The Los Angeles Dodgers have been moving prospects and young players around so they can make a trade for a pitcher. They’re not getting Jose Fernandez off of the Miami Marlins (probably not), but maybe Jake Odorizzi of the Tampa Bay Rays?
Odorizzi made his major league debut in 2012 when playing for the Kansas City Royals, but only had his official rookie season in 2014. He did a lot better in 2015 for the Rays, going 9-9 and posting a 3.35 ERA through 28 starts and 169.1 innings, a career high for time on the mound. His WHIP (1.152) was also a career best, and it seems the 25-year old out of Illinois who was actually picked by the Brewers in the 2008 draft, is capable of being a nice back-end rotation starter for some team for several years.
RIght now, it’s all in the talking stage. The Rays, like the Marlins with Fernandez, are looking for a huge chunk of talent to make the opposite trip, and the Dodgers, despite setting themselves up to get rid of players so they can be a player in trading block players, don’t seem to be willing to part with so much just yet. The Rays, like the Marlins, feel like there’s more to Odorizzi and that his value might rise with another year or maybe even two starting for them, especially when he’s not too expensive for now.
The Dodgers are trying to cope with a changing landscape. They lost Zack Greinke to a division rival, and didn’t really seem like a force to be reckoned with for most of the major free agents out there, as the front office decided it’s time to do less spending, which bottom line, hasn’t brought them beyond a certain, relatively low threshold in the playoffs. As of now, trading for players they have on their shortlist hasn’t been working out either.