For Dodgers and Andrew Friedman, this is the time to step up, not stand pat
With baseball’s trade deadline looming, the backward buzz at Chavez Ravine on Tuesday was about whom the Dodgers would not be acquiring before next week.
They’re not going to be adding Clayton Kershaw. He sat gloomily on the dugout bench and said he had no idea when he might return from his back injury.
They’re not going to be picking up Andre Ethier. He stood in front of his locker with an unsettled wince and said he just hoped to return from his leg injury sometime this season.
The Dodgers are hurting. And they are winning. They are fighting through the pain by playing their best team baseball in several years, nearly everyone unselfishly contributing, feisty at the plate, focused in the field, winning 16 of 24 games since Kershaw last pitched and moving to within a whisper of the first-place San Francisco Giants.
“It’s been so fun to watch,” said Kershaw. “Makes me really want to be part of it, just the way these guys are playing. It’s a great team, it really is . . . one of the closest teams that I have been a part of.”
It’s a team that has played hard enough to deserve a chance to keep playing in October, a team that has outworked all reasonable expectations to climb out of the smoldering injury wreckage and into legitimate championship contention.
With two months left in the season, the Dodgers don’t need to shrink, they need to grow. They don’t need to fold, they need to expand. They don’t need to use their injuries as an excuse, they need to use their healthy play as an inspiration.
Instead of giving Andrew Friedman a license to pass on the Aug. 1 trade deadline, the Kershaw and Ethier ruminations should instead compel him to move even bigger.
They need help. Get them help. They need a starting pitcher and a right-handed hitting outfielder. Find them somewhere.
Kershaw and Ethier will both probably return before the end of the year. If the roster is right, they could literally put this team over the top. If the roster is still depleted, it will probably be too late.
If Friedman makes big moves this week, he’ll be rewarding a versatile clubhouse he created to play in this manner. If Friedman gives up now, he’ll lose that clubhouse.
“I know Andrew, Farhan Zaidi and all the guys upstairs are canvassing every type of opportunity we have,” Kershaw said. “And it’s a weird trade market this year; just from my perspective, I’m not sure. There is not a lot out there and what is out there costs a whole lot. So we’ll see. But our team is playing really well right now. I don’t know if we need it but it would always be nice.”
In veteran baseball parlance, “always be nice” is loosely translated as “absolutely necessary.’’
To punt on this summer is to punt on potential last-chance great seasons from Kenley Jansen and Justin Turner. Both men will be free agents this winter, and both are having the richest of contract years. Before Tuesday’s 3-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, Jansen led all National League relievers with a WHIP of 0.69 while Turner was among the league’s hottest players with 15 homers and 42 RBIs in the last two months.
Giving up on this season also means giving up on rookie-of-the-year favorite Corey Seager’s terrific year, a hot second half by Howie Kendrick, and a bounce-back stretch from Adrian Gonzalez. Not to mention, the Dodgers bullpen led the league with a .198 batting average against before Tuesday, and how often does that happen?
“The players in this clubhouse have the utmost confidence in our front office to do whatever it takes to push this team to the next level,” catcher A.J. Ellis said.
Adding an impact player at the trading deadline — something Friedman failed to do last year, ultimately leading to another early playoff exit — is a bigger issue in this clubhouse than it was in the past.
Most of the players on this team actually like each other. They play hard for each other. They quietly feel that if given a chance, they could actually play deep into autumn.
Much of this comes from the emerging leadership of Manager Dave Roberts. But some of it comes from the realization that without Kershaw and last year’s second ace Zack Greinke, they have to play more focused just to survive.
“Every night, it’s a fight, and we’ve embraced that fight,” Ellis said.
It is a fight worth embracing. It is a fight that Friedman needs to fight with them.
Kershaw is right, there’s a strange group of available players, led by Chicago White Sox clubhouse seamstress Chris Sale. There’s Oakland’s struggling Sonny Gray and blistered Rich Hill. Then there’s Chris Archer, a former phenom who faced the Dodgers on Tuesday and, in seven resilient innings, allowed three runs, one earned, and four hits with eight strikeouts and no walks.
There are no easy answers here. But Friedman cannot be afraid to make tough decisions to find those answers. Those decisions could come with names like Julio Urias, Jose De Leon, Joc Pederson and Yasiel Puig. For an organization mired in a 27-year World Series championship drought, the future is the next three months.
“This team is hungry to keep playing,” Ellis said. “The trading deadline is always a good time for the front office to target areas to push us over the top. We’re excited to see how this one turns out.”
That pushing time is now.
Twitter: @BillPlaschke
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