The July 31 non-waiver trade deadline has come and gone. In its wake the Dodgers picked up eight MLB-ready players while trading away six players, of which only one had any MLB experience. But in making these trades with the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves, the Dodgers lost out on the two most coveted trade pieces out there – Phillies left-hander Cole Hamels, who went to the Texas Rangers and Tigers left-hander David Price, who went to the Toronto Blue Jays.

There is zero doubt that the Dodgers missed out on the Hamels and Price sweepstakes solely because they absolutely refused to include top prospects Corey Seager and Julio Urias in any deals, and wisely so. And although doing so cost the Dodgers any possible chance to landing one of the two best trade pieces on the market, it undoubtedly keeps the Dodgers in the contender category for many years to come. It also allowed the Dodgers to score two current MLB starting pitchers – 27-year-old right-hander Mat Latos and 24-year-old left-hander Alex Wood – who may not have the luster of a Cole Hamels or a David Price but will fit in nicely behind Dodgers co-aces Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke. Simply put, although Hamels and Price would have been very nice additions to the Dodges rotation, they weren’t essential to the team’s success in the upcoming stretch run.

Where things begin to get interesting is trying to figure out what the Dodgers brain trust is going to do this off-season. Although Alex Wood doesn’t even become arbitration eligible until 2017 and won’t become a free agent until 2020, Mat Latos becomes a free agent at the end of this season. As such, the Dodgers will have the option of re-signing Latos (if he does well enough to warrant it) or going after other free agent starters – including David Price, Johnny Cueto and several others.

It also gives Friedman and Zaidi the option of utilizing the monies that they saved in getting Alex Wood over Cole Hamels and possibly the money not spent to re-sign Latos and applying it elsewhere – say… like… on likely 2015 NL Cy Young award winner Zack Greinke, who will becoming a free agent (more or less) because of the opt-out clause in his current contract with the Dodgers, which he absolutely positively will exercise.

Could not landing Cole Hamels or David Price actually help the Dodgers re-sign Zack Greinke this off-season? (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Could it be that this was Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi’s thinking all along? Could it be that the two accomplished sabermatricians had the much bigger fish (Greinke) in mind when they let Hamels and Price get away and acquired Alex Wood and rented Mat Latos? Although this may seem unlikely at face value, it certainly wouldn’t be beyond the realm of possibility for the two think tank geniuses.

While it might not be a good idea for Dodger fans to put any money down behind this line of thinking, it is definitely something for them to at least think about as Zack Greinke’s time clock with the Dodgers is slowly but oh so surely winding down.