Andrew Friedman is known for finding gems in the garbage pile. Witness Max Muncy, Chris Taylor, Brandon Morrow, and others. But he is not the only one. In 2018, the St. Louis Cardinals signed Miles Mikolas, whom the year before was 14-8 with a 2.25 ERA in the Japanese League. He had gone to Japan after failing as an MLB pitcher.
The Cardinals signed him to a 2-year $15.5 Million dollar deal and he went out in 2018 and finished 6th in the Cy Young voting with a 18-4 W/L record, a 2.83 ERA and a 1.071 WHIP. 2019 was not as good, but he was still a serviceable starter… being much better in the second half of the season.
Andrew Friedman loves guys like that, and there is an old friend out there whom the Dodgers have scouted in the Korean League. In 2018, he pitched 169 innings and was 15-4 with a 2.99 ERA and a 1.067 WHIP. He followed that up with 195 IP in 2019 with a 20-3 record, a 2.50 ERA and a 0.997 WHIP.
Over 5 MLB seasons, he pitched 147 innings with a 5-8 record and a 4.10 ERA. He turned it all around by greatly expanding his pitch repertoire, gaining pinpoint control, improving his spin rates, and many other analytical solutions. He did this by using Rapsodo and with hard work.
He will be 33 in June, but our old friend from Purdue University… Josh Lindblom, could be the MVP of the Korean League and a 2-year deal like Mikolas got could get him to come back to LA. Would his success in the Korean League translate to success in the MLB? Maybe… maybe not. It could be a dope-fiend move that costs you $15 million, but that’s better than a dope-fiend move that costs you $250 million! His stats in Korea compare favorably to those of Hyun-jin Ryu. The Dodgers could do worse.
Josh was always a favorite of mine, but I always saw him as a middle reliever, not a starter. He is not the same pitcher he once was and he might just be worth a shot. This is a move I could see Andrew Friedman making. This is a low risk – high reward move. The Athletic had a great write-up on him yesterday.
There are other “under-the-radar” moves that could also be made, such as trading for Jon Gray of the Rookies. He has shown great potential at times and looked horrible too. Could Prior and Honeycutt “fix” him? Josh Lindblom “fixed” himself and is a totally different pitcher now. I am not saying to just target this type of pitchers, but it’s certainly a tactic that can yield excellent results. Low risk – high reward!
Discussion (42)
Disagree, not disagreeable
I wonder if the Red Sox, in their effort to get under the tax threshold, would trade Bogaerts. He is signed @ 20m until 2025, is excellent on both sides of the ball. JDM not opting out creates some serious problems for them to trim that much salary.
I like Lindor as well, and would of course cost less in dollars and players.
Regardless, I think an upgrade from Seager is needed if possible and makes sense players and salary wise.
Signing Rendon, and a Bogaerts or Lindor move would be great. Trade Pederson, Muncy (who I love but he is an ideal AL guy), prospects, and Kike or Taylor for some pitching
SNY’s Matthew Cerrone recently spoke to a source that outlined what type of package it would take to land Betts.
To get Betts for just one season, I’m told Boston will need to replace him in the lineup, add an affordable, team-controlled, mid-rotation starter and bring in at least two top-100 prospects.
Cerrone would also say that teams like the Padres, Braves, Cardinals, Astros, Mets, Reds, and Brewers could target Betts. The Dodgers, and a package headlined by Joc Pederson and Kenta Maeda, were also mentioned.
As everyone knows, I don’t offer Joc up in trades and some probably know I haven’t warmed up to Verdugo so here is what I would offer for Betts: Maeda, Verdugo, and White.
Kike’ and Ruiz for Lindor or Taylor and Ruiz for Lindor. I don’t know who the other(s) are that would have to be included; maybe Pollock and some $$ could be one of them.
I would swap Seager for Gleyber Torres. Gonsolin might have to be added.
1B Muncy/Turner
RF Betts
CF Bellinger
SS Lindor
LF Pederson
3B Torres
2B Lux
C Smith and Barnes
I stand by my prediction that the Dodgers offense will go on a tear next year including the playoffs as is right now, except maybe Seager and it depends with LF if Doc does the right thing by platooning Pederson and Pollock.
Give Seager a month or so at SS full time if he fails to hit lefties like he did last season then platoon him with Taylor.
6 positions will be productive and depending on Seager and Doc it might be all 8 positions. My opinion no need to use resources money or trade chips to upgrade the offense. Use it to upgrade the pitching staff.
Rendon is getting kudos for his defense but will that continue to be plus during his new contract? It dropped a bit last year already.
Lindor, Kubler, and Cleveland’s best reliever would be the blockbuster of the offseason.
If we are going to invest big on one of the top free agents, the money would be best spent on a position player like Rendon. He would impact the line up everyday, not every 5th day. I realize we need 2 aces for the post season but paying an ace after he becomes that guy will not be a good return on investment. Our pitching is best developed in house by drafting/trading for prospects with big upsides. I believe Julio will surpass expectations and that May and Goslin will benefit from the experience they gained this past season.
The only thing I know for sure is that Andrew will improve the team in some way, I am excited to see how he does it.
Hey, I like AJ Pollock, really good player, gave the Dodgers fits for years. Had surgery to remove a screw that was bothering him from a previous surgery, had a really good second half and had a lot of big hits, so no I don’t think Friedman blew it. Way too early to evaluate the signing.
As for Jim Bowden, enjoy listening to him on MLB radio, way better than most and makes for good commentary during the hot stove. He’s paid to create interesting discussion and he does that. Look at everything being written and said about the Dodgers off-season, it’s all speculation, which is fun. Will Friedman finally go all-in on one of the big free agents? He did say last winter that this would be the year.
Of course, acquiring Anthony Rendon depends on whether the player actually wants to play in LA. Everybody seems to agree that he would be the perfect free agent signing. One story came out that Friedman really liked Rendon and Gerrit Cole. Of course he likes them, what’s not to like? Maybe length of contract?
How all this plays out may depend on the trade market. Is Lindor available? What will it take for the Dodgers to make that deal? Will they have to give up Lux, something they absolutely don’t want to do? Or will it cost a package like Stripling, Ruiz, Gray and Downs?
That means Seager moves to third, no upside including Cory in the deal. Turner to first, Lux to second or left, Muncy to left or second.
Do the Dodgers sign Ryu and Hill? Makes some sense or do they go all in on Cole and hope he holds up. Piled up a lot of innings last year. Will he be the next Scherzer or Verlander, continuing to throw hard into his 30s?
As to free agents, Friedman once said if you are looking for a reasonable deal, you will never get the player.
But does anybody think that going into the playoffs with Cole and Walker Buehler doesn’t enhance the Dodgers chances of winning a World Series?
Jon Gray was very good in 2017, but that has been it. His pitching stats are better at Coors than they are away. If I want a reclamation project from Colorado, I would much rather pursue Kyle Freeland who was worse than bad last year, but was fantastic in 2018 where he was 4th in CY voting that year. Kyle was much better away than at Coors last year. He wasn’t very good away, but he was just awful at Coors.
I agree that Josh Lindblom is a typical AF type, but I do not see how he improves the team from what we already have. He might turn out to be a decent pitcher, but better than Strip? And he is just not good enough to block May or Gonsolin as a starter even for one year.
With $45MM (at least) available why is Josh Lindblom even a discussion? If AF does not want to spend (I think he will), then do nothing and let kids get the experience. Trade off some ML players for more prospects so the Dodgers can continue a top 5 farm system, but not with enough top echelon players to make them a ML juggernaut. The Dodgers can stay relevant and then get lucky. Why not, worked for Washington. Oh wait, they had 2 Aces and two other good starters, and timely hitters. And we are talking about adding Josh Lindblom? Pass.
I love both of those names MT. I remember Josh having a couple of pretty good years out of the pen and Gray looked unhittable in stretches for Colorado a couple of years ago. An added plus is having a guy that’s had some success pitching in Coors. I wouldn’t mind them picking up one of those guys in addition to a name brand guy, but not instead of the name brand guy.
Josh would be a good pickup if willing to pitch in relief if squeezed out of a starting role. Gray seems more like a square peg for me. Never pitched more than 175 innings, still under team control for a couple more years, relatively cheap, has some success in Coors. Why would Colorado want to trade him? On top of that, does he have the upside of Urias, May and Gonsolin, or even our own Gray? I don’t see Colorado trading away serviceable pitching especially since it’s almost impossible to lure a free agent to come to pitcher’s hell.
Jim Bowden had a great sound bite yesterday…
“I think you’re going to see a splash coming from La La Land this year. If not, you’re going to get a starter — 1, 2, or 3 — you’re going to get a bullpen arm, and you’re going to get a right-handed bat. I have a lot of faith in what Andrew Friedman has done and despite what you hear in LA, because they don’t understand that you can’t just win a World Series whenever you want, go look at how many times he has won the division and his track record.”
He also spoke specifically about trading for Betts or Lindor. I don’t want to speculate about what the team’s going to look like after trading for one of these guys. But man, rumors like these are nice to ponder. Remember, Betts was a second baseman before he was a right fielder.
I like that Bowden keeps with the theme of a front-end pitcher, bullpen arm and RH Bat.
As far as trades go, if we are going to add an arm to the rotation, we definitely don’t need all 4 of Urias, May, Gonsolin and Gray. Bueller and Kershaw aren’t going anywhere and Maeda is very valuable in the 5th starter/Postseason bullpen savior role.
So many possibilities this offseason. Can’t wait for some of the balls to drop.
Paraphrasing Fangraphs Eric Longenhagen – (Lindblom’s) fastball is below big league average, operating in the low-90s, but he has developed an above-average splitter, and has good glove-side command of a serviceable slider/cutter. He also has a loopy, low-70s curveball… while a need to work heavily with the off-speed stuff so his fastball doesn’t get crushed slides him back toward the bullpen…the combo looks like a long relief type, one especially suited to face a lineup full of lefties because of the split, and his ability to tie up lefties with that slider/cutter. ” MLBTR projects a 2 year deal with $4M AAV; Crowdsource median projection is 2 years, $4.3M AAV. Seems to me that he fits the role currently filled by Ross Stripling who has better stuff and projected by MLBTR to earn $2.3M in 2020. Lindblom seems more like a fit for teams in greater need of pitching than the Dodgers who need someone to replace Ryu (hopefully Ryu returns) not Stripling.
Very nice article, something to think about, what will the Dodgers do?