Dodgers Territory - Dodgers Land Flaherty to Cap Off BUSY Trade Deadline, Padres Close Gap on LA?

Episode Date: July 31, 2024

The 2024 trade deadline has come and gone and the Dodgers were among the busiest teams in baseball in picking up floor-raising and ceiling-raising talent.Dodger Blue's Scott Geirman joins guest host Scott Braun and Clint Pasillas to recap and react to LA's trade deadline. The guys discuss how Jack Flaherty, Kevin Kiermaier, Tommy Edman, Michael Kopech and Amed Rosasio fit in with the current roster and players coming back from injury.Plus, the competition in the NL West changed with some big moves down in San Diego as the Padres add the top available closer in Tanner Scott, reliever Jason Adam, and veteran starter Martin Perez to the mix.Dodgers Territory runs LIVE on Mondays & Thursdays at 3p ET/12p PT on the DT YouTube channel! PLEASE SUBSCRIBE!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Scottie Braun with half of the dynamic duo, Clint Paseas, with us right now. And then also Scott Gehrman joining us back on the show, probably leading in appearances at this point, as we appreciate having you on here. and make sure to check out all of his work as he hosts video pods and writes for Dr. Blue. So great to have you on right at the jump here. How are you doing, ma'am? Doing pretty well. It's an exciting day. This was, I would say, a long time coming just because of how much chatter and how many different directions the Dodgers could have gone. If it didn't go as well as it did, we'd be having a different conversation, but I'm doing well.

Good, good. We're about to jump into it before we do, before the ticket. Clint, great to host a show. show with you like this for the first time. And I'll start with a fun comment because I just hosted 80 million hours of foul territory. And one of my favorite comments of the day was someone talking about how they were going to do some type of drinking game, like a shot for every trade the Dodgers make. And they check in hours later and they're like, I'm so sober. And we're like, hold up, hold up. And we're trying to talk to like a real strong drink at the buzzer with the Florida move.

We'll get to Florida. But I just figured you'd like that comment. comment. Yeah, you know, I mean, if you look at the totality of the trade deadline, this person should be pretty messed up because the Dodgers made a lot of moves. So I'd say let's talk about it now. Let's get into that big ticket. Let's do it. All right. So let's go over all the trades that the Dodgers make over the last few days. Obviously, Jack Flaherty is the headliner and towards the buzzer of the deadline. But also let's not forget about Tommy Edmund and Michael Kopeck in that wild three team deal with the White Sox and the Cardinals. Amed Rosario is back because why not? And, you know, and Kevin Kiermeyer can really pick it out there. He struggled with the bat so far this year. But Clint, why don't you kick it off and then Scott G., you can follow? Yeah, you know, everybody, I felt if this team does not go out and get Jack Flaherty, I said, you guys, just before we went live, I'm pretty sure it would have been pitchforks and torches.

Dodgers fans would have not been happy without getting Flaherty, especially after the last two deadlines, this team has endured. This fan base hasn't endured. But as Scott EG, I'm going to steal some of his thunder here. The star is kind of aligned for. this Dodgers team for Andrew Friedman and company to pick the death, arguably, not even arguably, the best starting pitcher that was technically available because Scoobble was not going to get traded. Crochet, we learned thanks to our friend Ken Rosenthal not getting traded, and I think he

kind of made himself untradable. So now the Dodgers just give themselves so many cards to play with so much what Dave Roberts loves, optionality on the roster. But I don't want to dive too much into it. Let's give some more reaction here. Scott, what do you like about Flaherty and this hodgepodge of pieces coming back to LA? So a question that, you know, Jeff Spiegel, another host from Dodger Blue. Again, it's great to have you be back on here. It's a fun day. Heading into today with the moves that the Dodgers made yesterday, bringing in Tommy Edmund, Michael Kopeck, and bringing Amman Rosario back for the second year to the Dodgers, those moves on their own signaled to me that from what I've seen and a lot of people in chat that have tuned in a Dodger Blue

and watch me on my thoughts on the approach towards the deadline is that the floor of the bench has been so much lower than it has been in recent years. So bringing that up was something that it just felt like an absolute need. And the way that they attacked it and Ender Friedman going straight that route and understanding we're getting players with a solid baseline that you can have it. Just like you said, Clint, some optionality, versatility. And players were in the back of the baseball card says they're going to fit right in and you know exactly who they are. today spelled everything going ahead and getting a starting pitcher.

And it was if Garrett Crochet wasn't going to be there, then Jack Flaherty was the number one option for me. And it played exactly out like that. Yep. Yeah. Flaherty has been pitching like a one for anyone that hasn't been watching him since the Tigers, you know, are not great this year. There were some thoughts that maybe the Tigers would be good in 2024.

It hasn't happened. They're not a terrible team, but they're just not there yet. And the scoble talk was BS. We shot that down weeks ago on foul territory. I think that was certain insiders kind of hearing from execs that wanted to find out what it would cost to get someone like that. It's worth finding out what the assets worth. But that was never going to happen. This was a must for Detroit.

And of course, you look at the rotation now. And yes, some of the comments coming in here on DT. And you got to like having a guy that could pitch game one for you in the playoffs. Dodgers probably are not going to have him pitch game one. but you're getting a number one playoff starter. He's had troubles. Like last year, he was not the same dude yet, right? You saw flashes, and then he faded late.

He had not pitched much the prior three years. The Orioles kind of knew there was a high risk. And this time around, you're getting the best version of Jack Flaherty. And I would even say it's a more polished version than what you had years back when he was a Cy Young contender. So maybe this stuff's a little bit less than what it was in his quote, prime. But you're essentially getting prime Jack Flaherty, joining now a Dodgers organization that knows how to take the best advantage of a pitcher and play it out in a rotation. I'm a huge fan, obviously, as you can tell, of what they just put together here.

We might as well bring this up, too. I saw this tweet as we were talking from John Shea, and I think we have it. John covers the Giants. Giants fans can not be pleased with what went down over the past few days. It's a confusing time period. I always hate when you're a fan and you don't really understand what your franchise is telling you. They were telling you they're competing to start the season. They've had an underwhelming year, but they're not out of it.

They definitely have some work to do. Yet they trade away Alex Cobb today. They traded away Jorge Soler and Luke Jackson. And here's the tweet. It's a quote from Farhan Ziety that was fresh from today. Quote, we feel we have the best rotation in baseball. Who wants to react to that one first? It's a nice starting staff.

They've got some guys coming back. Snell's been awesome. and I'm a big fan of Robbie Ray, but best rotation in baseball. So the Giants, A, think they've got that asset, Clint, and B, must have not thought there's much to do with the offense either, because as far as I saw, I think Mark Kana was the big return for them. This is not a perfect team. Hey, you can call yourself the, you know,

having the best starting rotation to baseball. It doesn't mean much when you're not going to see it in the postseason. And the Giants are not going to make the postseason unless something goes really magically well for them. So that's where I'm at on that. We should add we got more news breaking here during Dodgers territory. The Dodgers tweeting out to make room for Kiermeyer and Flaherty. Unexpectedly for me, the Dodgers have designated for assignment,

Gus Varland and Nick Ramirez, a couple of guys off the 40-man roster that didn't really make a lot of sense on this roster. And Scott, we've been talking about this. Scott E.G., we've been talking about the fact that the 40-man roster was going to be a big problem for this team, and we're kind of seeing some of it here and more of it coming. But for now, the Dodgers got the, you could argue the best starting rotation now. Sorry, Giants. I'll let you kind of piggyback on all of that, Scotty G.

Too many Scott's in here for me today, guys. Agreed. A little bit. I mean, I'd like to just stick with Flaherty. I want to talk, you know, right with Scottie B about what he was going off. I'm a big fan of Jack Flaherty. You know, Clinton, you and I have spoke about Jack a number of times. You know, we've linked up.

You know, his 32% strikeout rate is the best number of his career. Thanks to improve command, he's got a big time. feel, his secondary stuff. And if he, I think, had four more innings, he'd have the third best expected FIP in Major League Baseball. This is a guy who is doing it himself on a Tigers team that doesn't have much going for him. A lot of high hopes. But now you're getting him in to a Dodgers organization, you know, he's going to be able to work with the front office staff there. They look to buff their defense. So things are going to get better for Jack Flair. He gets to come right back home. I want to, you know, just kind of align with some of the question marks that the Dodgers rotation has

had and that a main reason for going out and getting a front-end guy was just because there's so many questions about the health of their starting staff. You don't know what you're getting with Yamamoto. He's just started throwing program two weeks ago. So if you have glass now, already in an innings territory where he hasn't been, Gavin Stone, same thing. You needed somebody else. And then behind them, who else you got? I got a bunch of rookies who have shown flashes, and then Clayton Kershaw, Bobby Miller, Walker Buehler, who just all need to kind of prove themselves. Kershawes look good though. But again, I feel for me, starting pitches was A1,

and they've got a rotation now that I feel comfortable with. Brani, I want to ask you about this because we've seen some of these guys too. Even this weekend, Robleski, River Ryan, the fact that the Dodgers were able to hold onto this, were you getting the feeling during FT that people feel, once again, hey, Andrew Fleeceman at it because you look at some of the, what Houston had to give up Gucci. The Dodgers gave up scraps.

all due respect to Thiron, Lorenzo and the other kid whose name escaped me, Trey Sweeney, the Dodgers gave up nothing to get the best starter available. Yeah, and that was a theme really for this entire trade season. I think you're seeing it more and more come to a surface here where the value of high-level prospects is so damn high, so many of them at the highest level. I'm not talking about mid-tier. I'm talking about like your top three in the org if you have a good org. It's too high to trade away, right?

It's worth too much. Those players make literally nothing compared to how major leaguers get paid deeper into their career. You're making six figures in a league that's a whatever, $15 billion revenue league. So it's just too valuable to trade those players away. I just did Hot Sheet, our Baseball America show as well right after Fowel Territory. And we were going all over all the prospect returns. They were saying how this was the first time, I think, in a minute, that there haven't been any top 100 prospects that were even moved. And that's just telling you how teams are hugging their prospects.

don't care. They'd rather not get a player. But if everybody's holding tight like that, which reminds me of free agency where some teams are just like, yeah, we're not going for that price for certain free agents we saw it this year. Then what happens? The prices go down. And so that's where the Dodgers are able to capitalize and say, okay, we're going down to the second tier. Like call me back when you're there because we can still be competitive there. And that's how they get someone like Jack Flaherty. So I agree with you. Kikuchi was looked at as the prime return of trade season in terms of what he was worth. I'm not saying he's the best prospect. Those were the best prospects going back, although some people really love Jake Blas and on that last show. They said

they wouldn't have even traded that one player alone, let alone all three in that deal for Toronto. So they put that in a little bit of an outlier category. But to sum it up, Clint, you're right. They didn't give up much for Flaherty that's going to burn them long term. And I thought the three-team trade the other day between the Cardinals, the Dodgers, and the White Sox was stupid lopsided. Okay. The Dodgers crushed it. They got Tommy Edmund, if he's healthy and I believe that they've been scouting him well, great. This is an average bat who plays above average defense everywhere, right?

And he's a gamer. So there's risk because you don't know what he's going to look like when he comes back soon, but that's great. Dude, Kopec can pitch high leverage innings for you in the playoffs. Okay? And he's turned a corner to two in the last few weeks. He made some adjustments with his cutter. So that's all great. And then the Cardinals crushed that trade too.

Eric Fetty, I think, has been one of the best pitchers in baseball this year. I was shocked that they barely had to give anything up for him. And then, of course, Tommy Pham can help you out against lefties. They needed that. The White Sox are going to look back at this particular trade and be like, we completely screwed ourselves over. We messed up here big. I think that's why they were a little hesitant today, too, because they got smashed yesterday for doing that deal. When are the White Sox ever done anything wrong as an organization?

Let's be real now. Come on. I'm sitting. I sit three feet away from A.J. Prisinski every day. We took the best thing from them. And it's part of the MTF. I can only imagine how bad it is off, Mike. So we'll throw that in there.

Scottie G. I want to talk about these guys that Brani just mentioned here, talking about Edmund, talking about the return of Ahmed Rosario. Guys that on paper, maybe they're not the most sexy fits for this team, but it kind of fits the team needs right now. How do you think they play out is now, and Thorne and Kiermeyer into the mix? How does all of this kind of work with the pieces we have? We've talked now for months about, you know, you even mentioned the bad bench,

the kind of struggle bus of the back end of the lineup, which has gotten better. Shout out to my boy Gavin Lux for figuring some things out. Brony, you know I've always been high on Lux. Don't say otherwise. But how does this play out? What do you think it's going to look like? There's going to be some shuffling. The Dodgers are attacking some of those needs,

but I wanted, you know, piggyback with Scotty Braun said, man. Like Tommy Edmund's just two years removed from being a five-win player. He can play everywhere. Initially, before the Keirmeier deal got announced, I said immediately, I was like, this is a guy who can slot in in center field and you're getting a gold glove caliber, you know, gold-glove caliber guy. He's going to be a switch hitter. He slots right in there back of the baseball card.

He said he's about mid-90s, WRC plus provides a ton of value in defense. And then they go out and they get Keirmeyer. Okay, and now that opens up when Keirmeyer's on the field. Edmund can slide around all over wherever you need him. He's played primarily up the middle infield. Already started his rehab assignment. Deaching mostly there in AAA or on his rehab assignment, excuse me. Right when he's ready to go, he's going to slot right in.

If they feel comfortable where he's at health-wise and go ahead. Kopeck, exactly that, Scott. Like last five outings, he's been nearly perfect. Just one hit aloud, nine strikeouts, nowhere in runs. And he's got another added year of control. So you've got Edmund, who also provides you with a need now and for, for next year in case the Dodgers don't go ahead and, you know, bring in a shortstop. They've got one right there.

They've got a utility man who they know their baseline is. And then Ahmed Rosario is just having a fine year. He's hitting over 300 115 WRC plus. I'm just happy with it. He's a bargain. He's 500,000 the rest of the regular season. So they gave up absolutely nothing. It was just sad for the Gargis go.

That's just for me. Yeah. Well, I'll respect to McGee Bargis. Yeah. Here, two more. You can answer them at the same time, Scott. before you jump, one, are you satisfied? Like, do you feel like this is a roster that can win a World Series and give you a high percentage

chance to get through the tournament that is October? Number two, are there any concerns that the Padres could be a pain in the ass to face in the playoffs if they sneak in? Because I know they just keep chucking away prospects. They're also really good at finding them. Like, they are able to restash the top end of their system. And damn, I will say this. this one I feel confident about.

The Padres have a better high leverage bullpen right now than the Dodgers. I'm talking if you take four or five guys that you trust in October, the Padres have the edge. They figured out one slice that they can win in, and that is a very important slice in the playoffs. So your thoughts there? Yeah, no, you're on a good track. Same thing I said, right when the deal got announced for Tanner Scott, I said, you got to give a lot of credit to AJ Preller. He knows when a spot is he got to go get it. Hassan Kim's in a free agent year, jerks and pro far.

he's on a spot where you cannot, you know, disagree with what he's doing. You cannot downplay it. He's having a career season. And it's been, they've been hot. I've tuned into a number of Padres games and their offense just goes off. So this is a big series coming up with the Padres. And you have to respect what they're doing. AJ Preller for as reckless, if people think he is with prospects, he knows that a spot where his roster has, I've got two horses at the front, Michael King and Dylan Sees. And then I've got a bullpen that I can just load with the top guys, you know, on the market. Scott, they made another solid move. Names escaping me right now.

Jason Adam. Robert Suarez. They've got Jeremy Estrada. They've got some flamethrowers now. So absolutely, Scott. Like, it's a, you're right on. I believe in what they're doing down there in San Diego. I'm not going to discredit it and act like just because they've been the little brother for a bit.

It's hard to forget what they've done. You know, the NLDS exit. You have to understand what the Padres are doing. And at any moment, they've got an offense that can turn it on. And they've been doing it. So, yes, absolutely. It's a concern, but the Dodgers just have to worry about what they're doing, and I'm thankful that Friedman, Andrew Friedman, addressed the needs that could absolutely hinder

them down the stretch. Yeah, good call. No, and with Preller, I mean, he's so good, especially on the international scouting market. He's just done that job for so long, you know, even before he took over at GM, that, yeah, he gets Leo DeBreis, who's now one of the better prospects in baseball, and that was an international signing. So anyway, Scott, Scott, G. it's been great kind of out numbering Clint here with the Scott Scott attack but make sure you follow Scott's work and especially on Dodger Blue. It's very simple to find Dodgerbleu.com

does a great job there, senior staff writer. Thanks, Scott. Good to having you on, man. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. You take care. You too. All right, Clint, let's dive in a little bit here. So before we get to the rest of the division, I wanted to ask you the same question. Are you satisfied Mr. Dodger fan with everything here. And can I try and poke a hole? Like, when we get to the playoffs, there's two pieces of the puzzle here. We know there's going to be star power,

especially if Mookie is back and feeling 100% all that, right? Are we satisfied with four to five arms that we really feel good about at the back end of the bullpen? Because really, that's what you need. I mean, technically you can get away with three or four, but four to five, right? And then the bottom of the lineup, do we feel better? or do you feel like there's going to be points where you look on if we can get through five of them, right,

then we're good at the bottom because they didn't get like your Luis Robert. Yeah, yeah. I mean, even so, Lubbob kind of falling off in recent weeks. I think they did the best with what was available out there. The whole, I've said it a bunch of times over the last two days. They raised the floor. And I think that's an important thing they needed to do. It brings competition back internally, too, on the roster as well.

It's not just, hey, Chris Taylor, you could sit around. hitting a buck 60 all year or keke hernandez same thing or gavin luck same thing now there's some challengers there that want as much playing time as you're earning so i i like that happening internal that kind of internal dynamic but it also protects against you know we we don't know if max once he's coming back we feel pretty confident that muki betts is coming back we feel pretty confident that miguel rojas is coming back so all of these pieces now again it just injects that that competition to the team, to the organization, you know, lights of fire under everybody's ass, which I think is very important for this club that we've seen enter the last couple of

post seasons pretty freaking stagnant. So we're talking about roster there. You've got a lot of protection. And then in the bullpen, a massive factor right now is getting Evan Phillips back online, back on the right track. He has been rough. I'm not going to say it was since he joined us on Dodgers territory, but maybe, maybe we did a little something to break him.

I kid, I kid. But if things don't work out with the guys you have in the bullpen, they could plug in this Justin Robleski kid. They could plug in River Ryan, two dudes who have looked exceptional, who maybe we're going to be piggyback guys, maybe we're going to be getting you some starting innings. But now all of a sudden,

you have a wealth of options that can get you some dominant innings, either single innings, multiple innings, late in games. And we've seen in recent years, that's the type of stuff. that wins you championships. As somebody that's willing to kind of pitch out of their comfort zone and give the team everything it has either in one inning,

three innings, or whatever it may be. So again, working with what was available out there, I love what Andrew Friedman did, adding Edmund Rosario. I'm a little less bullish on Kopec, but I'm willing to trust him working in the Mark Pryor lab. And then same with Jack Flaherty, throwing that in there where if Yamamoto doesn't come back, you got some insurance there.

If Stone runs out of gas, you got some insurance there. So very, very good moves. Very good moves for this organization. Running through a few questions here in the chat before we jump. Some people are asking who could be active tonight of the newbies. I think it's just the Med Rosario. I mean, obviously anybody from today, like, you're not, Kierre Myers not getting here in five seconds, unless they came up with,

I was on all day today. I don't know if they came up with some new device where you can teleport. you know, world's moving fast, but I don't think so, right? So no Bear Meyer. Yeah, we'll figure out when Florida is going to stack into the rotation. There was some chatter to a little bit earlier about what the team is going to do with both Bobby Miller and Walker Bueller. There were some fans saying, throw them both in the bullpen.

I think that would be a pretty tough call on Bueller. Maybe you can get away with that with Bobby. I don't know. What are you hearing or what have you been following with those two? And what do you think happens? Well, Bueller, I'm lost on Bueller, and I think he is as well. I'll give him another couple of AAA starts. Hopefully they find something.

They were trying to claim that the hip contributed to issues. Okay, wink, wink, I'll buy into that. But Bobby Miller is somebody been covering this team for years, been watching Bobby Miller's career, and hearing some of the stuff from prospects people, some of the stuff that says maybe his game plays better as a bullpen arm. So if you're able to get him as a one-inning dominant dude that can hit you 103 on the gun with a nasty change-up or slide piece, whatever he needs, just a two-pitch pitcher, one-inning back into the bullpen, that's something that I think the team really needs to consider with Bobby Miller. Because at this point now, with this edition, he's probably not going to get the Jack Flaherty edition, that is. You're probably not going to get another serious opportunity to break this starting rotation this year.

And then next year, it just keeps, you know, building up. Showing Otani will be back. Dodgers probably in on Roki Sasaki. So maybe you need to either start looking at moving Miller or getting him in a role this year that helps with this championship window that's starting in 24. So it's kind of my take on it. What's your playoff rotation if the playoffs started tomorrow? Well, tomorrow, that would assume. No, that's not fair because then Yamamoto's not in.

your playoff rotation if we fast forward and it's October 1st or whatever the day it starts. If Yamamoto is healthy, Yamamoto is my number one because what we saw in just final start in New York against the Yankees hostile environment, that was sexy. That was fun to watch. Maybe it let him, you know, in that shoulder kind of barking on him. But it's Yama, it's glass now. And then after that, it's Flaherty. Or maybe you put Flaherty in the middle there. There's no wrong answer.

And then after that, you kind of got to see, you know, these next couple of weeks and what Kershaw is. I think, Kershaw, as your number four guy in the postseason, is not a bad issue. And if not, you know, Gavin Stone has been phenomenal all season long last month, a little bit rough. But I think he's got enough sweat equity into this season where he should earn a spot. So you have all of those guys. Plus, again, what are they going to do with Robleski? What are they going to do with River Ryan? But those are my top four there.

I like it. Okay. Better. I'll say it right now, better than the Giants. exactly that's why we brought it up they're definitely in a much better position in basically every way not to mention the standings thank you for the super chat at the buzzer here from stroking on the roki sizaki fund we can certainly talk about it most weeks i feel like he at least gets some type of mention clint kind of finds his way to work in a roki sazaki drop almost every show which we love all right on our way out here all dodgers i know you are on on. You were hustling all day today. What else you got? Are you recapping some Dodgers Padres at some point? No, well, yes, Thursday. We'll be back. Actually, Scotty Gehrman will be joining me on Thursday on Thursday. We'll be joining me on Thursday. We'll be doing our monthly series. We've been kind of reviewing each month, kind of seeing what's changed from the last month. So there will be a lot to talk about this Thursday. So guys, come join us. And then, of course, Scotty G will also be live on Dodger Blue later that night. But Tube in all Dodgers with Clint Paceas. That is. this guy. Hopefully you guys enjoy it. If not, hit that subscribe button either way.

Yeah. If you're on this channel, subscribe and like, of course, but you should be doing the same thing to get more of Klan. And really this Dodgers fam that joins these shows, the big man. Big Clarity right there. He's home. Harvard Westlake's finest. That is really cool. That's a great picture to go out with if you're listening to the podcast. Make sure you watch the end of this show and see a good pick of a little Jack Flaherty waiting for his big moment with the Dodgers. One last thing. We should point out, we did not trade Alana Rizzo for Scott Braun.

She'll be back on the next edition of Dodgers territory. So we appreciate you guys hanging out with us. Subscribe here. Hit that thumbs up button. Subscribe to the podcast side of the show as well. All those things really help us out and review the show. That's totally free to do. Exactly.

I'm one and done. I got traded for, I don't know, a host to be named Thursday, which is Alonarizzo. This was fun. Clint, thanks, man. Go get some rest, bud. Okay, bye.