Dodgers Reportedly Prefer to Trade Prospects Over Main Roster Players At MLB Deadline

As the Los Angeles Dodgers weigh potential deadline deals to improve their roster, they don't want to subtract from the MLB club to do so if they can avoid it.

Per The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal, the Dodgers' "preference" is to trade from their farm system rather than give up a player currently on the 26-man roster.

One example Rosenthal cited was using Dustin May to potentially acquire an outfielder because it wouldn't make sense to swap him for a pitcher when they could just use him out of the bullpen.

The Dodgers have been connected to virtually every relief pitcher who might be dealt. A combination of injuries and poor performances have their bullpen looking extremely weak going into the stretch run and looking ahead to potential playoff matchups.

Los Angeles' bullpen enters Saturday ranked 24th in MLB in ERA (4.39), 21st in home runs allowed per nine innings (1.14) and tied for 21st in home run to fly ball ratio (11.5 percent).

Pitchers like Emmanuel Clase, Jhoan Durán and Griffin Jax are among the many relievers who have been mentioned as potential Dodgers' targets. One of their trade options, Gregory Soto, came off the board on Friday when he was acquired by the New York Mets.

Those are players at the top of the market, so the asking price from their current clubs is likely to be very high. ESPN's Jeff Passan noted the Minnesota Twins want "at least two top-100-caliber prospects" for either Durán or Jax.

That's a steep cost for a reliever who might throw at most 20-25 innings over the remainder of the regular season.

The Dodgers do have a wealth of young talent to move if president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman wants to get ultra-aggressive. They have six top 100 prospects, led by outfielder Josue De Paula (No. 22 overall), per MLB.com's rankings.

Being ultra-aggressive generally goes against Friedman's modus operandi. He typically makes in-season moves to improve the margins that end up working out better than initially anticipated, like last year when Michael Kopech, Tommy Edman and Jack Flaherty all played key roles in their run to the World Series.

There are still five days before the trade deadline on July 31, so Friedman and the Dodgers have some time to figure out what approach they want to take. Even with some bumps in the road this season, they still lead the NL West by six games and are only one game back in the loss column of the Milwaukee Brewers for the best record in the NL.