The Los Angeles Dodgers won’t look much like the Los Angeles Dodgers when opening day arrives.
Eric Hartline/USA TODAY Sports
On Day 3 of Winter Meetings, the Dodgers decided to make some major moves, reshaping the look of their franchise. Since they missed out on getting Jon Lester, they practically went after anyone else, no matter how old or young.
Here’s a quick round-up, so far, of what they’ve done.
- They traded away their All-Star Dee Gordon, pitcher Dan Haren and prospect Miguel Rojas to the Florida Marlins for second baseman Enrique Hernandez, reliever Chris Hatcher, catching prospect Austin Barnes and pitching prospect Andrew Heaney.
- To replace Dee Gordon at second base, they sent Heaney to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for Howie Kendrick.
- They acquired aging shortstop, and former NL MVP, Jimmy Rollins from the Philadelphia Phillies for players to be named later, possibly involving a third team.
- To replace Dan Haren at the back of the starting rotation, it’s been reported that they have acquired Brandon McCarthy for four years at $48 million. Wow.
- Another potential deal, that may be in the works with multiple teams, is shipping Matt Kemp out of Dodger Blue. Stay tuned.
The Winter Meetings are less than a week old, and more changes can be in the works and done by the time we wake up in the morning. It really appears that the Dodgers are in a win now mode, especially since they’ve decided to go with an older middle infield lineup of Rollins and Kendrick, and shipping away the talented and fan-favorite Gordon. The speedster, who led the league in stolen bases and triples took to Twitter to say farewell to the fans in LA (see below).
Despite giving up such a young talent in Gordon, the Dodgers aren’t worried about being stuck with Rollins and Kendrick for long if they don’t work out. The both of them are in the final year of their contracts and will allow the Dodgers to use that money in the future for free agents.
Phew. I think I got all that right (hopefully). The interesting thing to watch out for now is to see what else new team president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman will do with Kemp.
Stay tuned.
— Dee Gordon (@FlashGJr) December 11, 2014
H/T: Twitter, Fox Sports
