The Dodgers elected not to make a huge splash this offseason.
The Dodgers have had a pretty quiet offseason thus far. They haven’t really been linked to any of the big names outside of RHP Justin Verlander, and it isn’t really known how serious they were in their pursuit of him. They were pretty easily outbid by the high-spending New York Mets.
The Dodgers still have made a few acquisitions — DH J.D. Martinez, RHP Noah Syndergaard, and, most recently, SS Miguel Rojas. But when it came to the stars on the market — and there were a lot of them — the Dodgers remained quiet.
While many people have panicked about the Dodgers’ offseason, it is pretty safe to say that a team that won 111 games last season would be okay with losing a few contributors.
The Dodgers also feel very confident in their young prospects, who are expected to make a big impact next season. But that’s not the only reason to potentially feel confident.
ESPN’s Buster Olney sent out an interesting tweet on Friday, pointing out the fact that three of the MLB’s best teams sat on the sidelines during the free-agent frenzy. Those three teams happen to have the most sustained success over the last decade, including being the last three World Series winners — the Houston Astros, Atlanta Braves and the Dodgers.
This isn’t to say there wasn’t a lot of talent on the market, but it is interesting that these three teams all somewhat stayed away. The market took off at the Winter Meetings, and players were getting pretty big raises, some of them at unexpected prices.
The Dodgers were able to get a ton of value in the players they added, and they won’t be tied down to any of these long-term deals on players already in their 30s.
While at the moment, it wasn’t fun for Dodger fans to watch their team sit out on all the top free agents, in a few years, they’ll probably be very glad about the Dodgers’ decisions this offseason.
