Dodgers Rumors: Low-Cost Trade Options to Hit Left-Handed Pitching
By Jason Reed
Evan Gattis – C
The Houston Astros stacked their offense in the offseason, adding the likes of Brian McCann, Carlos Beltran, and Josh Reddick. These free agents join young guys like Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa, George Springer, and Jose Altuve giving the Astros one of the best offenses in all of baseball. The problem is that Evan Gattis seemingly is lost in the picture.
The hole in the Astros roster persists in the pitching department. While they do have bright spots in Dallas Keuchel and Lance McCullers Jr, the starting rotation is pretty thin. Luckily for the Astros, the Dodgers have pitchers at their disposal and they also have a need for a platoon at catcher.
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Yasmani Grandal is great and all, and Austin Barnes will be good one day, but the Dodgers lack any true option to hit left-handed pitching. Grandal has struggled in practically every aspect this year, and Barnes is still growing. What is great is that Gattis is a great power hitting option, especially facing left-handed pitching.
Against left-handed pitching last season Gattis batted .288 in route to slugging ten home runs in only 156 at-bats. If Dave Roberts utilized both Grandal and Gattis in their best situations the Dodgers could have perhaps see their catchers combine for over 40 home runs.
The Dodgers could lock Gattis down until the end of next season, and would only pay him just over five million dollars a year. This would be a steal for the Dodgers, as they could send away the likes of Hyun Jin-Ryu alongside a bullpen arm such as Adam Liberatore to snag Gattis.
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Overall, these Dodgers rumors show that there may be cost efficient options for the team to explore to hit left-handed pitching. If the team wants to take that extra step to the World Series, some of these deals must be explored.