LOS ANGELES — David Price has Andrew Friedman’s phone number and he’s not afraid to use it.
“I mean, I say go and get (Jacob) deGrom. That would be a huge piece,” Price said, targeting the two-time Cy Young Award winner and current ace of the NL East-leading New York Mets – who will not be traded before Friday’s in-season deadline. “He rakes. I think he’s hitting .350 or whatever it is. He’s a pretty good pitcher as well.”
Price said the deGrom trade is “just something I kind of say in the clubhouse” as a joke when the topic of deadline acquisitions comes up.
He hasn’t made that suggestion to Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations. But the two go back a ways – Friedman was running the Tampa Bay Rays’ front office when they made Price the first overall pick in the 2007 draft, called him to the big leagues in 2008 … and traded him to the Detroit Tigers at the deadline in July 2014. So Price isn’t afraid to make a suggestion or two.
“I’m talking to Andrew about, I guess, one guy specifically but I’m not gonna put that out there. But, I would love to see a couple guys come here,” Price said.
“He laughs and then we just kind of talk about it. We have known each other for a very long time and have a very good relationship. There’s really nothing that we can’t say to one another. So, he just laughs, we talk about it and he’ll get back to me.”
Price certainly knows what it’s like to be the prize teams are chasing at the deadline. He moved from the Rays to the Tigers as part of a three-team trade that landed shortstop Willy Adames and pitcher Drew Smyly for the Rays at the deadline in 2014. On the verge of free agency a year later, Price went from the Tigers to the Toronto Blue Jays in another deadline deal.
“Knowing that you’re involved in a trade where somebody is trying to get you, it probably means that you’re on a team that’s probably not doing as well as the team that’s trying to trade for you. So you know that you’re probably going to get a chance to play October baseball and that’s why we’re all here,” Price said.
“Both times I was traded, I was surprised. I didn’t think I was gonna be traded in 2014 from Tampa. That caught me off guard. Then in 2015 as well. I was with Detroit and got traded to Toronto and at the time of the trade, Toronto had the exact same record as Detroit. So I wasn’t really expecting that. But Toronto had already made a couple of moves, getting (Troy) Tulowitzki, quite a few other guys.
“I think the first time I was traded it was kind of a shock to the system. Tampa was the only thing I’d ever known. So that was very tough. But being traded from Detroit to Toronto, that second time really in a year, it was a little bit easier that time and I was excited to go to Toronto and join up with a team that was very good.”
The Dodgers have been at the center of deadline drama almost annually under Friedman. This year is no different and everyone in the clubhouse is aware of that, he says.
“I guess it’s exciting for the Dodgers knowing that we’re in this to win and we could be adding pieces that are going to make us better,” Price said.
“I think everybody kind of sees that there’s an opportunity to get guys from different teams that are going to be sellers or whatever you want to call it. I think there’s always pieces that you can add to make your team better and I think everybody in the clubhouse knows and understands that. So we definitely talk about it.”
UP NEXT
Dodgers (LHP Julio Urias, 12-3, 3.63 ERA) at Giants (RHP Logan Webb, 4-3, 3.54 ERA), Tuesday, 6:45 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM
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