Dodgers: Five bold predictions for the Winter Meetings

5. The Dodgers will pick up a sneaky good left-handed reliever

If there is one thing that Andrew Friedman is great at it is finding diamonds in the rough. Justin Turner, Chris Taylor, Alex Wood, Brandon Morrow and Andrew Toles are all great examples of this. During the 2017 MLB Trade Deadline, the Dodgers went out and traded for southpaws Tony Watson and Tony Cingrani.

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Watson was a former closer that still had great stuff who simply was not performing to his standards. The Dodgers changed that. Cingrani was a failed starter that had nothing special to him in the bullpen. Los Angeles changed that. Friedman and company will see some sign of promise, like CIngrani’s slider, and turn that into gold.

Watson is set to be a free agent this offseason. With his value rejuvenated, something the Dodgers tend to do, he may test the market as a closer. With re-signing Morrow as the understandable priority, the Dodgers may let Watson walk.

Enter Friedman, who will likely pick up some left-handed reliever on a minor league contract only to make the big leagues and succeed. We saw it with Joe Blanton, we saw it with Morrow.

Robbie Ross has “Andrew Friedman target” all over him. The young left-hander was once a solid bullpen arm. However, elbow issues led to walk problems in his short time pitching during 2018.

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Ross would be a riskless move that could pan out in the Dodgers favor. We have seen Friedman do it before and we very well could see him do it again.