This is the blockbuster to end all blockbusters.
According to Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Dodgers are in trade talks with the St. Louis Cardinals about Nolan Arenado and other players.
The fit is obvious, and I wrote extensively about Arenado’s return to Los Angeles here, but Castillo made some very intriguing observations with some new information on the matter.
According to Castillo, the Dodgers are particularly interested in Arenado, as well as a top starting pitcher, like Jack Flaherty or Jordan Montgomery.
On the other hand, the Dodgers would have to give up a young pitcher — such as Bobby Miller, Gavin Stone, Ryan Pepiot, or Emmet Sheehan — as well as one or both of Max Muncy and Chris Taylor.
This is a lot to take in, but if you want to read more about the Arenado situation, click here. You can also read a little about Flaherty’s fit, another SoCal youngster, by clicking here.
But for the purposes of this post, let’s concentrate on the Dodgers.
The Dodgers farm system is brimming with young, promising starting pitchers. They’d want to keep all of them, but that’s unrealistic and counterproductive for a club looking to compete as quickly as possible.
Miller is probably untouchable to the Dodgers, and Stone is probably as well. However, Pepiot and Sheehan, as well as Michael Grove, are all promising starters the Dodgers should be willing to part with in exchange for a blockbuster package containing Arenado and Flaherty.
Taylor, on the other hand, has a terrible contract. While he has had some beautiful moments for LA this year, he is far from indispensable.
The Dodgers love Muncy, and he enjoys being in Los Angeles, but if they could obtain an upgrade like Arenado, they definitely wouldn’t blink.
In my opinion, the best-case scenario for the Dodgers would be a package involving Pepiot, Grove, and Taylor, which would allow them to keep Muncy and shift him to second base while Arenado takes over at the hot corner.
Due to his contract, Arenado has a negative trade worth in baseball trade prices, but don’t anticipate the Cardinals to treat him as a negative player in a deal.
The Dodgers will have to give up some components for Arenado, but it appears that they are in serious talks to bring him back to Los Angeles.
This would be the mega-deal that elevates LA to World Series contender status.