Heading into this season’s July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, perhaps the biggest area that the Los Angeles Dodgers needed to address was their bullpen.
President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and his staff decided to go a different route though, instead strengthening their offense by acquiring the middle infield duo of Manny Machado from the Baltimore Orioles and Brian Dozier from the Minnesota Twins.
Los Angeles only made one bullpen addition, and it was an under-the-radar one at that, acquiring veteran John Axford, who had a 4.41 ERA in 45 appearances with the Toronto Blue Jays at the time.
Many questioned the decision after the deadline, and now Friedman has addressed why the Dodgers not make more trades to strengthen their bullpen, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“Obviously, relievers were front of mind for us and something we spent a lot of time on with other teams, trying to line up on a guy or guys that made sense,” Friedman said earlier this week. “At that time, as we looked ahead to the guys we were going to get back from injury … as we looked ahead to our starters who might end up in the bullpen as we got guys back from injury, that put us in position to be selective. So we had certain guys identified. We were aggressive targeting. It just didn’t line up – which is when we switched gears to Dozier and had the idea let’s make our offense better which in turn will relieve some pressure when we can tack on runs. That hasn’t materialized as often. But we’re confident as you look at the back of the baseball card and the history of these guys that will come.”
Since the deadline, the bullpen has not been able to perform the way Friedman was hoping the way they would. Particularly during a recent stretch of games in which the Dodgers have lost nine of 12, with the bullpen faltering in just about every one of those losses.
The club’s offense has also struggled, which puts more validity on Friedman wanting to improve that aspect of the team at the deadline, although that has not paid off either.
With the Dodgers currently sitting at 4.5 games out of first place with a little more than a month left in the season, they will need to turn their play around quick if they want to return to the postseason. Friedman recently expressed confidence that the club will be able to accomplish just that.
