Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
On this episode of Dugout Blues, Jared is back after a brief absence. Oh, and we’re recording for the first time in three weeks because reasons.
Before we get to the juicy stuff, we get the boring stuff out of the way. Gabe Kapler left the organization to become the manager of the Phillies. The Dodgers also lost hitting instructor Tim Hyers, Triple-A hitting coach Shawn Wooten and, during the World Series, Triple-A pitching coach Matt Herges. They did bring in new assistant hitting coaches in Brant Brown and Luis Ortiz, and Brandon Gomes took over Kapler’s spot as the new director of player development.
Now, to the fun stuff.
The Dodgers are one of seven finalists for Japanese sensation Shohei Ohtani. He’ll take meetings with the Dodgers, Angels, Cubs, Giants, Mariners, Padres and Rangers — most likely this week. I think the Dodgers are still the favorites, but don’t overlook the Padres (tons of connections) and the Mariners (the team that could use him the most). If the Dodgers can somehow land him, that would be downright incredible. I wrote about it more at length earlier today.
The Dodgers are also, kinda, involved in Giancarlo Stanton trade talks. While the Marlins have the framework of a deal worked out with both the Cardinals and Giants, Stanton isn’t exactly jumping to waive his full no-trade clause to go somewhere he doesn’t want to go. The Dodgers should be making every effort to trade for him because there’s no telling when they’ll be able to land a player of this caliber in the future. Bryce Harper isn’t guaranteed to want to play in Los Angeles (neither is almost any other free agent) and Manny Machado is blocked by Corey Seager and Justin Turner. If they acquire Stanton (by hopefully offloading a bad expiring contract or two, plus a couple other quality players), that would be amazing. We’re both in favor of the Dodgers landing Stanton.
We also talk about the Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus Top 10 Dodgers’ prospects lists. There are a couple surprising rankings, but they’re both good lists on the whole. The variation after the top two (Walker Buehler and Alex Verdugo) just shows the depth and quality in the system currently.
Oh, and Cody Bellinger won the National League Rookie Of The Year Award unanimously, in case you missed it.
We end the episode with a strong Q&A session, seeing as it’s been awhile. I was surprised at the number of Chris Archer questions we received. Glad to see he’s still on some folks’ radar.
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