The 2020 MLB trade deadline came and went on Monday afternoon, and the Los Angeles Dodgers were pretty quiet despite being linked to a number of the big-name players who reportedly were available.
With the Dodgers having a day off on Monday, DodgerBlue.com’s Jeff Spiegel and Daniel Starkand recorded the latest episode of “DodgerHeads” where they focused on everything that happened at the trade deadline.
They started off by discussing the Dodgers’ lone deal of the day — trading Ross Stripling to the Toronto Blue Jays for a pair of players to be named later.
Stripling was a fan-favorite during his time with the Dodgers, but given the emergence of the young pitchers in the organization, Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May, he became a bit expendable.
While it is currently uncertain who the Dodgers will be receiving in return from the Blue Jays, Spiegel and Starkand agreed that Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman deserves the benefit of the doubt given his past history of evaluating talent.
The big name the Dodgers were linked to leading up to the deadline was Lance Lynn of the Texas Rangers, although the two sides were not able to come to an agreement and he ultimately stayed put. While Lynn would have been a solid upgrade to the Dodgers’ rotation, they still remain the clear World Series favorites even without a big deadline acquisition.
The busiest team leading up the deadline was the division-rival San Diego Padres, who acquired a number of players to help this year’s club. Most notably Mike Clevinger, but the Padres also traded for Trevor Rosenthal, Mitch Moreland, Jason Casto and Austin Nola.
While they closed the gap a bit with the Dodgers and may be the second-best team in the National League, Spiegel and Starkand were not ready to push the panic button yet, believing the top NL teams still resides in L.A.
Three up, three down
Spiegel and Starkand closed the show by answering so fan questions and also discussing a recent article of Spiegel in his “Three Up, Three Down” series.
In that, they went through some positive storylines from the past week, which focused on Cody Bellinger, Clayton Kershaw and Victor Gonzalez, as well as some negative ones like the starting rotation, health and lack of trade deadline moves.
Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel? It’s the best way to watch player interviews, exclusive coverage from events and more!
