As far as the shortstop market, there’s only one name who makes sense to me: Elly De La Cruz. I might be showing my hand for my offseason plan post (sometime next month), but the time might be right for the Reds to move their star shortstop to reset their timeline since it doesn’t seem like they’re more than a middling team (at best) right now. I’ll go more into depth on De La Cruz as an option in the future, just know the cost is going to be a lot (but probably not JDP a lot).
CJ Abrams is a better option at second base, but he’s at short for now and his bat is among the best when it comes to middle infielders. He’s already been mock traded to the Dodgers by one bonus-skimming former baseball executive, but it doesn’t seem overly likely at this point.
Two years ago, Gunnar Henderson would have been so good he wouldn’t even be under consideration. Now, he’s coming off an average season (101 wRC+) with the bat and glove. He’s looking less like a franchise player and more like a solidly above-average player.
Jeremy Pena, the 2022 World Series MVP, is going into the final year of arbitration for the small market Astros, could be on the move and could make some sense. He doesn’t walk much (5.2 BB% for career), but he has pop (.155 ISO) and plays shortstop well enough. He is injury prone, though, which is something to consider.
Zach Neto doesn’t really make sense to trade right now unless the Angels get a haul. He has three more years of team control and is coming off his third consecutive 20/20 season. That seems like a guy you build around, not trade.
If you want to go way deep, maybe you pry 24-year-old Jacob Wilson away from the Athletics since they have guys like Joshua Kuroda-Grauer and Alika Williams who could step in at shortstop until Leo De Vries is ready (hopefully by June) after shoulder surgery in September. Wilson is coming off a down season due to injuries, but he puts the bat on the ball and plays a strong shortstop. Again, the offensive profile would be different from what the Dodgers normally have — which isn’t a bad thing! An extremely deep cut would be opting for Kuroda-Grauer over Wilson, but I realize that’s highly unlikely for a team like the Dodgers.
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The Dodgers, undoubtedly, need to get younger and more athletic. That will likely be easier to do after 2027, but for the upcoming season, trading Hernandez to open up left field and acquiring a middle infielder to shore that spot up for the next 2-3 years seems like the way to go. Best-case scenario is De La Cruz. Worst-case scenario would be settling for internal options like Freeland or Kim. Either way, after sorting out Ohtani, adding some youth and athletic ability is a must for the Dodgers heading into next season, and the team definitely have the options and ability to do so.
