The Los Angeles Dodgers are perhaps the biggest loser of MLB's trade deadline. They addressed a need by trading for struggling slugger Joey Gallo but watching the San Diego Padres land Juan Soto, Josh Bell, and Josh Hader has to raise some alarms.
The Padres are a huge threat in their division and will continue to be so for years to come, as Soto and Fernando Tatis Jr. are 23 and have their best years ahead of them.
Some expected the Dodgers to be more aggressive in their pursuit of Soto. But, according to President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman, it's not like they didn't try:
“Our track record would suggest that obviously, we would’ve been aggressive in trying to figure something out,” Friedman said. Maybe we were quiet outwardly, but there was a lot going on. With that being said, we felt really good about the team that we have in place. Obviously, our offense and our pitching staff have been very high performing.”
The Dodgers knew that the Padres were going to go to great lengths to land the Dominican superstar. Now, all they can do is try and prove they're still the better team:
“We fully expected [Padres GM AJ Preller] and his crew -- they’re really good at what they do and really aggressive,” Friedman said. “They made their team way better in the last couple of days and we look forward to that competition. But it wasn’t surprising to us.”
The Dodgers were somewhat quiet during the deadline but they still hope to have some reinforcements. Their injury-depleted pitching staff is working its way back to full strength and some could be back before the postseason:
“We feel really good about the potential of what our pitching staff can look like in October,” Friedman added. “We’re not relying on all of them coming back and being great. Some combination of that puts us in a really good position to have a really strong October pitching staff.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was unfazed by the Padres' haul. He reminded everybody how most analysts thought the Dodgers were a lock to win the World Series after adding Trea Turner and Max Scherzer:
“I think that we made a big splash last year, and it didn’t amount to a championship,” Roberts said. “I like the ballclub that we have. And so for us to not kind of reach to do something, I think everyone in that clubhouse understands.”
Still, all things considered, it seems like the future champion will come out of the NL West.
