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Okay, let’s lower to the chase: The Dodgers may use a middle infielder and a center-fielder. Effectively, according to Dennis Lin of The Athletic, the Padres are open to buying and selling two guys who occur to play these positions.
With the caveat that Peter Seidler owns the workforce, the Padres don’t seem eager on considerably growing their offseason expenditure, despite the fact that they want extra beginning pitching — ideally controllable past 2023 — and extra all-around depth. Their wealth of up-the-middle expertise, in the meantime, has doubtlessly made two of their cost-controlled regulars expendable. May San Diego’s subsequent commerce contain middle fielder Trent Grisham or anticipated beginning second baseman Ha-Seong Kim?
Publicly, the Padres have downplayed the likelihood. …
Trade sources, nevertheless, have indicated that San Diego is open to discussing both participant — Grisham, specifically.
Let’s take a look at the Grisham/Kim facet of issues first, then we’ll dig into whether or not it might be price what the Dodgers must quit.
Kim is an excellent defensive shortstop who’s at present slated to play second base for San Diego as a result of they signed a lesser defensive (however higher-paid) shortstop in Xander Bogaerts. Shifting Kim to second additionally shifts Jake Cronenworth, an excellent defensive second baseman, to first base. Merely put, San Diego has a ton of infielders, poorly deployed.
Grisham is a legitimately nice defensive center-fielder who hit remarkably poorly in 2022, however he posted a 111 OPS+ in 2020-21, so he’s not that far faraway from being an excellent ballplayer. Throw in the truth that the Padres want a spot within the outfield for Fernando Tatis Jr. to play, and Grisham is expendable.
The Dodgers would most likely profit from buying both participant, though most likely not each, just because neither is prone to be nice offensively. Grisham is cheaper (anticipated to make $2.6 million in arbitration, in comparison with the $7 million Kim is owed in 2023), has extra workforce management (three years in comparison with two for Kim), and has a considerably greater ceiling (Grisham is a Gold Glove center-fielder who has been an excellent hitter, whereas Kim is an efficient defensive shortstop who had a 107 OPS+ in a yr everybody agrees he’s unlikely to copy on the plate). If L.A. have been selecting one in all these two gamers to pursue, I’d vote strongly for Grisham.
With that stated, the Padres are on the lookout for beginning pitching. Lin’s article talks about Pablo Lopez of the Marlins, and the Dodgers are unlikely to commerce anybody close to Lopez’s stage inside their division. Dustin Could and Tony Gonsolin aren’t going anyplace, particularly in a commerce to San Diego. The identical will be stated for prime prospects Bobby Miller and Gavin Stone.
Now, if the Padres needed to guess on upside, I may see Los Angeles doing a bundle centered round Ryan Pepiot or Michael Grove, who each have big-league beginning expertise however are coming off less-than-stellar debut years. Pepiot for Grisham straight-up can be an attention-grabbing problem commerce for each side, however San Diego most likely wouldn’t go for that.
That’s the place all of it will get tough, buying and selling throughout the division. It’s one factor to commerce away a participant who would possibly get significantly better; it’s one other factor to commerce a participant who would possibly get significantly better towards you. And when each groups have that very same fear, it’s most likely not going to get finished.
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