Sitting seven games back of the Padres and five-and-a-half games back in the wild card chase on deadline day, the Dodgers decided to burn up the phone lines and upgrade their roster. Despite the impact that the McCourt divorce may have on the club's financial situation, Los Angeles surprisingly became one of the deadline's most active teams.
After acquiring Scott Podsednik from the Royals, GM Ned Colletti decided that he wasn't done. He swung a deal for Ted Lilly and Ryan Theriot from the Cubs and also grabbed Pirates reliever Octavio Dotel. The Lilly deal would cost them Blake DeWitt, Brett Wallach, and Kyle Smit. For some observers, the Dotel deal was the real head-scratcher as Colletti surrendered pitcher James McDonald and outfield prospect Andrew Lambo. While each player has suffered their own setbacks, both continue to hold promise and could blossom into real contributors.
Ultimately, the Dodgers rolled the dice for a chance to gain some ground in the home stretch. To date, the upgrades have not helped them in the standings as they are 60-58, ten games back in the NL West and six-and-a-half games behind in the wild card chase.
Should the Dodgers have been buyers, sellers, or stood pat at the Trade Deadline?
I love when teams upgrade their bullpen, but not at the expense of giving up young players. James McDonald looks like a completely different pitcher and Andrew Lambo is raking at Altoona.
Well, they shouldn’t have sold low on two solid prospects for an aging, slightly above average relief pitcher.
That would be a start.
I voted sold but would have done some of both. I would have got Lilly, but if the White Sox and/or the Rays where somewhat serious in trying to get Manny, I would have traded him.
It’s going to be a very interesting off-season for the Dodger Blue. If I were Ned, I’d keep all eyes and ears open for the right deal if it comes around.
Manny has a full NTC
Well he might consider it considering the Dodgers are farther behind than The White Sox or Rays are in the standings, and with the move (maybe not as much to the Rays, considering their fanbase), he would market himself better moving to somewhere new, like when he was moved to LA mid season.
He also hasn’t played since before the All Star break. Why would a team want him, unless the Dodgers took all the risk out of it by paying his salary, and why would the Dodgers do that?
The Dodgers will still probably be sellers. I think guys like Kuroda, Ramirez, Lilly and Podsednik could all clear waivers and be dealt before August 31st. The key would be to clear them through waivers as close to August 31st so that only a team that would really need them would claim them since a team that was on the fence would probably not put a claim in for fear that the Dodgers just give up the player to the team to shed salary (a real possibility).
I think if the Dodgers sign Zach Lee, then that is a sign they will deal a guy like Manny Ramirez, Hiorki Kuroda and/or Ted Lilly to shed payroll to make up for the bonus money they will have used to sign Zach Lee.
Kuroda, Pods, and Lilly will NOT clear waivers.
Pods sucks. So he most likely will.
What’re you talking about? Pods is tearing it up. It’s the middle of the order that’s slacking. I hope we hang on to Pods when we trade Manny, & we need to get something back for Manny before he’s an FA. I miss DeWitt & McD, but Theriot is doing great too.
Sure they could. You drop them on waivers late enough and only a handful of teams would even risk putting waiver claims on them for fear that the Dodgers just let the team claiming them have them.
If the Dodgers have no intention of offering arb to Lilly, Podsednik or Kuroda what is the incentive of the Dodgers to simply just let a claiming team have them?
Its a risk for a team that is not seriously considering trading for them to put a claim on any of those guys.
Pods isn’t expensive and Lilly and Kuroda would get plenty of interest from contenders.
having the dodgers just dump them on a claiming team is probably the best case scenario for most of those teams.
Podsednik probably would, but Lilly and Kuroda are both above-average starters whose deals expire at the end of the season. So no long-term commitment for way too much money (a la Alex Rios) for a guy who could contribute mightily, at the very least replacing a 5th starter with someone of value. Off the top of my head, I’d say the Giants, Padres, Rockies, Phillies, Mets, Cardinals, Reds, Tigers, Twins, Rangers, and maybe Angels would claim Kuroda or Lilly or both. And those are just the teams seriously in contention that could use another starter; maybe the Brewers or White Sox or Braves or Nats would claim one to prevent their slipping to a divisional rival.
You do realize that all a team has to do is agree to pay the salary, not trade, don’t you?
I didn’t have a big problem with dealing for Lily and Theriot. The price wasn’t too high and it gave them needed rotation help if they wanted to try to make any kind of push. Dealing for Dotel wasn’t a terrible idea, but giving up both players was. If you trade one of those guys for Dotel it might make more sense.
Both of them were individually worth more than Dotel was.
Ned gave more than he needed too in every trade. It gets really bad considering this team was done about 3 weeks ago.
I didn’t have a problem with Lilly and Theriot either. The players they gave up were not going to be part of their future. Theriot is still under team control, and maybe they were looking at acquiring Lilly in the off season. This give them a better chance to keep him around.
Dotel is a nice reliever and all, but they could have, and should, have gotten more for the players they parted with. Dotel could have been signed last off season if they wanted to add relief.
I understand their thinking of trying smaller upgrades, but as long as no one has been able to pick up the production of Rameriz, and Kemp doesn’t post his usual numbers, and Martin is injured, and Furcal is injured, they aren’t going anywhere anyway. Maybe they do some waiver deals at the deadline too-buy and sell. Not for this year, for next year.
BLZR, exactly. The Lilly/Theriot deal made enormous sense. The Dotel deal did not.
But to the larger principle, the Dodgers HAD to be buyers at the deadline. This is a very PR-conscious team. They know what y’all are saying about the McCourt divorce and its supposed impact on team decisions. They aren’t happy about it, so they want to counter it.
Secondly, I don’t think the Dodgers or their fans have given up on the season. They don’t respect the Padres or Giants this year. They think both teams have been lucky and that midnight approaches for both of them. So the idea that they could make up a gap like the one now which, in other years against teams perceived to be stronger would seem implausible, seems plausible in 2010.
I said at the deadline that the Dodgers should have done anything, except buy. They were in no position to become buyers. They were what, third or fourth in the standings at the time? Then, down the stretch run, you have to play a ton of games in your own division, and the Dodgers were in no condition to compete with the Padres and the Giants, and even the Rockies will give you a battle. The pieces that they’ve added have made little difference, and the prospects that they dealt have gone on to do some nice things.
The Dodgers could have sold high on some of their guys, and been in a really nice position to contend next season. They hardly upgraded (if not downgraded) at second base, acquiring Theriot for Dewitt, acquired a marginal bullpen arm in Dotel (who has a high walk rate), for James McDonald, who has more potential to contribute to the team in the future than Dotel does…
The only real piece that could have possibly helped them down the stretch was Ted Lilly, who has pitched very well since being traded. The question is, will they be able to resign him? Instead of buying, the Dodgers would have been better off with selling. They could have easily dealt pitchers like Vicente Padilla, George Sherrill (who is effective against lefties), and Hong Chih Kuo, who they could have sold high on with the great year he’s put together, and position players like Manny Ramirez and Jamey Carrol, who I’m sure could have helped a contender and brought prospects into the system.
In my opinion, the Dodgers best option was to sell, and worst was to buy. Standing pat would have been a better decision.
Improve the team. Why? To try and at least finish the remaining two months in some kind of positive way. Puts people in the seats, makes the Dodgers try a bit to win. Lilly was needed. Heck, he has won his first 3 games. More than anyone else on the team.
This team has to now find over the winter: Catcher, 2nd base, 3 base, SS (I would dump Furcal in a trade, he cannot finish a season, too risky), LF, at least 2 starting pitchers, 4 other arms in the pen, and 3 or 4 bench guys. That is a hugh order.
I can see the Dodgers doing a massive overhaul next year getting ridd of players like Manny,Kemp,and Lilly. Cause they do not have the money right now to be a playoff team so they will need to get young and cheap like the Padres to be competitive.They should not have been buyers being so far back in the wild card and being 3rd almost 4th in there own division.
The part of the dodgers that’s been producing costs about 50 mil.by the way: Manny and Lilly are free agents. There’s no “massive overhaul” because they’re gone anyway.
Getting rid of Kemp is a terrible idea. You’d be selling low on a guy in his mid-twenties who was one of the premier centerfielders in the game over the last two seasons. He’s not going to have enough around him to push the Dodgers to the postseason next year, but that doesn’t mean you should dump him, unless you’re doing a complete rebuild (in which case Ethier, Martin, Loney, Broxton, and Billingsley should all be on the market as well).
And Lilly and Ramirez are free agents after this year, and all signs point to Ramirez walking and Lilly demanding more money than the Dodgers are willing/able to spend.
Why wouldnt kemp end up not panning out like a justin uptin? I knew lilly and manny were free agents i never mentioned they were going to resign them i just ment they were not, as in getting ridd of letting go in other words.Massive Overhaul is what i said and mean they dont have money to spend on a 2B,3B,2 SP, and maybe a SS even with mannys 20 mill contract off the books dosent cover everything espesially in a very tough division with a new manager at the helm.
The Dodgers should be also able to get some nice draft picks out of these trades, with Lilly being a Type A free agent, and Dotel a Type B. Both should be offered arbitration and no harm if they accept, making them more than mere rentals. No harm if they decline, and the Dodgers start collecting first round picks.
Umm, this is the same team that didn’t offer Randy Wolf arbitration last offseason. He was as close as a sure thing to decline arb and net the Dodgers draft picks.
No way in hell do the Dodgers offer either Lilly or Dotel arb.
It all depends on the ownership situation. Dotel could net $4 million or more in arbitration, so if McCourt still owns the team, there’s zero chance the Dodgers offer.
Kuroda and Lilly will be interesting cases, as both would be in line for $10 million+ salaries, and if the Dodgers didn’t offer arbitration to Randy Wolf last year, why would they do so for similar pitchers in 2011 considering their young core will continue to get that much pricier?
Also, let’s stop the “Manny’s $20 million is coming of the books” take. Manny is making $10 million this year and due to McCourt’s liquidity problems, Manny will be raking in a ton of deferred money (along with Andruw Jones, Juan Pierre, JASON SCHMIDT, and even NOMAR) next year and beyong.
Amazing. Even after the storyline that persisted since last winter that the Dodgers couldn’t possibly add salary because of the divorce turns out to be complete baloney, the storyline still doesn’t change. How about admitting that the storyline was NEVER TRUE in the first place, instead of calling the truth “surprising.” Is that too much to ask of a baseball blog?
Dotel for McDonald plus Lambo was a great deal… yes, I am a Pirate fan!
Really! I think all teams that aren’t ready to contend should find their own Dotel specifically to flip for prospects to a team desperate for relief. They’re even useful while they are keeping the pen warm, awaiting transfer to their new team. Win-win!
M’s got David “I’m gonna be remembered for my untochable 95 mph. fastball not being listed alphabetically first in the Baseball Almanac” Aardsma and Brandon “I have a good Splitter but my coaches say FASTBALL FASTBALL FASTBALL” League that could land that.
What choice did they have? They are borrowing money on future ticket sales, you can only sell tickets to so many K9’s. They were handcuffed so to speak!!
The should have never traded McDonald for Dotel. Never.
The True Blue way of dealing with young talent: trade ’em away when they’re in the minors, or trash them in the media if the pesky buggers make it to the big leagues.
The True Blue way of dealing with free agents: if you’re about to have the most unproductive years of your playing career, come to us for a multi-year deal! (exception: Hiroki Kuroda).
What LOS ANGELES should have done is let Peter O’Malley build a friggin football stadium in Chavez Ravine’s parking lot (lack of interest caused him to sell team). If they had, LA would have football, FOX never would have traded away Piazza, and the only Frank McCourt anybody would have heard of is the late author. Shame.
They never should have traded Pedro Martinez for Delino DeShields. This year’s terrible season is the direct result. Wait, that was over fifteen years ago. Never mind.