After roughly two months on the job, Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman shook up the roster with two seismic trades.
First, Dee Gordon, Dan Haren and Miguel Rojas were dealt to the Miami Marlins for Austin Barnes, Chris Hatcher, Andrew Heaney and Kiké Hernandez.
Heaney was immediately flipped to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for second baseman Howie Kendrick.
Before the shockwaves could settle, the Dodgers then traded Tim Federowicz and Matt Kemp to the San Diego Padres in exchange for Zach Eflin, Yasmani Grandal and Joe Wieland.
Eflin was moved the following day in a deal that landed Jimmy Rollins in Los Angeles. While Eflin was the linchpin for the Dodgers to acquire Rollins, their trade with the Padres largely centered around Grandal.
At the time 26 years old, the backstop arrived with plenty of promise given his superior pitch-framing skills and power bat.
According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, trading for Grandal was the fourth-best move for the 2015 season:
The Dodgers’ trade of Matt Kemp for Yasmani Grandal: The payoff for L.A. was mitigated somewhat by Grandal’s injury problems in the second half, but in the first half, Grandal posted a .927 OPS, was one of the best pitch-framers in MLB and made the All-Star team. Meanwhile, the Dodgers dumped $75 million of the $107 million they owed to Kemp in moving him to San Diego.
In other Dodgers-related transactions, the Marlins acquiring Gordon ranked sixth on Olney’s list. Grandal was previously ranked the eighth-best catcher in the Majors by Olney.
Grandal hit .282/.401/.526 with 14 home runs, 36 RBIs, a .399 wOBA and 159 wRC+ over 69 games (61 starts) in the first half en route to earning his first trip to the All-Star Game. However, he was slowed in the second half by a nagging left shoulder injury.
As a result, Grandal managed to bat a lowly .162/.280/.218 with two home runs and 11 RBIs, and saw his wOBA and wRC+ drop to .237 and 49, respectively, after the All-Star break.
After the season came to an end, Grandal underwent arthroscopic surgery and is expected to be ready for Spring Training.
