The Los Angeles Dodgers’ work remains unfinished, and the same is true of your questions. Here is Part 2 of this month’s Dodgers mailbag. You can find Part 1 here.
Some questions were edited for clarity and length.
When will Roki Sasaki make his decision and what percentage chance is he coming to Chavez Ravine? — Anonymous
Odds are he signs between Jan. 15 and Jan. 24, which allows him to sign in the 2025 signing period but before his 45-day posting window is up. Whether he decides before then remains to be seen. Sasaki and his agents, including Joel Wolfe, are still in the early stages of meeting with clubs.
Handicapping the Dodgers’ chances is a matter of what you choose to believe because Sasaki and Wolfe have not provided much information on what Sasaki is seeking. For example, even Wolfe wasn’t sure whether playing with former Samurai Japan teammates — such as Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto — would help a team’s pursuit of the right-hander. The Dodgers’ interest is obvious and apparent. Sasaki is a “major priority” for them, according to president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, and for good reason. Players that young and that talented aren’t typically available for a few million dollars.
Los Angeles appears bullish on its chances of landing Sasaki. But the process is still early.
Is Juan Soto to the Mets rather than the Dodgers a blessing or a missed opportunity? — Del D.
Speaking of unique opportunities. I don’t think anyone expected the Dodgers to actually wind up with Soto. They were involved and ran their bidding up to $600 million because it’s what they do. They don’t have to splurge for another star, but they can at the right price.
Is Soto landing with the Mets a missed opportunity? The Dodgers will largely be in the same spot they would have been either way — they’ll be World Series front-runners regardless.
But is it a blessing? No. You pursue a player like Soto every single time if you’re the Dodgers. They’ve built their powerhouse in part because they create opportunities to strike on the rare chances that a superstar of his caliber comes available.
How likely are the Dodgers to trade away a core piece of the roster, i.e. Gavin Lux, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin? — Anonymous
I don’t think any of those players are “core” pieces. The core, as constructed, is the group under contract for the foreseeable future: Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Will Smith and now Tommy Edman. Yamamoto and Smith are the only players in that group who haven’t turned 30, but these are the players locked down right now.
To hit on those three players specifically is a different matter. Gonsolin and May are coming off major elbow surgeries, which means their trade value is hardly at its peak. The Dodgers know they have a few pitchers with extensive injury histories, so they’re not exactly in a position to trade heavily from their batch of pitchers. I’m not ruling it out, but it’s a complicating factor.
Lux’s trade value depends on how you value his second half, as he had an .899 OPS after the All-Star break. He looked like a more dangerous hitter than he even was in his 2022 breakout season, and his defense was strong enough at second base. For as much as Lux has been thrown into hypothetical deals dating back to his prospect days, his value in a trade is likely all in the eye of the beholder.
Fabian, do you think there’s any chance the Dodgers will use a platoon in the infield, with Mookie Betts playing short against right-handers and second base against left-handers? — Joseph R.
The Dodgers have said they want Betts to stick to one position in 2025. As of now, it looks like that would be at shortstop. Then again, they said they wanted Betts to stick at second base last offseason, only to move him to shortstop just weeks before Opening Day and then move him back to right field when he returned from the injured list in August. Plans and on-record comments do change sometimes.
I think their preference is to have Betts in one spot. The best current alignment involves Betts at shortstop. But their interest in Ha-Seong Kim, which The Athletic reported Saturday, signals that their infield picture isn’t set in stone. Kim isn’t a primary target and his market hasn’t fully crystalized, but the Dodgers have the flexibility to pivot.
It’s only Dec. 23. A lot can change.
Any word on Dalton Rushing’s potential role with the team? How about for Andy Pages & James Outman? —Mark S.
I asked Brandon Gomes a version of this question on the last day of the Winter Meetings. The plan to start the season is to use Rushing primarily as a catcher, with some time out in the outfield as Rushing’s workload permits. They still see him as someone who can stick behind the plate long-term (which lines up with public evaluations), even though he largely was a left fielder to end last season.
Rushing technically is on the corner-outfield depth chart with some unsettled spots in front of him. In a scenario where the Dodgers don’t re-sign Teoscar Hernández and don’t go with one of their pivot options that The Athletic reported (such as Seiya Suzuki or Luis Robert Jr.), there is a world where Rushing wrestles away a job with a strong spring. But the likeliest scenario is that Rushing starts the season in Triple A in a timeshare of sorts with Hunter Feduccia and Diego Cartaya. Cartaya’s stock has plummeted in recent years, but he’s still on the 40-man roster. Feduccia is probably the Dodgers’ go-to option in a short-term injury pinch should something happen to Will Smith or Austin Barnes.
Of this trio, Andy Pages is the most likely to be on the Opening Day roster. Whether it’s as an everyday guy in a corner or as a fourth-outfielder type remains to be seen. Pages’ arm profiles best in right field, and he showed last season that he can at least hit left-handed pitching. That’s valuable.
Outman has been the Dodgers’ Opening Day center fielder each of the past two seasons, but the same concerns that kept him from being considered a top prospect for much of his time in the minors have crept up on him. His path to the roster right now is likely as a platoon bat with good defense and enough pop to put up a solid line against right-handed pitching. He has minor-league options remaining, though, and should serve as depth if the Dodgers beef up their outfield as expected.
It’s understood that Shohei Ohtani won’t be back to pitch at the start of the season. But what is a possible timeline for pitching? Would Ohtani pitch in the minors to prep during a big-league season (and leave the Dodgers without his bat)? — Scott G.
Walker Buehler, like Ohtani, was coming off a second Tommy John surgery and was on a similar timeline entering last season. His season debut was on May 6. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the Dodgers try to build up Ohtani in a similar fashion, maybe erring even more on the side of caution.
Having covered Ohtani’s first rehab with the Angels, there is a way to try to build up without a formal rehab assignment. Once he progressed to the stage of facing hitters, the club would shuttle hitters to him (a day in Anaheim for several Inland Empire 66ers) to face hours before the game, and then his availability in that day’s game would depend on how he responded to the day of rehab. It was complicated. But Ohtani didn’t spend time on the injured list.
I expect the Dodgers to find a way to rehab him without needing a rehab assignment. They’ve gone about things like this with Clayton Kershaw at different times over the years — and The Athletic’s Chandler Rome has written in the past about teams not being beholden to rehab assignments for players coming back from injury.
Curious to hear more about the Dodgers’ culture of deferrals and if they are becoming a part of the clubhouse/team vibes. It almost seems like Mookie/Freddie/Ohtani are leading the way and deferring money as a way for new superstars (like Snell) to buy into winning and show their teammates they are team-first. Sure makes the role players and rookies feel better making way less. Any truth to that? — Ryan S.
This is an interesting question and one that was put to Friedman last month. There certainly could be something to it, much like the Atlanta Braves had a run of locking up many of their core players to long-term extensions. It’s easier to be open to something if you’ve seen a lot of other people do it already.
“A little bit with having a number of our star players with deferrals, I think, has made it something that guys have no issue with and in some cases may even desire it,” Friedman said. “It’s hard to say. We haven’t dug too much on it.”
(Top photo of Roki Sasaki: Eugene Hoshiko / Associated Press)
