Although the Los Angeles Dodgers looked sharp in the first two games coming back from the All-Star break against the New York Mets, they couldn’t seal the deal in the finale on Sunday. The bats slowed down after running into old friend Max Scherzer, and the team eventually fell in extras, 2-1.
Over the next few weeks, the summer trade deadline will dominate most of the baseball blogosphere. We’ve been talking a lot about it here, but it’s still tough to say whether Los Angeles will make any significant moves because of the organization’s reluctance to trade away any high-level talent.
Even if the club decides to make a major splash, it’s hard to guess which area they might prioritize, as the offense, starting pitching and bullpen could stand for a high-impact addition or two. With many of the sellers across the league demanding major-league ready talent, it’s tough to say how far the Dodgers will go to make an upgrade, especially if the incoming player is only a rental for the remainder of the season.
We’ve seen some really strong production from Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman on offense in the weeks leading up to the All-Star break, but aside from J.D. Martinez, there really hasn’t been much of a supporting cast.
Catcher Will Smith was hitting .317/.419/.540 into the beginning of June, but he has slashed just .214/.349/.408 over his last 29 games and 126 plate appearances since. Similarly, Max Muncy can’t find a way to keep his head over the Mendoza Line, despite a somewhat respectable OBP thanks to his high number of walks. Despite is sure-handedness of defense, Miguel Rojas is OPSing just .560 with a little over 200 AB this year.
In a perfect world, the Dodgers would like their first five or six hitters to have some decent pop, but aside from Betts, Freeman, Martinez and the occasional contributions from Smith, the rest of the lineup flattens out.
Heading into the weekend, the Dodgers were a surprising sixth in the majors with a .331 team OBP, but they were 20th in the league with a .243 team average. Those numbers are a prime recipe for a club that’s great at getting base but struggles to drive runners home — one of the club’s biggest nemesis in recent years.
The thing about the offense is that there’s really no players returning from injury who might upgrade the lineup, similar to how Julio Urias has boosted the rotation. We saw the addition of outfielder Jake Marisnick last week, but adding a 32-year-old journeyman with minimal pop and a .228 career average isn’t going to make much of a difference.
Whatever the case may be, it will certainly be interesting to watch front-office boss Andrew Friedman’s approach as he prepares his club for the stretch run of the 2023 season.