With a little more than one week until the MLB trade deadline on July 31, few teams are expected to operate with a greater sense of urgency than the reigning World Series champs. The Los Angeles Dodgers are 6-11 since the calendar flipped to July. The offense is struggling in unexpected ways and the bullpen continues to get hammered by injuries, with Tanner Scott the latest casualty.
The Dodgers are still 3.5 games up in the division and a clear favorite to win it all, but this team is not as invincible as once thought. Injuries appear determined to keep the Dodgers from ascending to unbeatable heights. As such, GM Brandon Gomes is expected to go all-out on the trade front. No club expends resources in pursuit of winning with more reckless abandon than Los Angeles.
That said, here are a few potential victims of the Dodgers’ forthcoming upgrades.
4. Emmet Sheehan, starting pithcer
Emmet Sheehan has stepped up with several Dodgers pitchers out of commission, delivering a 4.41 ERA and 1.35 WHIP acoss four appearances (three starts). He’s a serviceable stopgap with some untapped potential at 25 years old, but Sheehan feels expendable even without a trade.
Blake Snell is due back soon. Rōki Sasaki is on the mend, too. Looking ahead to next season, L.A. will get River Ryan, their No. 9 prospect, back from Tommy John surgery. Factor in Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, a healthy Shohei Ohtani, and the full breadth of the Dodgers pitching staff, and there’s only so much available space. God forbid if the Dodgers make a few win-now additions at the deadline.
Sheehan’s youth means he could stick around the Dodgers farm system a bit longer, but he feels like trade bait or even a candidate to get cut as Los Angeles trends toward slightly better health in the rotation.
3. Alexis Díaz, relief pitcher
Alexis Díaz made his Dodgers debut on Tuesday after being called up from Triple-A Oklahoma to replace an injured Tanner Scott. The former All-Star has fallen off considerably from his peak in 2022, but he’s also 28 years old. He put up a 3.99 ERA and 28 saves fo Cincinnati last season, so it’s not like Díaz is a complete lost cause.
That said, his ERA is at 10.29 through seven MLB innings in 2025 and it’s clear his reputation is waning. Los Angeles only brought him up because of injuries. He’s under contract through 2027, but Díaz is already viewed as insurance, not as a foundational piece of this Dodgers bullpen. That’s not to say he can’t find a second wind, but it may come with a different organization.
Whether he’s traded for a second time this season or shuffled back to the anonymity of Triple-A, Díaz feels unlikely to survive what could be multiple bullpen upgrades at the deadline. Even with all their injuries, the Dodgers’ wayward bullpen will face a roster crunch.
2. James Outman, outfielder
James Outman finished third in NL Rookie of the Year voting a couple years ago and felt like a burgeoning star in Los Angeles. Now he’s on the chopping block and it’s hard to imagine a world in which the Dodgers don’t field his replacement in the next week.
Outman’s hitting .111 with a .525 OPS in 36 MLB at-bats this season. He put up far more respectable numbers in Triple-A — .289 with a .970 OPS and 20 home runs in 284 at-bats — but the Dodgers aren’t looking for the 28-year-old to dominate the minors. He’s still under contract for a while, but this Los Angeles team is focused on the here and now. Outman is no longer a developmental priority.
Unless he can showcase dramatic improvement over the next few days, the Dodgers will probably trade for an outfielder (or two). In the process, we can expect Outman to end up back in Triple-A or, perhaps more likely, we could see him traded to a team where he faces less immediate pressure to perform. What about sending him (and stuff) to Chicago for Luis Robert Jr.? Or to Cleveland for Steven Kwan? Just a thought.
1. Michael Conforto, outfielder
Michael Conforto inked a one-year, $17 million contract to join the reigning champs this past offseason. So far the results are… less than spectacular. This has been Conforto’s worst MLB season by a healthy margin. He’s hitting .186 with a .619 OPS and eight home runs in 274 at-bats. Los Angeles has gone above and beyond to help Conforto work through his slump, but their faith has produced nothing but diminishing returns.
He feels like the most obvious trade deadline cut. The Dodges are almost definitely going to trade for a new outfielder. If somehow L.A. does not add an outfielder, there could be an effort to replace Conforto internally. The organization has more long-term stakes in the aforementioned Outman, if he ends up sticking around. Los Angeles’ farm system lacks MLB-ready outfielders, but something can be worked out. Conforto ain’t hacking it.
There may be another outfield-needy contender that talks itself into rebooting Conforto, who has never finished with an OPS below .718 before. He has an impressive track record of solid production, even if his All-Star heights of 2017 are a distant memory. The ideal Dodgers deadline is flipping Conforto’s expiring contract for a prospect or two and adding a more productive bat in his place.
