Not a Dodgers expert and will probably add to this more later, but the Dodgers are in a kind of fascinating position currently. Andrew Friedman took over before the 2015 season and has packed the system with talent and versatile players, giving Dave Roberts a ton of flexibility in his lineups. However, despite 7 straight NL West titles, they have yet to break through and win a title, losing twice in the WS, twice in the NLCS, and three times in the NLDS.
So their fan base is clamoring for a big move, because they think some lack of personnel is preventing them from finishing one of these title runs successfully and they are hungry for a WS win since their last title was in 1988. The problem is that this kind of blockbuster move isn't really in Friedman's DNA, and he has had trouble pulling the trigger on one so far. They were evidently planning to sign Cole for quite some time, but NY outbid/outsold them there. Maybe this will change in the near future with Lindor and/or Clevinger, but it's hard to give up a lot of young talent in a trade when you know you are very likely to be the #1 NL seed going into the postseason again even if you stand pat.
Anyway, I think it's an interesting situation to watch, so I started a thread. Different GMs have different skills, and adding a pricy (whether it be money or talent surrendered in a trade) veteran to try to put a team over the top is not something Friedman has done before. He did trade for Machado mid-season in 2018 but he didn't have to give up much because it was just half a season and he probably wouldn't have even done that if Seager hadn't gone out for the year.
So their fan base is clamoring for a big move, because they think some lack of personnel is preventing them from finishing one of these title runs successfully and they are hungry for a WS win since their last title was in 1988. The problem is that this kind of blockbuster move isn't really in Friedman's DNA, and he has had trouble pulling the trigger on one so far. They were evidently planning to sign Cole for quite some time, but NY outbid/outsold them there. Maybe this will change in the near future with Lindor and/or Clevinger, but it's hard to give up a lot of young talent in a trade when you know you are very likely to be the #1 NL seed going into the postseason again even if you stand pat.
Anyway, I think it's an interesting situation to watch, so I started a thread. Different GMs have different skills, and adding a pricy (whether it be money or talent surrendered in a trade) veteran to try to put a team over the top is not something Friedman has done before. He did trade for Machado mid-season in 2018 but he didn't have to give up much because it was just half a season and he probably wouldn't have even done that if Seager hadn't gone out for the year.