Dodgers Territory - Mookie Injury, Complacency Concerns? Joe Ryan, Sonny Gray Trade Targets?

Episode Date: July 2, 2026

Alanna Rizzo, Katie Woo, and Clint Pasillas recap the Los Angeles Dodgers series with the A's and the extended road trip for LA. While the club lost the final game of the trip -- a bullpen punt game -- the big story is Mookie Betts being scratched from the starting lineup with an injury. The Dodgers downplayed the issue, but we've heard that story before. What are the concern levels with Mookie? And can this turn into a Will Smith type of absence? (8:56) The Dodgers have a commanding lead in the NL West. Is there any worry about complacency? (16:11) With the calendar turning to July, it's time for a Q&A catch-up in today's edition of Bleedin' Blue. In the chat, the hosts address questions about potential trade targets including Joe Ryan of the Twins and Sonny Gray of the Red Sox. Plus thoughts on the eventual returns of Edwin Diaz and Evan Phillips to the bullpen (35:46) Finally, we look ahead to another series with the Padres who are down and maybe out of it. 🌶️ Use our code for 10% off your next order of MLB tickets on SeatGeek*: seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TERRITORY10 Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount Subscribe on YouTube!https://www.youtube.com/@DodgersTerritory Follow our social media channels for more content!https://x.com/LADTerritoryhttps://www.instagram.com/ladterritory/https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578546105253 Check out DT merch at https://dodgersterritoryshop.comSupport Guidry's Guardian at https://guidrysguardian.orgFind Clint on YouTube at https://youtube.com/@alldodgersFollow Katie's work at The Athletic https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/author/katie-woo/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Anytime the Dodgers say it's not a big deal, we don't see that player for the next two months. I get I really do, but in this case, I think the Dodgers were simply just erring on the side of caution. Everybody, what is going on? Welcome to Dodgers Territory, brand new episode. Alana Rizzo, Katie Wu, Clint Pesias with you guys ahead of the 4th of July holiday. We are psyched that you're here. Get your questions in, your comments, your concerns. We're going to open up the chat.

We're going to answer some of your questions today more than we usually do. At least we're going to try to do that. Don't forget to subscribe to us on YouTube. Wherever you get your podcast, Apple, Spotify, you know the drill. We appreciate it. All right, let's get into the big ticket, talk about series recap. First things first, let's talk about Mookie, who has been on a tear recently, offensively, but perhaps more of the bigger question, Katie, scratched before the game.

What can you tell us? Yeah, we talked to Dave Roberts after Wednesday. It's Wednesday's loss where he said, you know, we just kind of flared up. for Mooki's wrists. He found out about 1 o'clock on Wednesday. They don't think it's anything serious. They expect him to be back in the lineup for the first of four against the Padres today. Now, I know what Dodger fans

are going to say. Anytime the Dodgers say it's not a big deal, we don't see that player for the next two months. I get it. I really do, but in this case, I think the Dodgers were simply just erring on the side of caution. There was no reason to push Moogie yesterday. I don't want to suggest that the Dodgers were exactly punting yesterday, but they've

wrapped up the series. They're in the middle of 13 in a row and I think it was pretty much a designated rest day for a lot of those guys. So I expect to see Mookie bets in the lineup today. If not, I don't think Dodgers fans will be surprised. But my understanding is that it was not that big of a deal. Yeah, I'm not terribly worried about Mokey. Then again, we weren't terribly worried about Will Smith until his head fell off or whatever exactly happened to him. But I will be the one to fall on the sword. Yes. Yesterday was a punt game and it became a punt game after about the first pitch from Charlie Barnes. said, not all punt games are built different.

You know, we could think back to Alana, the 2024 postseason Brent Honeywell's punt game where he just sat in there and took it against the Mets and how much that recharged the Dodgers. You could also think to in a way Walker Bueller's 2024 punt game against the Padres that started a long scoreless streak for the Padres, the Dodgers moving on, so on and so forth. God, that's a little bit in trouble with the organization because we, were upset about a punt game in the World Series. Of course, we end up talking to Dave Roberts about them, and every once in a while, it's okay to have these kind of games. Now, it wasn't,

the computers didn't say, for everybody that hates the computers, they didn't say, hey, go out there and lose this game. There was intent to win. Just wasn't their day, their day. J.T. Gin, awesome. Former Dodgers draft pick didn't sign here. Was awesome against the Dodgers. And the end of a long roadie, they were happy to get out of there. And either of you guys, doesn't want to take this. Actually, I'll throw to you on this one, Alana.

You know, we know how much those, those type of bullpen games. Like, yeah, the line is not sexy for Charlie Barnes, but damn, does that clubhouse appreciate what they did?

12. 12. The doctors have a 12 game lead in the NL. Yeah. You know, sometimes you just need a breather, right? And sometimes you just have to know

the role of, what you are and Charlie Barnes was in there to wear it. That happens sometimes. We knew it was going to be a bullpen game. There it is. 12 game lead in the division. They are in first place. They're seven and three in their last 10, 56 and 31. I don't mind these types of games at all. They have to play for the long game, right? It's not just about game, whatever it was yesterday. I mean, they're 56 and 31, so what is that, 89? It's not just about game number 89. It's about 162, and we're over getting into the postseason. So, hey, I'm all right with it.

It's fine. Sometimes you're going to have those, and it's much better when you have a 12-game leave in the division than when you're scraping and crying trying to get into the postseason. Yeah, I want to dive more into that as well. Was I think either the longest road trip, second longest road trip, the team, I mean, up to this point, it's the longest one. Katie, they went 8 and 2 on this roadie, including the Charlie Barnes game,

56 and 31 overall in the division, 25 games. games, sorry, the record overall, 25 games over 500, 12 game lead, like Alana said. That's ridiculous. And, you know, does it get difficult trying to, you know, cover this team? You have to cover this team a lot more professionally than I ever have. I wonder, because, you know, every once in a while, we could make up storylines or whatever. You can lean into the clickbait if you need to, a former Dodger retired or something like that. Now all of a sudden, you have a team that's just really, really good. What are you supposed to do? Yeah, it's a great question.

And we joke all the time, the Dodgers are so boring and they like it that way. You know, I'm certainly not bored covering the Dodgers, but, you know, it's not like we're sitting here. I mean, it's July 2nd. We have 10 games left before the All-Star break. All 10 games for the Dodgers are going to be at home against NL West opponents. They can essentially, all but officially lock up this division before the All-Star break. And I get it. You know, it's not like we're over here in a jam-packed NL East where all of a sudden the Phillies have risen from the dead.

And it's a competition between them and the break. where every game matters. The Dodgers have the luxury of being able to take a game off for the long haul. Everything Alana just said about the Charlie Barnes game and saving the bullpen was spot on. It's exactly right. For 162 plus game season that the Dodgers will play, sometimes you just have to take a breather, and you do kind of punt it away. That's for the long haul.

So is it boring? I mean, we have Joey Otani Yamamoto, Sasaki, just alone. Those starts are entertaining for me. We have the trade deadline coming up about a month away. That's always fun. where I'm a little concerned is like the dog days come August, but then you think about all these guys coming back, Snell,

Glassnow perhaps, Kike, Evan Phillips should be back before the break. Edmund Diaz, he's going to face live hitters this weekend. So, yeah, is it boring from a competitive spot?

Sure, I can understand why that word is used, but you've got to figure out angles. And as long as Dalton rushing is on this team, it won't be boring, so. Speaking of that, speaking of Dalton Rushing, a Will Smith update,

What can you say about that, Katie, because Dave Roberts did say that he did not anticipate Will Smith being back prior to the All-Star break, which means Dalton rushing is even more important. It means Robinson is even more important. What do you think about that? I mean, it goes to why most fans, and I mentions yesterday, were very skeptical about Mookie Betts's wrist hornis, right? The Dodgers downplay their injuries. That's okay. But this one, I really do think they were caught off guard by the length. I think Will Smith as well. But the good news is, and I'm not at all suggesting that they're just taking it easy with Will Smith. Obviously, he wants to be back. The good news is that with Dalton Rushing and Chuckie Robinson, they may not be the superstar names that Dodgers fans know what expect. But that battery duo is still better than 50% of the production of any other team. So I understand it. You can really maximize the Dodgers potential behind the plate with Will Smith and Dalton Rushing.

I know Chuckie Robinson, his role was essentially catch a day in front of a night. game or vice versa and lay down a bunt but the dodgers are okay with the production they're getting from their catchers right now in july with the 12 game lead and the best record in baseball and can afford to be patient with will smith so he doesn't rush back and further injure what could be a serious thing you never want to play around with neck back injuries so they'd rather err on the side of caution and wait till will is totally symptom free and if that means buying him an extra week building in the all-star break they're okay doing that because they feel like the production is sustainable you look around with the Dodgers lineup is doing lately. I tend to agree. Everybody wants Will Smith back. I get it.

But what Dalton rushing is doing and Chuckie Robinson and Dewe is doing is that little combination is just fine. And this is a big opportunity for Dalton to continue growing. I'm sure we'll have some questions in the chat about it. But all eyes, more than usual, are going to be on Shohei and Dalton Friday against the Padres because they'll be their first start together since that little fiasco in Minnesota. And this is a big growing opportunity talking around the clubhouse with some veterans, a story we'll have out in the athletic tomorrow. about how Dalton's continuing to grow. He doesn't get this experience without, you know, a little bit of runway here.

So if you're looking for a silver lining, it's Dalton rushing can have a chance to take a step forward, both physically and mentally. Hopefully Will Smith is back at the end of the break. Going back to what you were saying about it's never boring covering this team, I want to know what you think about the fact that they do have such a gigantic lead. I remember we had a conversation with Dino Ebel about the fact that you want to play. meaningful teams because if you have the competition and the adversity early on, then you've really faced everything over the course of the season.

Right now, they're running away with this thing, right? And that has always been the goal for this team, the first goal of the year is to win the division. They're barring something catastrophic that's going to happen. So that being said, I guess it's a very long way to say, can a lead be too large? That's a great question. And I think with a team, every team is different. So while the Dodgers core is the same, it's the same players that have won this last two world series, each team and the makeup within a clubhouse is different.

And if this was a completely inexperienced clubhouse, I could see why that might be more of a concern. But this core has done this before. There is a ton of experience. So when you're looking at maybe the younger guys like Dalton, you know, maybe like an Alex Freeland that doesn't have a ton of experience, that might be different. but the overall core of this club knows what it's like to kind of turn it on in October. And there's something to be said about playing meaningful games all season long. You kind of want the anticipation in September

because the playoffs are all about who gets hot at the right time, especially now that they're expanded. So I can buy into that. But I think that's a problem that you look at down the road because like you said, Alana, priority number one is to win the division. Priority number two is to lock down a buy. And you never know what teams are going to look like in September.

So a team could go on a heater. We saw that in the American League last year with the with the Guardians, right? Or the Tigers? One of them blew it. One of them came in. Guardians. Guardians. Yeah.

Guardians would on the head of Tigers blew it. Right. And now I don't see that happening in this division. But you just, it's hard to predict what teams are going to look like in September minus Los Angeles. But with this core, I'm really not concerned as long as anyone stays healthy or everyone stays healthy. Now for me when we're having this conversation, Alana, I do think back to, I always have that fear. of the 2022-2020-23 seasons where they did have that ability to coast. I mean, they had the division locked up early, early in September,

and then they got their asses handed to them by the Diamondbacks, and before that the Padres. And, I mean, thankfully that happened because that's kind of what spurred forward, what moved forward. Like, F it, we're going to spend all the money, and we're going to go get Shohei, which was always going to be the plan when he became a free agent. We're going to get Shohay, we're going to get Glass now.

We're going to also get Yamamoto and all that kind of stuff. But I think of just, I wouldn't say the complacency, and I see some people in the chat mentioning that word complacency, and we are going to get to the chat shortly in the next segment. So guys keep dropping in those questions, comments, all that kind of stuff. You do worry about that switch we have talked about a lot, Riz. When do you flip the switch back on? When do you start to coast a little bit too much in August, in September? you could have a question about the, what, 2017 team, end of August into the start of September.

They lost like 17 of 21 games before turning it back on, making it to a World Series, getting cheated out of a fair fight in a World Series. We don't need to talk about that. But flipping the switch off, maybe sometimes that switch doesn't flip back on. And, you know, I guess right now what you're playing for is trying to somehow get to 116, 117 wins. if that is, you know, what tickles your pickle. But I do want to see the Dodgers playing meaningful games against teams that are in the hunt late in the season.

So I do have, I have concerns about running away with the NOS. As fun as it is to see, I have concerns. I don't only because of what Katie was saying about experience. This is not a young roster. This is not a roster that has not been through these trials and tribulations before, or lack thereof, rather. This is a roster that has expectations to go to the World Series and win the World Series. And yes, you can't flip it on and off in baseball.

I will say this no matter what, though, regardless if the Dodgers were tied in the division at the end of the regular season and had a game 163 play in, or whether they have a 58 game lead in the division, it all matters on who's on your roster at the time that the world series or excuse me, the postseason starts. who's healthy and who's, you know, who's playing the best baseball, but moreover than that, who is healthy at the time. Are we going to have Blake Snellback at that point? Are we going to have, you know, a healthy Yamamoto? I know he's healthy now, but regardless of what happens over the course of the season, right? It doesn't matter to me.

All they have to do is win the division by one game. And that crosses that off of their list. It doesn't matter if it's by, you know, 50 games or one game. Just win it. And then to Katie's point, get the buy. That's your next goal. But you have to be healthy and you have to be playing good baseball at that time. So it doesn't concern me because the Dodgers have the same goal, no matter what, whether they win it by a billion games or they win it by one game.

This is a team that is built for October, period. That they are. That they are. And I do agree. The final thing I'll say is the fact that they have been there and done that. They've learned how to play with the five-day layoff, you know, between a series. They learn how to play in a wild card series and win. So, yeah, the experience, back that they've been there.

and done that, that's huge for this ball club. We got more DT, of course, to come. We're taking your comments, questions, all that kind of stuff coming up. First, I want to tell you about Seekek, because they are a sponsor on today's show. And guys, the Dodgers are returning home after a lengthy road trip, some of which Katie Wu was a part of. So I'm sure she's happy to be home and happy to have proper lighting in her apartment. But, yeah, Dodgers return home for a nice long homestand to end the first half, the unofficial first half, four against the Padres and you got the Rockies diamondbacks before the All-Star break.

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Every day you listen is another chance to win We're bleeding blue We haven't bled blue for a while A proper Q&A segment I guess we can say And let's jump into the chat here Of course people have some thoughts About the punt and all of this kind of stuff

From yesterday's game Our friend Richie Flores We got him a couple times in here Saying I understand why Dave punted yesterday Wasing Otani against the A's Would not have been good Padres come in limping. Time to bury the Padres.

It's the bigger picture. I guess that's not so much of a question, but a comment. See, that's why I think we should stop calling it punting, not because I got in trouble when I did that. But moreover, it's like you have to play the long game, right? You have to look at the big picture. Dave is not just managing for game 89. Dave is managing for 162.

He knows his players better. He knows, you know, the man has yet to make a move that has, backfired in recent post seasons, right? And again, this is why the team is put together, is for the postseason. So it's not punting. It's more of like, all right, big picture. How is this going to help us in the long run? How is this going to help us win as many games as possible and go deep into the postseason?

It's a big puzzle. It's a big puzzle to put together. Yeah. And at a good point there about Shohei, not starting against the A's, what have we talked about all season long with Otani, making sure he gets at least six days rest? They crafted a whole rotation around this man. And it would be the first time that he wasn't able to do that this season because the Dodgers are playing so many games in a row, 13, I believe.

So you push Shohei back, you give him some time to rest, to recover. There's not going to be a lot of recovery heading into the All-Star break. This all has moving parts, moving pieces. A game like yesterday is going to happen to every team in baseball at least a couple times throughout the season that the Dodgers can do it and still come across with, you know, the best record in baseball, a significant winning road trip. All of this to me is just water under the bridge. You can reset the bullpen ahead of four games against the Padres

who got beat up yesterday in Chicago. And they have not won a game since Friday's victory against the Dodgers. So opportunity again to take advantage of against one of your division rivals, Russ Shohei, keep him healthy, and go from there. To me, I don't really think that punt game is that big of a deal. Yeah, and I guess it's also depending on how you define punt. Everybody's going to have a different definition for what. That game was on Wednesday.

Ray is, I think you said it perfect. That was this game 89. I didn't care. Nothing. I don't actually know if it was 89. Math is not my strong suit. It was. It was 89.

Oh, hashtag math, baby. Yeah, I don't care. It elicited no feelings of anger. I was tired, but that had nothing to do with the game. But anyways, Dodgers are going to lose games. And shout out Charlie Barnes for picking up a bunch of innings. Shout out Charlie Barnes. Yeah. Legendary Charlie Barnes. Question here coming from Sammy Boy Smith in the chat. We'll throw this to Wu. Diaz and Phillips doing rehab soon. What are their

jobs now? One's already on rehab, but done. But go ahead, Katie. Yeah, Evan Phillips threw another inning for AAA yesterday. We asked Dave Roberts when we could see Phillips. It's all, but sure, he'll be back before the All-Star break. So sometime during this homestand. He's checked all the boxes. He's gone back to back. He's gone multi-innings. He's coming back from Tommy John. So Dodgers want to be extra careful. Obviously, this is someone they think is going to be a big help for them in the second half. So the last kind of box for Evan Phillips to check is to simply just be a reliever and you're probably like, what does that even mean? It's how a lot of these rehab assignments are scripted, right? Guys know exactly coming in, how long they're going to be on

for what their schedule is. Are they going to go an inning on Wednesday and then two on Friday? When is their back to back, when they got to go up and down. So that's all scripted. What they want Evan Phillips to do is be ready at a moment's notice. So that's what the Dodgers mean by be a reliever. Just, you know, he's going to come in without a plan and be ready to pitch when the game dictates it. He did that yesterday. So cross into their box.

They'll probably do it maybe one more time. But we will, should, should see Evan Phillips before the All-Star break. And then Edmund Diaz, he's thrown a couple bullpins at Dodgers Stadium. Dave Roberts caught the one on Monday. flew from L.A. to Sacramento that morning before the series said both Blake Snow and Evan Diaz look really good. So Diaz is going to face live hitters this weekend at Dodger Stadium. He'll probably have to do that one more time at least before her rehab assignment. And then it's all about recovery there. Performance is really secondary at that point. What the Dodgers want to see when

Evan Diaz starts a rehab assignment is, does he look healthy? Is he executing? Can he check the boxes? And because he's only going to be pitching in one inning instance, that rehab assignment, should theoretically take less time than a multi-endium reliever such as Evan Phillips or Brock Stewart. So kind of a vague timeline still on Edwin Diaz, but we're getting closer and closer. My speculation, maybe we're looking right around trade deadline for Evan Diaz to come back. So it is just like making a trade as every front opposite that likes to say that type of year. You know, it's funny, Alana, Edwin Diaz was somebody.

I did not anticipate the Dodgers really being in on in the offseason. Of course, he was somebody you had on your big. big board of hoping that they could get a legitimate closer. But we're talking about all of this commanding lead. There are 25 games over 500. Best record in baseball by a game and a half over the Brewers, which the Brewers are, they sold their soul to somebody.

But isn't it funny that they're able to do all of this without their all-star superstar closer? It's funny. Owl of Minerva in our chat. Oh my God. We're getting Phillips and Diaz back soon. Q evil laughter. I mean, that's how good this team is, right?

The best closer in the game has not been available for two months or three months or whatever the heck it is. And they're still kicking butt and taking names and you're getting Evan Phillips back. I mean, yes, it's an embarrassment of riches. But you know what? That is what the Los Angeles Dodgers do. They have made themselves into a destination location. The people that want to play, the people that we want to play in L.A. And that's just the way that it's been for the last few years.

to me, Edwin Diaz was the biggest name on the board, period. Not just biggest pitcher on the board, biggest name on the board period. So this is just a situation where, you know, the better team is getting these guys because they want to play there. They want an opportunity to win. Look at what the Mets are doing right now. And again, I'm trying to tell you people, money doesn't buy championships. Look at the Mets.

So, you know, this is a situation that I can't wait to get him back. I can't wait to hear the song again, but the Dodgers have handled it. Another feather in the cap of Dave Roberts, by the way, congratulations on over 1,000 victories. Another feather in the cap of the way that Bardo and Mark Pryor and McGuinness and Dave have handled the pitching staff. They've done an unbelievably good job at maneuvering the pieces in the puzzle that they have available to them. And it's just like getting reinforcements. And again, it's going to be a huge pickup at the trade deadline. And they don't have to give anybody away for it because he's already on the roster.

Yeah, it's funny. I forgot about the music. We're going to get, as somebody called it in my other chat, shout out Noah, Tina Trump. No, no, it was Alexander. Tina Trumpets. We're going to get the lady back there with the trumpet at Dodger Stadium because we only saw that a few times. Got to get that going again. Why not?

Why not? They got the money. They can make it happen. We got another question here in relation to yesterday, Yang Yi in the chat. If River Ryan were healthy, would they have brought him up for yesterday's game? Katie, what do you think? Oh, that's a good question. I certainly think it'd be a topic of discussion that River Ryan was getting real close.

And we could kind of sense it against the Emmett's sheean start against the Orioles in the middle of whatever month that just was June, where Dave said, you know, Emmett will take us next start, but we'll make a decision from there. And then River Ryan was put on the aisle with a second hamstring issue of the season. So if he was healthy, I definitely think that would have been in consideration because the front office had floated the idea around already in weeks prior, where if River Ryan was built up, he could spot start. It wouldn't mess up their long plan to make sure that he could stay healthy, which as we see now was really important that they're going to do that and are going to continue to do it at this point.

So, yeah, I think that would have been in consideration. And no disrespect to Charlie Barnes, again, who went out and did his job, reset the bullpen. But I think that's something that a lot of Dodgers fans would have liked to see. And that's why you have depth in your minor league system to go out and have someone that you're excited about, go spot start. So that wouldn't have surprised me if River Ryan was an option to see him there Wednesday. Alas, he was not. The good news for Viran, because I don't think we've talked about it

much on this show, is that the Dodgers taught me if you heard this before. Don't think it's that big of a deal. But we do know that he doesn't have to stop throwing. He's not throwing off a mound, he's throwing off flat ground. But when you're a pitcher, what's most important is that you can keep your arm moving and throwing so they'll rest the hamstring. It is a more of a, just kind of an annoying blow for the Dodgers at this point because they want to see River Ryan so badly. they still believe he could be an option for them later in the second half of the season or maybe even out of their bullpen in the postseason. Astrick, should he stay healthy?

Is it Monty Python there? It's only a flesh wound? That's how the injuries. It's kind of how the injuries go. A couple rapid fire here. We got another comment. I guess it's a question for me from Richie because he wants credit for not being a creep to Katie, which, you know, you shouldn't get credit for doing.

No, you do not get credit for. that just doing like the bare minimum and thankfully diane in the chat don't worry katie's never going to the mad king i am that's my girl i know richie richie was it you that posted i saw this on my for you page on twitter uh a very questionable photo of you with a manny machado cup was that you i can't tell it gave me you vibes yeah i knew it he's a part of my uh my old dodgers discord chat by the way guys shout out uh patreon dot com slash real frg give me your money um But we gave him so much crap. This is a guy he obsesses over Manny Machado.

Talks a bunch of shit about the Padres. Calls into like Padres' podcasts and whatnot. He's just wherever he can go. Shout out also your friends, Ben and Woods. Angels. Like, why would you give the Padres money and get the Machado Cup? I don't know. It was a decision.

Out of all of the decisions he has made, it was one of them. We got a 999 super chat from court. Court for Medical in the chat. We appreciate that. It says trade talks. Either Joe Ryan. or Sunny Gray on the Dodgers radar. They aren't as good as scoble yet, you know, you'd be trading less to get them.

I feel like I could tell you that Sunny Gray is really pitched unbelievably well for the Boston Red Slacks. I mean, he just took a no-hitter into the seventh inning against the Yankees. He's going tomorrow or excuse me, he's going on, what is today, Thursday? So tomorrow's Friday. He's going on Saturday against the Angels. He's been every bit as good as they would have hoped that he could have been. Veteran presence, obviously on the mound. I would not mind having Sunny Gray.

I mean, he would have to say it was okay because he did wave his no trade clause to come over to the Red Sox. But, and he did say the other day, he would consider doing it again. If that's the direction that the Red Sox wanted to go. And I would not have a problem getting Sunny Gray if we need him. I mean, where are we at with Blake Snell? Where are we at with Tyler Glass now? Do we need him? I don't know.

So in any event that we did, okay? That would feel like. I would say yes. That would feel like sort of, I wouldn't say out of nowhere like the Jack Flaherty edition was, but I don't think anybody was expecting Jack Flaherty a couple years ago. And whatever, he's a World Series champion. Woo, any thought, any teeth to that? Sunny Gray, Joe Ryan, being on the radar.

Well, I saw I covered Sunny Gray for two years in St. Louis. And he's a playoff starter, right? And this is the guy that's going to be an all-star again, well-deserved, went through a lot in St. Louis thought he was going to a contender. Clearly he was not, thought he was going to contender in Boston. is not so i feel for him there at this point in his career he wants to win however for the dodgers what they're looking at no matter who it is whether it's joe ryan sunny grace scoble throw your

starter of preference in there the dodgers aren't looking to make any big additions to their active roster unless they have to the last couple of years andrew friedman has said we hope to avoid the trade deadline we don't want to be really active in there and if they're going to look for a starting pitcher that means two things one it means something has happened with blake snow or tyler glass now where they feel like they need it. Two, if they're going to go look for a starting pitcher, it has to be someone that's going to fit into a starting rotation of four that already includes Otani, Yamamoto, and ideally, Snell and Glass Now.

There are not a lot of pitchers to me that jump off the page, minus school, that fit into a rotation that's already that good. So I don't see the Dodgers going out and just trading for starting pitching depth. Would Joe Ryan and Sunny Gray make almost any team better? Yes. For this Dodgers team, and this is not a knock on these guys, It's a testament to the Dodgers rotation. They're your number five starter.

So does that really make them better? If the Dodgers have their perfect world like Clinton and I talked about yesterday, of the four starters they want in the playoffs, are you even going to throw a Sunny Gray or a Joe Ryan in the NLDS? Probably not. So it just depends. That's why over the next four weeks, what's snell and glass now look like and how they progress is going to be super important.

100%. It's got to be healthy. It's all you've got to be healthy. two more quick ones here first I want to shout out Lindsay who became a member here on the YouTube channel that's awesome of you guys also I quickly read that at first I thought I said she just became a mother I was like oh it's member yay no no it's much much better congrats on that too it's much better and if you guys also want to become a YouTube member support the show support the gang here it's $3.99 a month you get discounts in the Dodger territory shop you also get our occasional members only show access, which we will plan the next one soon. But the final question comes from Jason, another one for Katie. From your perspective, how much of Dalton rushing's issues are just immaturity or is that overblown? I saw this question pop up in real time. So

shout out Quinn for adding it, because it's a good one, Jason, especially there are going to be a lot of eyes like we talked about on Dalton rushing this weekend, especially that Friday start with Otani. And I think a little bit of that is true. And I think the, I think Dave Roberts has said as much. I think his veteran teammates have said as much. Dalton has some maturing to do. It continues to be a work in progress. But you look around the clubhouse and you see the players and the staff that are coming out to support him.

What we see during the game, like 30 second flashes on the dugout or, you know, on the on deck circle where guys are talking to him, that's a fraction of what's going on behind the scenes. And this will be out in The Athletic Tomorrow, a shameless plug. Talking to guys like Freddie Freeman who say, you know, I wish people could see who. Dalton rushing is inside the clubhouse or on the bus or on the plane. Like he's nowhere near that 20-second clip that you see on social media. Unfortunately, he has to do a better job of controlling himself so that you don't have those 22nd clips in social media. And Dalton said as much, too.

We sat down for about 25 minutes yesterday behind Centerfield and beautiful West Sacramento where he said, you know, it's embarrassing when I see those clips of myself. And I have to be better. I have to get people a reason to believe that who my teammates say that I am. I actually am. And I think that was a really good moment of awareness. reflection for Dalton. I'm excited for the story to come out. You think about guys like Freddie Freeman, Mickey Roe, Kike Hernandez, they're all essentially like his baseball dads and

they all have very different parenting styles. So with Dalton, a lot of it is growing up, adjusting to the starting role for the Los Angeles Dodgers right now, all of the social media clips that, you know, he's earned, right? He's kind of earned this scrutiny because of how he's acted. Now it's about growing up from that, learning from a bunch of guys that have been in similar positions early in their careers before. And this is a good chance for him to do so. So a little immaturity, what is going to be telling to me because these players, these guys are only going to do this for so long is can he make this change? I think that start in Minnesota was a big eye opener for him. So I'm looking forward to seeing how the next couple of weeks play out. And the fact

that he says that he's noticing it and he's embarrassed by it, to me that shows growth. If he was denying all of it, that perception sometimes can be reality. That would show some immaturity. So good on him. looking forward to that article coming out in the athletic by Katie. Before we go to break, I wanted to shout out Trail Boss Patriot. My man, $50 super chat. I don't know what this means. Clint Get Alana a chicken wrap. One, I'll say.

Am I hungry? I don't understand what this means. But thanks for the 50 bucks. It is Thursday. So what I'm assuming is that Trail Boss Patriot, also my friend Reyes is telling me that he's off today and we're going to go golf and then go to the bar and get chicken wraps because I'm down. And we lost Katie. Hi, Katie.

Bye, Katie. She's on her way to get a chicken wrap. We'll find a way to fix that real quick. Hold on. Don't worry about it. But anyways, yeah, this is a buddy of mine. He is words, et cetera. There we go.

Usually every time he pops on, it's something breaks or something gets distracting. So that happened. That happened there. But shout out, Reyes. He's a guy who's a dude. And also shout out to everybody who joined us in the comments. You guys are awesome. Appreciate you there.

We're going to take a quick break. We will be back with a little bit more Dodgers territory, TBD, on whether or not Wu will be with us, but we will be right back. This episode is brought to you by Fan Dual. Baseball fans, the MLB season is in full swing, and Fan Dual is giving you a chance to call your shot with daily dingers. Joining the action is easy. Just make your free pick on who's hitting a home run in their game.

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I can get you more information on him. That's cool. I always appreciate that. Look, who's back. I died. Sorry. That happens. We're also hearing random crunches and things. I don't know where noises are coming from. That just means it's probably time to sign off.

Before we do, we've got to talk a little bit about another series coming up. Four with the Padres again, seven games in ten days or whatever it is. It is always fun. Man, the Padres are reeling. They are a bad team, and to me, this feels like this is their season. You mean their windows closing? To a degree. Yeah.

Katie, you got it. I would almost, I would almost 100% agree, except their general manager, AJ Preller. We have seen him do crazy things. However, you can only do that so many times and the Padres are undergoing an ownership change. I'm not sure just how much that's gonna impact the front office, if at all.

But yeah, this has been a team that's kind of struggled with their identity all year long. Their hitters haven't hit. And you have the best closer in the game in Mason Miller, but no opportunity to use him. So it's not the Padres Club that I was expecting to see I thought Bill Shakin asked a pretty good question yesterday post game where he said, you know, usually we're hyping up this series.

It's Dodgers Padres. This is for the division. Like, let's get after it. And now it's just kind of like, yeah, they're here. They're not very good. And that's kind of how I feel right now. Now it could change. It's a rivalry series. So those kind of always are crazy. But right now, you're looking at the Padres just one game over 500. They've lost five straight. They gave up 22, 22 runs yesterday against the Cubs. It's, it has not been pretty. And for the seasons of Mandy, Trado, Fernando Tanti Jr., especially, it has not been what either of them would have expected. Yeah, losers of five straight negative run differential. In fact, everybody in the division, with the exception of the Los Angeles Dodgers has a negative run differential. This is a team that we love to hate, right?

It has become more of a recent rivalry than it has been in the past. The Giants are just as equally as bad. But I do agree with Ismail Sanchez 3403 in our chat, step on their necks and put them out of their misery. I've always said, like, if you see your opponent drown. shove a hose in their mouth. Like, let's show them that they're still little brother, right? They're still little brother. That's who this team is.

And Katie is now frozen in a very awkward decision. I didn't even notice that. We'll figure that out. I need to have money. No, she's back. She's back to, oh, we're going. I don't know what is happening. This is basically just saying it's time to go.

All right, so it's a three-game set, right? Against these fools. Four games. No, it's a four-game set. Dodgers, Dodgers, they're foreign- two against San Diego this year. I'm going to say we take three or four. I think it's a split.

I think it's a split. Ooh. I'm worried. I don't know. Book any with Roki and Shian, even though Emmett pitched better last time gives me a little pause. But I'm a believer. Let's go three or four.

A big, big outing for Roki. He's got to prove to me a meaningless dude on the internet that, you know, he's an option to stay in this rotation. But good show, except for the weird. parts, but hopefully you guys enjoyed the weird parts. We will be back on Monday. Everybody stay alive and keep all of your digits over the holiday weekend.

If you want to help us out and subscribe. Happy birthday, America. Happy birthday. And also, guys, subscribe. Like us on YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. Part of the Fowel Territory Network is we try to make our way still to 20,000 subs. America will be 500 years old by the time we get to 20,000 times.

But have a good weekend. Be safe. Go Dodgers. We'll see you Monday. Bye. Hey everyone, it's the Jonas Brothers. If you haven't heard, our new podcast is called Hey Jonas. And this week, we're hanging out with someone we're really big fans of.

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