July 19th, 2012 at 6:56 am 
by Harold Uhlman To trade or not to trade, that is the question. Will our Dodgers make a trade, maybe even more than one? The July trade deadline is rapidly approaching. Each day I check the blogs, the mainline sports sites, the newspapers, the rumor mills, for any news of a Dodger trade. I wait with baited breath to see if a deal is made that would satisfy my hunger for roster improvement. With our recent performances a new question has arisen: “Are we buyers or sellers?”
As each day passes, it appears we are falling more into the seller class, but we have little to sell, other than pitching. To sell pitching would be to give up the one strength that we do have. Our ERA, 3.29, is the second best in MLB, as is our BAA, .246. Trading our pitching would not seem to be the way to go.
Cole Hamels and Ryan Dempster are two of the most sought after starting pitchers by teams looking to upgrade their rotation, including the Dodgers. (Photo credit Jim Mone & Mike Strobe)
Why do teams change horses in mid stream anyway? There are a number of reasons, each an attempt to gain some type of advantage. The main reason before the July 31 deadline is usually to gain a missing piece for a playoff run. Conversely, some teams, out of the playoff picture, trade players for prospects to retool their farm systems, as they know they can get a premium price from teams desperate for those missing pieces. Acquiring a Cole Hamels may well put a team over the top. However, not all such trades work out well and do take time to play out. We now know the James McDonald/Andrew Lambo trade for Octavio Dotel was not a game changer for us, but has played out well for the Pirates, helping to turn that franchise into buyers in 2012.
A second reason that teams trade, or try to trade, is to get something of value, for players that are having unproductive seasons and are, in fact, hurting the team with their lackluster performances. Teams try to get what they can for these players, often paying a sizeable portion of their contract to entice another team to take them. We have had recent painful experiences in this area with Manny Ramirez, Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones. It seems very likely we will gather more experience with Juan Uribe and James Loney.
Teams also trade simply to upgrade their roster and start a process of self improvement by competing for players now that may not be available after the season ends. In 2011 the Cardinals, in a three way deal, traded Colby Rasmus to the Blue Jays for Edwin Jackson, outfielder Corey Patterson and relievers Octavio Dotel and Marc Rzepczynski. The Cardinals were making a playoff push and their acquisitions were helpful in that pursuit. The Blue Jays, on the other hand, acquired a building block in a young player ready to blossom, which he has in 2012.
So where does that leave our Dodgers? It leaves us with some difficult decisions, especially with Uribe and Loney. Do we acquire Ryan Dempster, Matt Garza, Aramis Ramirez, Chase Headley, Jimmie Rollins, and at what price? Do we deplete our pitching in the minor league system to acquire one or more of these players? I certainly don’t have the answers, but I have a preference. The future has to start now. Make the difficult roster decisions with Juan Uribe, Adam Kennedy and James Loney. Nobody ever said being a baseball GM would be easy. Beyond that, please don’t get into the rent a player mode. In my opinion, we are not in a position to make a charge this year. We have gaps at 3B, SS, 1B, LF and no long term solution at 2B. That is too much to fill at a trade deadline.
By all means, make astute trades. We know we can’t use all of the young arms down on the farm. Some will be traded while they still have value. In return, let’s get some building blocks for the Dodgers, not desperation, short term, hopeful solutions. A player like Chase Headley has some long term value, as Colby Rasmus does for the Jays. Maybe a Travis Snider or Adam Lind, most likely both available from the Jays, would help us build for the longer term. The most important concern isn’t, “To trade or not to trade.” The main concern, also in my opinion, is our reason(s) for trading.
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Do we run with what we have now, maybe acquire one key piece now in hopes of attracting other key pieces in the offseason? Say like getting Hamels now, and maybe go after Hamilton in the offseason. After that pieces should start falling into place when this team legitimately becomes a contender. Just my thought!
Actually Mike, that is my thought. Add a piece now to try to get there and to establish good faith with the fan base. Then pick up a copule more as FA’s after the season. We don’t have enough to trade for more than one.
Maybe we can swing a three way deal making use of another team’s players to get what we need.
The problem with trading for a guy now who will be a free agent at the end of the season is that he (they) are nothing more than two month rental payers who would absolutely decimate an already weak Dodgers farm system; and I mean decimate it. And then if the team wants to re-sign them during the off-season, they will come at a very high price (in money AND years), especially Josh Hamilton. How’s that old saying go – “Don’t throw good money after bad.” (I have visions of Manny with this one). The Dodgers have but a handful of top tier prospects, almost all of whom are pitchers and including a couple that the Dodgers spent upwards of $5M to sign.
I would rather get Puig into shape and bring him up next season in LF than blow all of our prospects on Hamilton for two month’s work. As I said over a year ago, I do not believe that the 2012 Dodgers have the team to make it to the post season but believe that they will in 2013.
In spite of liking the guy personally, I do not consider Ned Colletti a very good GM and would rather see Kim Ng in that position. She seems to have better long-term vision than does Ned.
It does no good to pine after them, but Cody Ross would certainly have been a missing piece in left field. Not a superstar but a good, hard nosed player, with average power.
It seems we get impatient with our young players. Cody had a monster game and got traded for … a player to be named later – Ben Kozlowski. In 2010 the Giants got him off waivers and this year the Red Sox got him as a free agent.How come we are missing guys like Cody, Melky Cabrera, Ben Zobrist? In hockey they would be grinders, just good average players.