Dodgers Dugout: Farewell, Ross Stripling

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell and the trade deadline has come and gone.

The Dodgers made one move at the trade deadline. Let’s take a look.

A lot of Dodgers fans hoped the Dodgers would acquire a solid starting pitcher on Monday. Instead, they traded one of their starters while the San Diego Padres seemed to acquire every player available.

L.A. sent Ross Stripling to the Toronto Blue Jays for two players to be named. Let’s face it, it’s not a tremendous loss for the team. They tried to trade him (along with Joc Pederson) to the Angels in the offseason before the deal fell apart. He was going to start the season in the bullpen until David Price opted out of the season because of coronavirus concerns. He has given up an astounding 12 home runs in 33.1 innings this season and had a 5.61 ERA. Since the start of 2019, Stripling is 7-5 with a 4.05 ERA.

Speaking as a Dodger fan, I wish Stripling well, thank him for his service and hope he pitches well against everyone except the Dodgers. And thanks to Ross for one of the best podcasts around.

This creates room in the rotation for Tony Gonsolin, giving the Dodgers a rotation of Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Dustin May, Julio Urías, Gonsolin and Alex Wood.

Meanwhile, the Padres, who are only five games behind the Dodgers in the NL West, went crazy before the trade deadline. Let’s look at who they acquired:

Monday: Acquired catcher Jason Castro from the Angels for pitcher Gerardo Reyes. Acquired pitcher Mike Clevinger, outfielder Greg Allen and a player to be named from Cleveland for catcher Austin Hedges, infielders Gabriel Arias and Owen Miller, outfielder Josh Naylor and pitchers Joey Cantillo and Cal Quantrill. Acquired pitcher Austin Adams, catcher Austin Nola and pitchers Dan Altaville from Seattle for infielder Ty France, pitcher Andres Munoz, catcher Luis Torrens and outfielder Taylor Trammell.

Sunday: Acquired IF/DH Mitch Moreland from Boston in exchange for minor league infielder Hudson Potts and outfielder Jeisson Rosario

Saturday: Acquired pitcher Trevor Rosenthal from Kansas City for outfielder Edward Olivares and a player to be named.

This is a Dodgers newsletter, not a Padres newsletter, so while I won’t break down each deal extensively, let’s just say the Padres cleaned up. They acquired an ace in Clevinger, who has a 3.18 ERA this season and a 3.20 career ERA in 523.1 innings. They got Moreland, who is hitting .328/.430/.746 this season, which is not sustainable, but he is a good hitter. They got two catchers who were better than the two they had and they got Rosenthal, who seems to have found his groove again this season.

When Manny Machado signed with the Padres, he said that they would win a World Series before the Dodgers do. Well, the Padres certainly put themselves in position to do that with these trades.

As for the Dodgers, they wanted to acquire Lance Lynn from Texas. Lynn was fifth in AL Cy Young voting last season, and has a 1.93 ERA this season. The unknown asking price was too high, however, and Lynn remained with the Rangers. Rumors out there say the Rangers asked for either Gonsolin, May or Gavin Lux. Those are just rumors though. This is a strange playoff season. The first round is best-of-three, so any favored team could easily go home quickly. Is it worth risking prospects for that, especially when you already have one of the best offenses and best pitching staffs in baseball?

The Dodgers have made big trade deadline deals before. Manny Machado. Yu Darvish (who was greeted with open arms by most fans, despite how it turned out). And they didn’t win the World Series. And the non-moves at this trade deadline will be questioned if the Dodgers fail to win this year. The playoffs are a crapshoot, more this year than any other. If the Padres win it all and the Dodgers don’t, then we can point fingers. Anyone who tells you what Monday meant is trying to fool you. We’ll all know when the World Series is over is when we can all look like geniuses.

Here’s a list of all the trade deadline deals Monday, courtesy of the Associated Press:

Kansas City: Recalled RHP Chance Adams from alternate training site. Placed RHP Ian Kennedy on the 10-day IL.

Angels: Traded C Jason Castro to San Diego for RHP Gerardo Reyes. Optioned Gerardo Reyes to alternate training site. Acquired LHP Packy Naughton from Cincinnati and a player to be named later or cash considerations in exchange for OF Brian Goodwin. Recalled IF Jamal Jones from alternate training site.

Seattle: Traded RHP Austin Adams, C Austin Nola and RHP Dan Altaville to San Diego for IF Ty France, RHP Andres Munoz, C Luis Torrens and OF Taylor Trammell. Recalled OF Braden Bishop and IF Donovan Walton from alternate training site.

San Diego: Acquired catcher Jason Castro from the Los Angeles Angels in exchange for RHP Gerardo Reyes. Acquired RH Mike Clevinger, OF Greg Allen and a player to be named later from the Cleveland in exchange for C Austin Hedges, IF Gabriel Arias, IF Owen Miller, OF Josh Naylor, LHP Joey Cantillo and RHP Cal Quantrill. Acquired RHP Taylor Williams from Seattle in exchange for a player to be named later.

Baltimore: Acquired LHP Kevin Smith and a player to be named later or cash considerations from the New York Mets in exchange for RHP Miguel Castro.

Boston: Traded OF Kevin Pillar and cash considerations to Colorado in exchange for a player to be named later or cash considerations as well as international amateur signing bonus pool space.

Texas: Traded LHP Mike Minor and cash considerations to Oakland in exchange for two players to be named later and international slot compensations. Acquired two players to be named later from New York Mets in exchange for cash considerations, C Robinson Chirinos and IF Todd Frazier.

Toronto: Acquired INF Jonathan Villar from Miami in exchange for a player to be named later. Acquired LHP Robbie Ray and cash considerations from Arizona in exchange for LHP Travis Bergen.

Arizona: Acquired LHP Caleb Smith, RHP Humberto Meja and a player to be named later from Miami for OF Starling Marte.

Chicago Cubs: Acquired LHP Josh Osich from Boston in exchange for a player to be named later or cash considerations. Designated IF Hernan Perez for assignment.

Dodgers: Traded RHP Ross Stripling for two players to be named later.

Milwaukee: Acquired three players to be named later from Philadelphia in exchange for RHP David Phelps.

The Dodgers’ walkout

A lot of reaction to the Dodgers’ walkout of the game against San Francisco last week. Thousands of emails, and I am sifting through all of them to find ones to publish, which I will do in a special edition later this week. I will only be using your initials when using what you wrote. But some early trends:

—There were some good, honest, well thought out letters disagreeing with what the Dodgers did. Not because they don’t agree with the message, they just felt it was the wrong way to protest.

—A majority of readers are 100% behind the team.

—There were people who wrote in who were obviously racist. Strangely enough, almost none of them bothered to put their name to their actions. Cowards.

—My favorite email came from a man who cc’d three other people on his email. He was strongly against the Dodgers. I didn’t know who the three people whom he emailed were until...... a short time later I got an email from his daughter, who said she disagreed with her father. Then I got an email from another daughter, who was unhappy about being cc’d on it and disagreed with her father. Finally, I got an email from his son, who said his father doesn’t speak for him.

Now, the poll. I asked you to vote in a poll on how you felt, and here are the responses after 22,325 votes:

It made me very proud to be a Dodgers fan, 44.6%
I was fine with it, 31.2%
I hated it, but still support them, 16.1%
I hated it and will never watch another Dodgers game, 5.6%
I don’t care either way, 2.5%

So, 75% of you were in favor of it. About 22% were against it and apparently 2.5% of you are robots with no emotions whatsoever.

You can put me in the “It made me very proud” camp.

Chadwick Boseman

Chadwick Boseman, best known for playing T’Challa in “Black Panther,” died Friday of colon cancer. I first became aware of Boseman when he played Jackie Robinson in “42.” It was a dynamic performance that captured the essence of Robinson beautifully. He was great in everything I watched him in, and he gave back to his community, visited sick children and acted in blockbuster movies all while battling cancer. There’s nothing I can add that improves upon the many tributes to him in the last few days, but I just wanted to note his passing because of his performance in the movie, a movie every Dodger fan should watch.

For a great tribute to Boseman, click here.

Who’s in the playoffs?

Remember, this season 16 teams make the postseason, eight in each league. The three division winners, the three second-place teams and the remaining two teams with the best record make the playoffs in each league. They are seeded as follows: 1-3 (division winners in order of best record); 4-6 (second-place teams in order of best record); 7-8 (remaining two teams in order of best record). No. 1 will play No. 8 in the first round, No. 2 versus No. 7, etc. First round is best of three, with all three games played at the home stadium of the team with the better seeding. As of Monday, here are the NL seedings:

1. Dodgers, 26-10
2. Atlanta, 20-14
3. Chicago, 20-14
4. San Diego, 22-15
5. St. Louis, 13-13
6. Miami, 15-15
7. Philadelphia, 15-15
8. Colorado, 17-18

The first tiebreaker is head-to-head record (if applicable). The next tiebreaker is intra-division record. The next is record in the final 20 division games (plus one until the tie is broken).

Your first Dodgers memory

I have thousands of responses, so if I don’t get to yours right away, don’t worry, I will eventually. If you haven’t already, I’d still love for you to send me your first Dodgers memory, and it may run in an upcoming Dodgers Dugout. Include your name. And don’t send only a sentence, tell why that memory sticks out in your mind. You can email me your memory at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. And remember, it’s first Dodgers memory, not favorite Dodgers memory. Thanks.

Kurt Krueger: My grandfather was a big Dodgers fan dating to Brooklyn days when he traveled there for business frequently. I should mention that he was a home movies buff, and I found footage in his movies of Ebbets Field with all the bunting up, either a World Series or Opening Day. He took me to the first of many Dodger games to see the Phillies play the Dodgers in the Coliseum — I think it was 1959, I was 7. Pretty sure I came home with my first Dodgers cap. Beyond the memory of the first game with a beloved Grandfather, I recall the vast spaces in right-center, and watching a few balls bounce off the screen in left field — and the enormousness of the Coliseum to a 7-year-old. I later was able to join my oldest son at the return to the Coliseum game celebrating 50 years in L.A.

Paul Schoofs of Ripon, Wis.: As a boy growing up in north central Iowa in the 1950s, I loved playing baseball with my elementary school buddies. I knew almost nothing about pro baseball — there wasn’t an MLB team within hundreds of miles. My first baseball glove was a catcher’s mitt, a Roy Campanella model, and when I asked my dad who that was, he told me that Roy played for the Brooklyn Dodgers. After that, I always hoped to see them on the Saturday game of the week with Dizzy Dean and Buddy Blattner, but rarely did, usually because I was busy selling vegetables even if their game was on. But when they beat the hated Yankees in the ’55 World Series, I was hooked. Go Dodgers!

Howard J. Rigsby of Woodstock, Ill.: I saw my first game at Ebbets Field in 1956. Gil Hodges and Jackie Robinson were on the field and after catching the last out of the inning, Duke Snider tossed the ball to me. I dropped the ball and Duke came over, picked up the ball and slapped it in my glove and told me I would never play for the Dodgers if I could not field. Emmett Kelly, the stadium clown, sat next to me for a half inning. I was seven at the time and I was pissed off a year later when you LaLas stole them.

These names look familiar

What players on the 2019 Dodgers are doing this season with other teams (through Sunday’s games):

Travis d’Arnaud, Atlanta, .308/.345/.526, 127 OPS+

Yimi Garcia, Miami, 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 3.2 IP

Jedd Gyorko, Milwaukee, .262/.354/.643, 161 OPS+

Rich Hill, Minnesota, 1-1, 3.55 ERA

Kenta Maeda, Minnesota, 4-1, 2.53 ERA

Hyun-Jin Ryu, Toronto, 2-1, 2.92 ERA

Casey Sadler, Chicago Cubs, 0-0, 5.79 ERA

Alex Verdugo, Boston, .291/.352/.496, 123 OPS+

Up next

Tuesday, Arizona (Alex Young*) at Dodgers (Julio Urías*), 6:30 p.m., SportsNet LA, AM 570

Wednesday, Arizona (TBD) at Dodgers (Clayton Kershaw*), 6:30 p.m., SportsNet LA, AM 570

Thursday, Arizona (TBD) at Dodgers (TBD), 6:30 p.m., SportsNet LA, AM 570

* Left-handed

And finally

Herman Munster tries out for the Dodgers. Watch it here.