Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Quite a day Monday was, no? The Dodgers had Aroldis Chapman, before they didn’t. They had him, before the Yahoo report about him surfaced. Chad summed all that up nicely (and correctly).
Now, the Dodgers are rumored to be interested in almost every player — and some of those players are big-time guys.
The biggest of which is Jose Fernandez. Jayson Stark seems to have the source(s) on this one, as he’s doing most of the reporting about the Fernandez rumors (including a #mysteryteam reference today — and it might be the Astros). Fernandez would be a dream scenario and would more than make up for the loss of Zack Greinke.
Andrew Miller‘s name is out there, too. Yes, the Dodgers could have attempted to sign him last winter (and at 4/$32 million, he looks like an absolute steal), but he wanted to pitch for a team back east. Now that he’s signed and doesn’t have a no-trade clause, he could go anywhere. He makes a ton of sense for the Dodgers, as Buster Olney pointed out.
IMO: Andrew Miller seemingly a much better fit for LAD than Chapman. Dominant, under contract 3 more years, doesn't care if he's the closer.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) December 8, 2015
I don’t care about the “doesn’t care if he closes” part, I care about the “he’s really good” part. Any trade for him would cost more than what it would have taken to get Chapman, even before yesterday’s news. So, think Jose De Leon or Grant Holmes as the headliner (with an additional piece/pieces), unless the Yankees want someone off the MLB roster. I’d stop short of sending Yasiel Puig for him, unless it were a bigger deal.
This might end up being good if this bit of silliness is actually true.
Even if the Dodgers don't trade for Chapman, they have issues. Talked to someone who spoke with Kenley Jansen. Described him as "crushed"
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) December 8, 2015
Like I said yesterday, yes, it sucks to lose your job. But to be “crushed” at potential making one of the weaker parts of the team better with one of the best possible additions is a bit of an overreaction and outright selfish.
If the Dodgers are serious about trading for Fernandez, I’d wait on trying to acquire Miller because the Yankees also want Miller and they could use any prospects acquired in a Miller deal to spin for Fernandez.
There’s still some scuttlebutt about their interest in Ben Zobrist, but I really don’t see that coming to fruition.
The Dodgers’ big day of the Winter Meetings last year was Day 3. We’ll see what happens the rest of today and tomorrow. I’d be shocked if they don’t get anything done, despite the Chapman stuff.
