Dodgers Acquire Ace Pitcher Tarik Skubal

Yesterday, the Dodgers continued being the Evil Empire by making a trade with the Detroit Tigers for ace pitcher Tarik Skubal, who is expected to be the top prize of this season's trading market. The Dodgers didn't even have to give up that many top prospects to do it, as their farm system is loaded. When it comes to the Dodgers, it's 'Moneyball' with money. Let's see if they can become the first ever National League team to win three World Series in a row!

Dodgers Acquire Max Scherzer and Trea Turner!

The Dodgers have made a huge splash in the trade market: they have acquired Max Scherzer and Trea Turner from the Washington Nationals for a load of prospects. This is exactly the trade that we needed. Scherzer, who will eventually be a Hall of Famer, is still an excellent and durable starter; and Turner is an outstanding infielder (who is also rather underrated, in my view, even amidst the wide recognition of his excellence), and I wouldn't be surprised if he eventually also makes the Hall of Fame. Just before then, the Dodgers also acquired pitcher Danny Duffy from the Royals.

Note: I didn't post this yesterday because I wanted to wait until the deal with the Nationals was done, rather than being something that the Dodgers were "finalizing".

Dodgers Acquire Mookie Betts (and David Price)!

The Dodgers have acquired Mookie Betts in a trade with the Boston Red Sox! In addition to Betts, we get David Price, who is still a good pitcher (although he is worth much less than his hefty salary these days). Alex Verdugo goes to the Red Sox and Kenta Maeda goes to the Minnesota Twins, who are sending prospect Brusdar Graterol to the Red Sox.

Wow!

Update: And right after the big trade above, the Dodgers traded Joc Pederson to the Los Angeles Angels for infielder Luis Rengifo.

Update (2/09/20): After the original version of the trade hit a snag (because of a medical test on Brusdar Graterol), the Dodgers, Red Sox, and Twins have now officially agreed on a trade (so it's now a done deal). Our trades with the Red Sox and Twins are now two separate deals, and a couple of other Dodger prospects (shortstop Jeter Downs and catcher Connor Wong) are now also going to the Red Sox.

Update (2/09/20): The Dodgers also get another prospect and a draft pick from the Twins, and (according to David Schoenfield) the trade of Joc Pederson to the Angels (which apparently was contingent on the trade for Betts) appears to be a casualty of the delay in finalizing the trade for Betts.

Dodgers Trade for Manny Machado!

It's now official (after some increasingly hot rumors, especially yesterday at the All-Star Game): The Dodgers have traded for Manny Machado, the biggest ticket on this season's trade market. Hell yes!!!!

With Corey Seager out for the year, having Machado to play shortstop the rest of the year is most excellent indeed!

Dodgers Get Yu Darvish (and Two Left-Handed Relievers)!

The Dodgers made a huge trade today: we acquired starting pitcher Yu Darvish from the Texas Rangers for three prospects.

In separate deals, we also traded for left-handed relief pitchers Tony Watson of the Pirates and Tony Cingrani of the Reds.

New Dodger Pitchers (or Possibly Only One New Pitcher...)

The Los Angeles Dodgers have picked up two new pitchers: we signed free-agent starter Hisashi Iwakuma to a three-year deal, and we traded a pair of prospects to the Reds for power reliever Aroldis Chapman.

I hope we can pick up another good starter. Losing Zack Greinke to the Diamondbacks left a gaping hole in our rotation.

Update (12/08/15): Then again, it may take a few weeks for the trade for Chapman to go through --- if the Dodgers bother going through with the trade at all. (And is it really a good idea to acquire somebody with this kind of personal track record?)

Update (12/18/15): It may actually end up being zero pitchers. Um, bring back Zack Greinke?

Headline: Dodgers Go Apeshit

Wow, the Dodgers seem to have gone totally apeshit today: 3 trades today, and it looks like we're about to sign a starting pitcher (Brandon McCarthy, which is ok, as long as we don't expect him to be more than an average #4 starter... I'd rather get James Shields). These moves help somewhat, I think, but the outfield logjam is alive and well. I suspect we're not done.

It started with the news that we acquired Jimmy Rollins from the Phillies. We then traded Dan Haren and Dee Gordon to the Marlins for some prospects and a reliever. We then traded the main one of those prospects (Andrew Heaney) to the Angels for Howie Kendrick. We're also apparently close to signing starting pitcher Brandon McCarthy to a 4-year deal.

All of these stories have broken within the last few hours (and have delayed my bedtime).

Update (12/11/14): And now we have traded Matt Kemp to the Padres along with about $31 million of his salary and catcher Tim Federowicz. In return, we will receive catcher Yasmani Grandal and pitchers Joe Wieland and Zach Eflin.

Update (12/11/14): I think we have improved our team a good deal with these moves, and we sold high on Kemp. Kemp gave us some good years (and a couple of excellent ones), but the renewed offensive output he showed last year is counteracted to a nontrivial degree by his poor defense and he is rather brittle in terms of his ability to stay on the field (in stark contrast to his former ironman days). I would rather dump Ethier at this point, but Kemp had some value, and that trade with the Padres was a very good one. We have a glut of outfielders, and they are going to pay the majority of the cost for his waning years. We also have improved at several other positions and have acquired a decent number of prospects, who we can either use to keep building for subsequent years or can trade for a premium pitcher (Cole Hamels comes to mind). This is called "Moneyball with money". Jayson Stark summarized the Dodgers moves very well in his recap of Baseball's Winter Meetings. (Why is it "Winter Meetings" instead of "Winter Meeting" anyway?)

Gutted Fish

Yup, the Miami Marlins sure treat their fans well.

In an unexpected Blockbuster --- did you see what I did there? --- the Miami Marlins have conducted another major fire sale: they are sending Jose Reyes, Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle, John Buck, and Emilio Bonifacio ("just about any player making money") to the Toronto Blue Jays for a couple of the Jays' top prospects and the dreaded Yunel Escobar (and possibly more, according to the ESPN article). Wow!

It now looks like every team in the AL East except for the Red Sox are going to be interesting next year. It would be really refreshing to see both the Yankees and the Sox at the bottom of that division!

The Dodgers' Blockbuster Trade is Official!

BOOM! (OH HELL YES!). The blockbuster trade between the Dodgers and the Red Sox is now official!

The Dodgers didn't give up too much in the way of players, though we're obviously committing huge gobs of money into this endeavor (that's why the Sox wanted to make this deal). We get Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, and Nick Punto. First base is suddenly a strength rather than a weakness, Crawford will help starting next year, Beckett will be at least useful and could (if he gets his mojo back) be awesome, and Punto is a useful spare part.

I can't think of a bigger trade than this ever---either involving my team or even involving any other team---but maybe I'm forgetting something. It's a new era in LA, baby! The new ownership has really put their signature on the team now!

Also, we seem to be collecting former Marlins. :)

Dodgers Acquire Shane Victorino

It looks like the deal for Shane Victorino is now official. This improves the Dodgers outfield, though this deal is obviously far less exciting than the deal for Hanley Ramirez. (Also, Victorino doesn't seem to be the player that he used to be, though this does improve our lineup a bit more.) He actually started out in the Dodger organization.

The article to which I linked above summarizes the other Dodger moves. For example, yesterday we acquired reliever Brandon League from the Mariners. Apparently, Ryan Dempster might well join us soon as well (though Dempster's recent shenanigans regarding purported trades to the Dodgers and then to the Braves were pretty obnoxious).

Dodgers Trade for Hanley Ramirez!

The Dodgers have acquired Hanley Ramirez from the Marlins! That is awesome!

Best. Trade. Ever.

For those of you who have never heard of this, in the early 1970s, there was an infamous baseball trade in which one pitcher traded his family for that of another pitcher. Naturally, both pitchers are lefties. By the way, The Baseball Project has a really awesome song about this trade.)

It's possible that I've blogged about this trade before, but I can't remember at the moment. :)

Dodgers trade for Ted Lilly and Ryan Theriot

The Dodgers have acquired Ted Lilly and Ryan Theriot via trade from the Cubs. Yeah, we have a another solid starting pitcher. Of course, we're far enough behind that it might be too late, and naturally it remains to be seen how high the prospect cost is. I am not immediately saddened by anybody who we gave up, so we'll see how things go.

In a separate deal, we made a trade with the Pirates for reliever Octavio Dotel. We gave up pitching prospect James McDonald to get Dotel.

Update: I am watching the Dodgers game, and the announcers just mentioned that today is 12 years to the day that the Dodgers traded (then minor leaguer) Ted Lilly away in a deal with the Montreal Expose to get Carlos Perez and Mark Grudzielanek. I knew we had traded Lilly away back in the day, but I didn't know that it occurred on July 31st. It's the circle of life...

Dodgers Trade for Scott Podsednik

The Dodgers have made a trade with the Kansas City Royals for Scott Podsednik. Maybe Podsednik can be the new Juan Pierre? In any event, we have injuries to our outfielders right now, so maybe he'll be a useful spare part. We'll see. What we really need, though, is pitching.

I don't have Juan Pierre to kick around anymore.

We interrupt our regular program with the following exciting news: Juan Pierre is no longer a Dodger!. We have traded him to the White Sox for cash and two minor leaguer pitchers to be determined. He actually did have a good year as a back-up in 2009, but I'm still quite pleased to finally be rid of him. Simply, the money that we used to pay his salary is better spent elsewhere.

And so the era of Juan Pierre-bashing has come to an end. (I have to admit, however, that I am going to miss making fun of him.)

Big Baseball News

There is some big news on the baseball pitching front today.

The Red Sox have signed free agent John Lackey to a 5-year contract. Additionally, Roy Halladay is apparently going to the Phillies as part of a 3-team deal that will send Cliff Lee to the Mariners. That's pretty major! Meanwhile, the Dodgers seem to be handcuffed by the McCourts' divorce. Thus far, we've only managed to lose significant pieces this winter, and signing hurler Josh Towers to a minor league contract doesn't exactly count as a significant acquisition.

Update (11:03 pm, UK time): The article about the Halladay trade apparently jumped the gun, but the trade is evidently "close" to happening. Stay tuned. And in related news, Dewey beat Truman.

Update (12/15/09): The trade is all but official now. Essentially, it's a done deal, but the press releases from the teams that put the official wrapping on things aren't quite out yet.

Update (12/16/09): The trade now is official, and as reported earlier (though after the original link I used) it includes four teams rather than three. It's really nice to see a huge trade like this now and again.

Dodgers acquire Jim Thome and Jon Garland

The Dodgers were quite active while I was asleep, acquiring starting pitcher Jon Garland from the Diamondbacks and slugger Jim Thome from the White Sox just before the September 1st postseason roster "deadline" (which seems to have so many loopholes that it's much less of a deadline than it used to be).

Garland, a starting pitcher, fills a gaping hole on the team. He isn't an ace, but he is useful, and I'm quite pleased about this trade. Thome has had an awesome career, but he can't play in the field at all anymore, and we're reasonably set at first base (where he played for much of his career when he wasn't DHing) with James Loney. (Of course, Loney is going to need to pick up his OPS if he's going to remain our long-term solution at that position.) Thome will be a useful pinch hitter, but the acquisition of Garland is far more important. The Dodgers are currently playing the Diamondbacks, so in fact Garland had the interesting experience of walking from one side of the dugout to the other.

These trades give some very good news (and all the Rockies got was Jose Contreras, who I can't see being particularly helpful given that he usually implodes when he is on the mound these days) and certainly make a lot more sense than the move to get Belliard.

Update (9/02/09): I forgot to point this out previously, but an important comment is that if the Dodgers make the World Series, then Thome will be exceptionally useful to have in the DH spot when we play in American League ballparks.

Dodgers acquire infielder Ronnie Belliard

The Dodgers acquired infielder Ronnie Belliard in a trade with the Nationals. Um, why? What we really need are pitchers. I just don't see the point of this trade.

Dodgers acquire reliever George Sherrill

The Dodgers have acquired reliever George Sherrill from the Orioles for two minor league prospects. Sherrill is a useful piece for our bullpen and should be pretty helpful. I'd rather have Roy Halladay, though. :)

We'll see later if I complain about having traded away these prospects. It all depends on how well they pan out. ;)

The only thing missing was a player to be named later

In a decision of amazing perspicuity, a women traded two children for a bird. $175 also changed hands, but the CNN article to which I link didn't indicate which direction the money went. All that was missing was a player to be named later.