Three things the LA Dodgers can do to keep right on Dodgering

The Los Angeles Dodgers are the toast of baseball. They just won a World Series after having come perilously close twice before. They’ve made savvy moves across all levels of transaction, from swinging huge blockbusters to signing under the radar free agents to simply drafting dudes named “Will Smith” in the 1st round and seeing them emerge immediately into stars.

More than anything, they keep doing two things that have become so increasingly rare in the game today: try to actually win baseball games, and spend some money to make that happen.

With that in mind, we’re going to spend a quick minute highlighting on this baseball blog three things that baseball team can do to keep right on Dodgering.

Acquire P Sonny Gray from the Cincinnati Reds

Sonny Gray has a contract that requires payment for him to throw baseballs for the Cincinnati Reds, and the Cincinnati Reds don’t want that. Thing is, Sonny Gray throws baseballs like they’re allergic to the bats trying to hit them, and does so for less over two years than Chris Davis, Charlie Blackmon, Wil Myers, Jayson Heyward, Justin Upton, Eric Hosmer, and Johnny Cueto will make in one.

There’s some uncertainty behind Clayton Kershaw and Walker Buehler in the rotation at the moment, and while Gray would be a sensible addition at any point and time, throwing a kickboard to the Reds while they flounder with popped swimmies means you can probably get him in a jiffy.

Acquire 3B Eugenio Suarez from the Cincinnati Reds, too

You just watched Justin Turner, former Cincinnati Reds draftee, hit free agency after a brilliant 4-year run. What if I told you, the Dodgers, that you could pluck your next 3B from the Cincinnati Reds, too, and that he’s already under contract for the next four years for less than you just paid Turner for the previous four?

Geno’s flying squirrel into the shallow regions of his Florida pool last spring tore some cartilage in his shoulder, and he flat-out whiffed for the first 10 games of the 2020 season. He posted a typical Geno-esque .871 OPS from then until the end of the season, though, bashing 15 dingers in the next 47 games. He slugged .600 through the final 29 games of the year, and is still just 29 years old. He, too, has a contract that dictates he be paid to play baseball, meaning simply expressing any interest in being the team that pays him to do so makes him yours, so I’d suggest staring at the Reds and doing this to get the deal did:

Acquire another former MVP outfielder using a former Cincinnati Reds prospect

The Dodgers sport an all-world outfield featuring former MVPs in Cody Bellinger and Mookie Betts, the latter of whom they acquired from a team unwilling to spend money to win baseball games. They acquired said former MVP from a team unwilling to spend money to win baseball games by using a prospect formerly of the the Cincinnati Reds, Jeter Downs.

Cody and Mookie are only two outfielders, however, and my Big Book of Baseball Rules tells me that Rob Manfred has not yet dictated that there be fewer than three outfielders. So, they could use one to flank them, and why not swing for the fences?

Christian Yelich is a California kid, and has a contract that requires a midwestern team to pay him money to be good at baseball. That team up the road in Milwaukee has been starved for pitching for quite some time, and would surely appreciate top prospect Josiah Gray on the mound for them every fifth day, and would likely love to dive away from the nearly $200 million left on Yelich’s deal. That would give the Dodgers a trio of former MVPs in their outfield and a very, very good chance to keep on whippin’ tail en route to a second consecutive World Series title.