Andrew Friedman has proven to be the best in baseball at going out and improving his team’s roster with aggression.
There have been countless examples of the Dodgers’ braintrust making moves to improve the ballclub’s shot at winning a World Series. Sometimes the moves pan out, where other times they don’t. It’s simply the nature of the beast.
Despite this year’s roster being billed universally as the best in baseball, Friedman will not sit on his laurels and roll with this roster if there’s an opportunity to enhance the team’s talent.
David Schoenfield of ESPN recently wrote an article theorizing about who could be available via trade for all 30 teams this upcoming July.
In the Dodgers case, he specifically mentioned three pitchers as trade candidates. He included Bobby Miller, Justin Wrobleski, and Ben Casparius as possible candidates.
“The Dodgers will have to face some difficult decisions in shoring up a bench that is an obvious weak spot — but features longtime Dodgers Austin Barnes and Chris Taylor, plus fan favorites Enrique Hernandez and Miguel Rojas. The other problem: Since players on the 60-day IL don’t count against the 40-man roster limit, the Dodgers currently have 47 players on the 40-man roster because of all of their injured pitchers. Some of those guys are out for the year, so the roster crunch won’t completely happen until the offseason, but when Clayton Kershaw is activated, for example, the Dodgers will have to clear a roster spot (he just made his first rehab appearance in the minors). If they do improve the bench — and they should — that could mean trading someone from the 40-man roster, such as one of the above pitchers, rather than a low-level prospect.”
It would be somewhat shocking to see L.A. include Casparius in a deal without getting something substantial in return.
Not only does he possess World Series experience, but he’s a valuable commodity in being able to toggle back-and-forth between being a reliever and a starting pitcher…
Wrobleski is an interesting arm from the left side with some devastating stuff. He hasn’t yet been given an extended look with the big club, and with the glut of left-handed pitchers ahead of him on the roster, he could very well be pushed elsewhere.
Miller is the biggest name of the bunch with perhaps the most upside.
After becoming one of the most treasured prospects within the organization, we’ve only seen flashes of the player he could become.
Though he’s got an elite fastball in terms of velocity, his lack of consistency with his secondary pitches — coupled with location issues — could result in him being dealt for a win-now player.
While all of this is conjecture, Friedman’s plan in building a highly deep 40-man roster as well as organizational depth across all levels enables him to trade multiple good prospects without sacrificing the entire farm system that’s been built up.