The offseason has been, well, slow. Like really slow. Not just for the Dodgers, but for all of MLB. Besides a bunch of 1 year deals for mid-level starting pitchers, like Alex Wood, Drew Smyly, and Anthony DeSclafani, the market has been pretty quiet, especially with regards to the premium free agents. The relief market has begun to heat up with Liam Hendriks, Pedro Baez, and Blake Treinen signing. The first premier free agent has finally signed, with DJ LaMahieu rejoining the Yankees on a 6 year, 90 million dollar deal.
The Dodgers, while they've been more active than most teams, haven't done a ton, adding some minor bullpen pieces along with re-signing Blake Treinen, a key contributor to last year's World Championship Team, to a team friendly 2 year, 17.5 million dollar deal with a team option for a third year. Additionally, the team traded for Corey Knebel, a former All-Star closer from the Brewers who has high potential for a really good bounce-back campaign (his salary will be about 5 million dollars for 2021). They also brought back 2017 Dodgers breakout reliever Brandon Morrow, who's always elite when healthy, which he hasn't been for a while, but is also has a good chance to get back on track and be a good late inning reliever. Jimmy Nelson is another guy they brought back who, if healthy, could be impactful out of the bullpen.
Probably the biggest addition besides Treinen is Tommy Kahnle, a great reliever from the Yankees whom you can learn more about here, but he won't be available to pitch until September of 2021 at the earliest because he underwent Tommy John surgery in August of 2020.
Basically, the Dodgers have been trying to build their bullpen based on upside and potential, which mostly worked for them last year. It certainly worked last year, as guys like Treinen, Jake McGee, and Victor Gonzalez stepped up and pitched very well. Andrew Friedman knows what he's doing and I've been very happy with his acquisitions so far, but I'm hoping that we can maybe add one or two more similar guys, maybe a Kirby Yates type.
While they've bolstered their bullpen, the Dodgers could certainly use a right-handed bat. Hopefully, that'll be their resigning Turner, as LaMahieu is now off the board (the Dodgers courteously offered him 4 years 60 million). Other options include trading for Kris Bryan or Eugenio Suarez, but Turner is better than both and is a key cog of the clubhouse and current team chemistry.
In a slow offseason, the Dodgers haven't done much, but, by comparison to many other teams (maybe except the Padres), they're doing okay, but they still have work to do in the next month before Spring Training.
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