Hack Plaschke at it again:
I think I’ll FJM this, for old time’s sake.
So the Dodgers can strengthen baseball’s best lineup, deepen their historic batting order, tighten their versatile defense, become even more exciting, more enchanting, more unbeatable.
Thanks, but no thanks.
Sure, they have the money, but, but, team chemistry!!
This is [insert some player]'s team!!
It’s not that Juan Soto would be a bad acquisition. He’s one of baseball’s best young players, he raked the Dodgers for a 1.084 on-base-plus-slugging percentage in the World Series, he was everything Aaron Judge was not, and heaven knows the Dodgers can afford him.
But to sign the New York Yankees’ free-agent outfielder, they would need to make him the highest-paid annual-salaried player on the team, his no-deferred paycheck close to $50 million a year, and that just doesn’t work in a clubhouse that doesn’t need a new leader.
This guy knows clubhouses. He’s been kicked out of plenty. that is why he is a columnist, and not on the beat.
Soto never has been a clubhouse problem, but his flamboyant aura, while great for baseball, won’t so easily work in the Dodgers’ grind-it-out culture.
Sounds like a great addition to any team.
Ohtani is known for his professionalism, Betts is known for his unselfishness, and Freeman is known for his guts. Soto? He’s known for his batter’s-box shuffle.
Uh-oh, we are in to “doesn’t play the game right” territory.
Agreed, he’s a 26-year-old superstar who would be worth every penny.
He just needs to get paid somewhere else, anywhere else, while the Dodgers should focus their attention on the gleaming product directly in front of them.
To play against the LAD. Smart move.
You know, the World Series champions.
Keep them together. Strengthen that chemistry. Build on that bond.
Adding players better than that WS Champion team seems like a smart move. Not hoping that some random guy picked up late in the season suddenly and surprisingly gets a lot better. Better to take a sure thing, isn’t it?
Andrew Friedman did such a spectacular job in shaping such a special team, it would verge on heartbreaking if he allows some of the Dodgers’ important free-agent pieces to go their separate ways.
“Heartbreaking”?? This is sports, and winning at this highest level is what everyone in the organization wants. Not touchy-feely shit. You know, players get old and worse at their jobs, like sports columnists.
Remember when the Lakers’ Rob Pelinka tore apart the 2020 championship team by ridding it of important role players so he could add Russell Westbrook? Here’s hoping a similarly bad remodel job doesn’t happen here.
First, different sport, different cap rules.
Second, that was a dumb, dumb decision by a dumb, dumb GM and owner. LAD owners and GMs are not dumb.
The Dodgers have shown they have the money, and the smarts, and everything else required to sign the cornerstones who can keep the championship foundation strong. Now they just need to fight the urge to turn everything upside down with a shiny new toy.
Yeah, what’s wrong with the shiny new toy (made in Japan!!) you got last Christmas??
They have six free agents. They should maximize their efforts to bring back four of them.
Certainly, they will add another starting pitcher or two — Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki is one leading candidate — and they probably will add a bullpen arm and veteran journeyman outfielder.
Or, maybe a superstar free agent outfielder!
Bring back Teoscar Hernández.
He’s 32 and bound to regress from last year’s 33-homer, 99-RBI numbers, but goodness, outside of Ohtani, did any other Dodger make a more consistent impact?
Would Juan Soto be a better choice? Won’t regress for probably another six years.
When the regular-season Dodgers needed a lift, he was there. When the postseason Dodgers needed a hero, he had big hits in the division series opener, the division series clincher, and the clinching World Series Game 5.
He’s more than just a shower of sunflower seeds. He’s a big part of this club’s soul.
So, reward him for an effort he was already paid to do?
Bring back Walker Buehler.
Yes, he’s had two Tommy John surgeries and, yes, he made an awfully slow recovery from his most recent operation, going 1-6 with a 5.38 earned-run average in the regular season.
But perhaps no Dodger is more unhittable in October. He has an 0.47 ERA in four career World Series appearances and the steely nerve to take the mound on one day’s rest for the last three outs of this fall’s clinching Game 5.
This is a no-brainer, since Juan Soto cannot pitch as well as Walker Buehler, even if he only pitched a few innings the who year. Heck, pitching so little might have been optimal. I mean, he wasn’t tired at the end of the season.
Bring back Kiké Hernández.
This one is simple. You endure a regular-season OPS of .654 for a postseason of two homers, eight RBIs and a go-ahead dinger against the San Diego Padres in the deciding Game 5 of the division series.
Hernandez has a career .874 OPS in 86 postseason games. He is Señor October. You keep Señor October.
Yes, “I made his nickname so you HAVE to keep him!!”
If only that post-season was predictable. You know who had a better post-season?
Bring back Blake Treinen.
He has struggled through injuries and he’ll be 37 next October but he had a 1.93 ERA in 50 appearances during the regular season and when the Dodgers needed him for 2⅓ innings in the World Series clincher, he shut the Yankees down.
It was one of the biggest moments of the postseason, one of the most strenuous moments of his career, yet he performed like a champion. The Dodgers should be in the business of retaining champions.
OK, a one-year contract with an option. Again, Juan Soto does not pitch. But, signing him just because of a few innings of relief, clogging up a roster space for a whole season (unless he gets “injured” for six months – seems like the way to go, a la Buehler)? Sounds like a dumb business decision from a man who likely took no STEMB courses in college, cuz Journalism.
Finally:
There’s at least one more member of the title team who has earned a new contract. He’s not a free agent but he’s on the verge of becoming a lame duck. There’s no doubt the Dodgers will take care of him before the final year of his contract, but it would be nice if it happened soon enough to have an impact with potential incoming free agents.
He is Dave Roberts, and there are very few managers walking this earth who could have matched his deft handling of all the October bullpen games and injuries and intrigue.
Tommy Edman and Freeman received special trophies, but Roberts was the Dodgers’ overall postseason most valuable player.
It’s time to pay him like it.
“I need him to like me so I can ghostwrite his autobiography!!”
The bane of Champions is sticking with the players too long and paying them too much, because the team (GMs, owners) feels some loyalty to them. See: Belichick as a counter-example.
LAD should pick up Soto so some other team, like, say, the SDP or SFG don’t get him instead and then he’s pounding the LAD 13 times a season.