Dodgers' Top Players to Target and Avoid at 2024 MLB Trade Deadline
The Los Angeles Dodgers sit atop the NL West standings with a 56-41 record and a seven-game cushion at the All-Star break, which is impressive considering all the injuries they have juggled during the first half of the season.
Shoring up the starting rotation will be the club's top trade deadline priority with Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Walker Buehler all starting the second half on the injured list alongside a laundry list of pitchers that have been there all year.
Even with Clayton Kershaw moving closer to returning, the Dodgers still need at least one veteran starter who can eat up innings and help take some pressure off a taxed rotation.
Ahead we've highlighted two pitchers they should target and one they should avoid as a quick overview of how they might approach this year's trade deadline.
Target: RHP Michael Lorenzen, Texas Rangers
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Michael Lorenzen is the perfect target for the Dodgers thanks to his ability to fill a variety of roles on the staff.
The 32-year-old spent the first seven seasons of his career pitching almost exclusively out of the bullpen for the Cincinnati Reds, but he has moved into a starting role since departing in free agency and he was an All-Star for the Detroit Tigers last year.
He signed a one-year deal with the Texas Rangers during the offseason and sports a 3.52 ERA, 1.22 WHIP and 65 strikeouts in 92 innings over 16 starts, despite getting a late start to the season after waiting to sign until March 22.
He could plug a hole in the rotation for the time being before shifting into a multi-inning relief role once the staff gets back to full strength, essentially serving as a right-handed version of Ryan Yarbrough.
Target: LHP Yusei Kikuchi, Toronto Blue Jays
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Yusei Kikuchi represents another rental option who could immediately give the Dodgers rotation a boost, though he comes at a higher price tag than Michael Lorenzen pitching in the final season of a three-year, $36 million deal.
The 33-year-old has a 4.42 ERA and a solid 3.68 FIP with 117 strikeouts in 106 innings over 20 starts, and he also offers some experience pitching in a relief role from when he was briefly demoted from the rotation in 2022 and threw the ball well out of the bullpen.
Given the Dodgers proximity to the luxury tax threshold, the Blue Jays would likely need to pay down a bit of his remaining salary in order to pry loose a quality prospect, but Kikuchi will be an in-demand rental starter for a long list of contenders.
Avoid: LHP Garrett Crochet, Chicago White Sox
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It's going to take a massive prospect haul to pry Garrett Crochet loose from the Chicago White Sox in the midst of a breakout season that has seen him emerge as one of the most dominant starters in baseball.
The 25-year-old made his first career MLB start on Opening Day after pitching exclusively out of the bullpen for the first several years of his career, and he earned a spot on the All-Star team with a 3.02 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and an AL-leading 150 strikeouts in 107.1 innings.
He has club control through the 2026 season and is making a modest $800,000 this year, so there is a reason the asking price will be sky-high.
However, the Dodgers do not have the top-tier prospect depth they have boasted in years past, with only Josue De Paula (No. 53) and Dalton Rushing (No. 69) earning a place on B/R's latest Top 100 prospect list update.
That coupled with the fact that Crochet has already reached a career-high in innings pitched and is something of a wild card for the stretch run should be reason enough for the Dodgers to turn their attention elsewhere.
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