While it's foolish to think that you can judge a franchise by it's action and/or inaction at a particular Trade Deadline, each July scramble at least gives us a window into all 30 MLB teams' front offices and their approaches to the present and the future of their organizations. Keeping that in mind, here's 3 Things We Learned About The Los Angeles Dodgers At The Trade Deadline.
Farhan Zaidi Has A License To Burn Money
The massive three-way, 13-player trade between the Dodgers, Marlins and Braves will run Los Angeles' payroll to a awe-inspiring $280 million and their tax to $40 million (with a 40-percent rate on the overage). What did they get out of it? Basically Mat Latos and Alex Wood -- two solid-ish rotation options that fall short of what Los Angeles fans were dreaming of and/or expecting at this year's deadline. In short, it appears new Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi has no financial limitations to worry about, especially with the fact that the team is paying $85.75 million to players no longer with the team -- an amount bigger than six MLB team's entire payroll.
Greinke/Kershaw Are Enough?
No Johnny Cueto, no Cole Hamels and no David Price. Everyone knows they wanted one of those guys, but everyone now knows that the Dodgers are not willing to sacrifice top-tier prospects to give Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw a third ace to mingle with. There is no better 1-2 rotation punch that Kershaw/Greinke and perhaps Los Angeles' front office is comfortable with the notion that Kershaw has to come out of his postseason funk at some point. Right? RIGHT?
They Feel OK Punting On Hector Olivera
This is the most perplexing part of the Dodgers' trade deadline dealings. Olivera, a 30-year-old Cuban second baseman with massive upside, was signed by Los Angeles before last offseason to a six-year, $65 million deal. Dealing him to the Braves in and of itself isn't out of character or indefensible, but it's the fact that Los Angeles paid him a $28 million signing bonus and watched him for just four months in their farm system before shipping him off that has us scratching our heads. LA's front office rolled the dice on this one to fill out the rotation and we have no earthly clue how this move will actually shake out down the road.
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