LA makes a move: Dodgers emerges a surprise contenders for…
At this point, nobody in Major League Baseball should make the mistake of assuming the Los Angeles Dodgers won’t make more big moves.
Last winter, the Dodgers went nuclear. They brought in Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Tyler Glasnow, and then almost as an afterthought, they signed eventual All-Star and World Series hero Teoscar Hernández to a one-year deal.
Coming off a World Series title, the only thing that matters to the Dodgers is the next one. There was one flaw for the Dodgers, starting pitching depth, so L.A. can be counted on to explore every avenue to ensure their rotation is as scary as possible this time around.
One avenue could easily be the blockbuster trade, as the Dodgers have one of baseball’s deepest farm systems. Christopher Kline named the Dodgers as the number-one team to watch in a trade for Chicago White Sox All-Star starting pitcher Garrett Crochet this winter.
“L.A. would be wise to add another bankable arm if possible. And folks, with the Dodgers’ high-spending attitude, it’s possible. That team is raking in cash with Ohtani on the roster and that won’t change after a celebrated World Series run. Trading for Crochet and lining up his next contract won’t be a problem,” Kline said.
“He gives the Dodgers youth and potential longevity, operating on the same timeline age-wise as Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Crochet won’t get the same 12-year investment, but he could be a face of the Dodgers rotation for many years and many World Series runs to come.”
Crochet, 25, was a revelation this season. He struck out a remarkable 209 batters in just 146 innings, and despite having his workload limited after the All-Star break, made it through a full season as a starting pitcher for the first time in his career.
The Dodgers are known for getting the most out of their pitchers, so adding a superstar-caliber arm like Crochet could be truly scary for the rest of the league. And if the rest of that L.A. rotation returns healthy, it’s hard to see how anyone is beating the Dodgers in 2025.
