The Dodgers have already clinched a losing record in July, entering play Monday with their worst single-month winning percentage since May 2013.
Their league-leading offense has remained stuck in a nosedive, ranking bottom-four in the majors entering Monday in runs scored, batting average and OPS this month despite some short-lived signs of life from their lineup last week.
For a while now, the team has known it would target a high-leverage reliever ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline. But suddenly, amid a protracted slump that even president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman acknowledged he didn’t see coming, the deadline might feel incomplete without the addition of another position player as well.
“Relief pitching is always talked about, certainly with what we’re going through,” manager Dave Roberts said this weekend. But, he added, “a potential bat” is something club officials are “kicking the tires” on.
As deadline week commenced on Monday, it meant the question wasn’t so much whether the Dodgers would look to bolster their lineup over the next four days, but rather how they could best supplement their already $400-million roster.
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One specific priority that has been increasingly emphasized by people around the organization in recent days: Someone who can not only hit, but more profoundly upgrade their outfield defense.
The Dodgers, after all, know their long-term offensive success depends primarily on their superstar players. So far in July, Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani and Teoscar Hernández have all batted in the low .200s. Mookie Betts and Tommy Edman are hitting .186 and .150, respectively. And Max Muncy has been out with a knee injury (though he could return during next week’s home stand, if not the end of this current trip).
No impact hitter on the market can change that reality. No one they add this week can save them if their star-studded core endures similar struggles in October.
In a surprise twist, some of their best hitters this month have actually been those who once seemed like obvious candidates to replace at the deadline — none more so than Michael Conforto, who is batting .280 with an .855 OPS since June 22 after belting a home run and two doubles in the team’s series finale in Boston on Sunday.
“The first half [of the season] was not me,” said Conforto, the $17-million offseason signing who was hitting a woeful .163 before his recent 24-game surge. “I left a lot of hits out there. There was a lot of work to be done. And I just had to put my head down and keep grinding.”
Now he’s finally starting to produce at a level the Dodgers would be happy to get from any potential deadline acquisition.
“The biggest thing that I’ve really appreciated and admired is — given how his season has been, understanding we’re coming up to the deadline and all this noise that’s out there — for him to not let it affect his day-to-day, and continue to get better,” Roberts said. “That’s something for me that’s shown a lot.”
That doesn’t mean, however, the Dodgers will be dissuaded from looking for outfield help this week.
Because, even as Conforto’s bat has heated up, his glove remains a glaring area of weakness in left field.
Dodgers left fielder Michael Conforto, left, fields a ball as center fielder Andy Pages watches against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on Friday. (Mark Stockwell / Associated Press)
For all he did at the plate Sunday, Conforto also had two costly defensive misplays early in the game, dropping a fly ball in the first inning that stressed Dustin May’s pitch count before overpursuing a line drive off the Green Monster that turned into a run-scoring triple in the fourth, aiding a Red Sox rally that keyed their eventual victory.
On the whole this season, Conforto ranks 13th out of 16 qualified MLB left fielders in defensive runs saved (negative three) and 14th in outs above average (negative five).
It has illustrated a larger conundrum facing the team.
Unlike last October, when the Dodgers needed potent offense to compensate for their patchwork pitching staff, their playoff run this year could be keyed more by what they do on the mound.
Barring late-season injuries (a big “if” given their recent history), the club is shaping up to have a potentially dominant rotation featuring Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell (who will return from injury this weekend) and Ohtani (who Friedman believes will be capable of pitching “real innings” come the playoffs).
While their bullpen has struggled to this point, the returns of Blake Treinen (who was activated from the injured list Sunday), Michael Kopech (who is due back late next month), Tanner Scott (who avoided a season-ending elbow injury last week) and Brusdar Graterol (expected to return sometime in September) figure to transform the group, along with whoever the front office adds in an expected deadline splash.
It all means that preventing runs could be the biggest key to the Dodgers’ title defense this fall.
And to do that, they could benefit from more trustworthy outfield defense — where Conforto’s issues have been compounded by Hernández’s regression in right field (he also grades out at one of the worst defenders in the majors at that position this year, while being limited by a groin injury) and repeated misreads from Andy Pages in center (mistakes that have at least been somewhat offset by his lethal throwing arm).
That’s why it came as no surprise to see the Dodgers’ interest in someone like Harrison Bader intensify this week, as a person with knowledge of the situation but not authorized to speak publicly confirmed.
A 31-year-old veteran with the Minnesota Twins, Bader is a premium defender (ranking sixth among all qualified outfielders with 10 defensive runs saved) who’s also having one of his best career seasons at the plate (.255 average, 12 home runs, .777 OPS). And as a likely free agent this offseason (he has a mutual option for 2026), he could be acquired at a relatively reasonable price — or, perhaps, in a package deal with a top Twins reliever such as Jhoan Durán or Griffin Jax.
Minnesota’s Harrison Bader celebrates after hitting a walk-off home run against Tampa Bay on July 4. (Bruce Kluckhohn / Associated Press)
There are bigger outfield names who could be moved before the deadline. Cleveland Guardians left fielder Steven Kwan, for instance, remains a dream target, albeit with the kind of hefty acquisition cost the Dodgers are unlikely to meet.
Still, in Bader, who was first linked to the Dodgers by USA Today, the team could add a player capable of providing plus defense in center field, and allow them to shift Pages to a more naturally-suited corner outfield spot.
Other contenders, including the New York Yankees, have also been mentioned as potential landing spots for Bader. But the Dodgers’ interest appears to be strong.
The Dodgers’ other route would be to add an infielder, and move Edman to center field. Utilityman Brendan Donovan of the St. Louis Cardinals is one such option, as The Athletic reported this week. But Edman has been limited by a lingering ankle injury (he was given Monday off to keep managing it). And his most defensive value is on the infield dirt anyway, evidenced lately by his sharp play filling in at third base in Muncy’s absence.
Bader is a right-handed bat, running counter to the initial belief that the Dodgers preferred to add another left-handed hitter at the deadline.
But between Conforto’s recent improvements (even if the Dodgers make another addition, the left-handed slugger will likely still have a role on the team), and the fact that backup left-handed- hitting catcher Dalton Rushing is not expected to be dealt this week (“I don’t see a world in which he’s moved,” Roberts said of Rushing on Monday), the Dodgers could accommodate anything — if it means making a significant improvement to their outfield defense.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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