With the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline only hours away, there has been constant speculation, rumors, conversations, writings, tweets, text messages and to a much lesser extent, confirmation about moves that have been or are about to be made.

As expected, much of the chatter has been about Thursday’s trades between the Dodgers, Braves and Marlins. And while opinions vary widely on the deals, it’s hard to argue that the Dodgers aren’t the big winners.

It goes without saying that many Dodger fan are disappointed that their beloved team didn’t land Cole Hamels or David Price – either of whom would have unquestionably made a huge impact in the Dodgers starting rotation, but it seems that in spite of the acquisitions of left-hander Alex Wood and right-hander Mat Latos, many Dodger fans are forgetting about left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu, who is still very much a Dodger.

Granted, Ryu is completely out of the picture for the remainder of this season and the postseason, but he is expected to be fully recovered from his May 28, 2015 shoulder surgery for a torn labrum when pitchers and catchers report to Camelback Ranch next spring. And barring any setbacks in his recovery, Ryu figures to be in the Dodgers starting rotation on Opening Day 2016.

If Ryu comes back as dominating as he was in his first two seasons, the Dodgers will have a very good starting rotation in 2016. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Obviously, we won’t know for sure if the 28-year-old Incheon, South Korea native will return to his previous dominating form until he resumes pitching in actual games next spring, but if he does, a rotation of Kershaw, Latos, Wood, Anderson and Ryu (not necessarily in that order) would be very formidable, to say the least. And should the Dodgers somehow manage to hang onto 2015 NL Cy Young award front runner Zack Greinke, the Dodgers 2016 starting rotation could be one of the best in franchise history.

In his first two relatively healthy seasons with the Dodgers, Ryu posted a very impressive 28-15 record with a solid 3.17 ERA. In the 56 games that he started, Ryu struck out 293 while walking only 78 for an impressive 3.76 strikeout-to-walk ratio. His batting average against is .247 against right-handed batters and .276 against lefties, and he has averaged 172 innings per season in his two seasons with the Dodgers. In other words, he is the perfect number three starter.

But are Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi even planning to include Ryu in their rotation next season? Although one would think that with Ryu still owed $21 million through the 2018 season this would be a no-brainer, but the two free-spending Dodgers executives have clearly shown that they are not intimidated by existing lofty contracts regardless of who it is. As such, Ryu could find himself as yet another expensive Dodgers trade chip somewhere along the way. That said, Ryu has an Alex Guerrero-type clause in his original six-year/$36 million contract that says he cannot be sent to the minor leagues without his consent, and it is highly unlikely that he would.

The point to all of this is that when healthy, Hyun-jin Ryu is a very effective and dominating starting pitcher, and it would behoove the Dodgers (and Dodger fans) not to forget about him during these crazy and unpredictable trade deadline times.