Fresh Blood in the Dodgers-Giants Rivalry
The two titans of the NL West over the last decade have been trading body blows all season long, adding extra drama to the best rivalry in the National League (and maybe all of baseball, unless the Yankees vs. Red Sox is more your speed). Both teams are 8-8 in their 16 head-to-head matchups this season, and they only face each other in one more three-game series for the rest of the season, September 3rd-5th at Oracle Park. Before the season, the Dodgers and Padres were supposed to be Supreme Overlords A and B with the Giants fighting with the D’Backs for 3rd place. That script has been thrown right out the window with the Giants’ strong play and a few injuries/underperforming issues from the men in brown.
That the Dodgers are 62-43 and could be considered unlucky attests to just how good of a team they have on paper. Before the season began, I predicted they would coast to 110 wins, but since that time they’ve lost Trevor Bauer (probably forever), Cody Bellinger has been shockingly horrible (53 wRC+ and -0.2 WAR!!) when not injured, Mookie Betts has played more like an All-Star than MVP, and Corey Seager just returned from the IL on Friday after a very lengthy stay there. For a team that has won the NL West eight seasons in a row, letting these maladies break that reign of dominance wasn’t an option in the minds of team president Andrew Friedman and his co-conspirators. The Dodgers reloaded, and it’s hard to think of another team in history that acquired more impact talent at the deadline. It’s easy to think up a few other examples of high-impact deadline deals from the past – CC Sabathia to the Brewers, J.D. Martinez to the Diamondbacks, Aroldis Chapman to the Cubs, Manny Ramirez landing in Chavez Ravine, and so on – but none in which the buying team acquires two such groundbreaking talents in a single trade.
LA acquired sure-fire Hall-of-Famer Max Scherzer and a top-three shortstop in baseball in Trea Turner in a blockbuster deal with the Nationals on Friday. News that the deal was all but official actually broke Thursday night, mere hours after the rumor that the Padres were on the verge of acquiring Scherzer. Acquiring Scherzer was the deal the Dodgers had to make, both to keep him away from the Padres and Giants as well as to replace the gaping hole Bauer left atop the rotation. The three-headed monster of Scherzer, Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw will leave their playoff opponents shaking in their boots, and unless they fail to win the division and somehow lose the Wild Card game, it would be foolish to assume they won’t make it to the World Series once again. This is all the more true once you consider they didn’t even need Turner with Seager returning, but they got him anyway, just to boast an embarrassment of riches.
It’s impossible to overstate the impact that Turner’s .322/.369/.521 line with 18 homers and 21 stolen bases is going to have in the leadoff spot for the Dodgers. Plus, it reunites Trea with his long-lost brother Justin Turner (source – made up). Trea is currently out with COVID-19 symptoms, but when he returns, the Dodgers will have to decide which of their Top-10-in-the-MVP-voting-in-2020 shortstops moves to second base, relegating Gavin Lux to a bench role. This is a good problem to have.
Acquiring two players as insanely valuable as Scherzer and Turner wasn’t cheap, of course. The Dodgers had to send four prospects packing to D.C., headlined by their top overall prospect (RHP Josiah Gray) and #4 prospect (Catcher Keibert Ruiz). Considering Scherzer is only a rental and Turner has just one more year of control after this, this trade has a chance of working out well for both parties. Almost no industry professionals are claiming that the Dodgers overpaid, though, and they really had no choice but to double down and gear up for the stretch run. Don’t forget, they also made a separate deal with the Royals on Thursday to acquire Danny Duffy – whom the Giants were apparently keen for – to further deepen their rotation once he returns from his forearm injury.
The Giants, for their part, have maintained their grasp on the best record in the National League for months now thanks to an overachieving starting rotation and belting a league-leading 153 home runs. Even though their leading record has outlasted what anyone thought possible, most in the industry are still waiting for when they’re finally going to come back down to earth. Worryingly, their ace Kevin Gausman has struggled mightily since the All-Star break, lasting just a combined 11.2 innings over his past three starts while giving up 11 earned runs. The bullpen has been better-than-advertised, but it’s a patchwork unit that gives highly volatile performances from one night to the next. Augmenting the pitching staff beyond their modest trade for old friend Tony Watson must have been a goal of GM Farhan Zaidi’s, but it appears he just couldn’t find the ideal deal for a good arm.
What Zaidi did find, however, was a former MVP by the name of Kris Bryant. Acquired from the Cubs as part of their fire sale, the Giants had to part with two notable but non-elite prospects in OF Alexander Canario and RHP Caleb Kilian to get their new super-utility guy. Not only will Bryant’s impact bat fit perfectly in the middle of the order (132 wRC+ for the season and 136 for his career), but his positional flexibility will be a boon for manager Gabe Kapler when he fills out the lineup card every day. He will most likely be playing at the hot corner for the remainder of Evan Longoria’s absence, and will then split his time between third base, first base and all three outfield spots after Longo’s return. Bryant’s presence lengthens the lineup, protects against current/future injuries and should be a source of inspiration for the clubhouse that the front office believes in their ability to contend into October. What’s more, San Francisco was Bryant’s preferred destination outside of Chicago according to Zaidi, so that little piece of trivia should do well to buy Bryant some extra good will from the clubhouse and fans alike.
Both the Dodgers and Giants made gutsy trades to deepen their rosters in preparation for a bitter battle for the NL West crown. The Padres, uncharacteristically, had a very low-key deadline where their only acquisitions were outfielder Jake Marisnick and reliever Daniel Hudson. They were in the Scherzer race until the very last moment and were deep in talks with the Twins for José Berríos before the Blue Jays swept in and got him, but were unable to get anything major done. GM A.J. Preller no doubt has to be at least a little disappointed with their inability to land a star talent, seeing as they are just third in the division right now and had to watch the two teams in front of them improve themselves. It’s still premature to call the Padres out of the race, and they should at least still feel very good about their chances at running away with the second Wild Card spot.
We’re getting closer to the moment where we’ll be able to call this division a two-horse race, though, and the next two months are about to become an important chapter in the long and dramatic history of the Dodgers-Giants rivalry between these two storied franchises.
-Michael Swinehart
