Los Angeles Dodgers: Two possible trades for Joc Pederson

LOS ANGELES, CA - AUGUST 03: Joc Pederson #31 of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates as he crosses the plate on a solo home run in the first inning of the game off Justin Verlander #35 of the Houston Astros at Dodger Stadium on August 3, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - AUGUST 03: Joc Pederson #31 of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates as he crosses the plate on a solo home run in the first inning of the game off Justin Verlander #35 of the Houston Astros at Dodger Stadium on August 3, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)
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(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) – Los Angeles Dodgers
(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) – Los Angeles Dodgers

This trade is rather straight up and one of those instances where it helps both teams accomplish what they need to accomplish. For the Dodgers, they would be acquiring a great right-handed hitting bat that absolutely demolishes left-handed pitching. For the Tigers, they would be getting a controllable young outfielder as well as a prospect to bank on.

This might seem like a small price to pay for someone that led the league in batting average against southpaws and it is; that is what makes Castellanos a great trade target. He will be a free agent after the 2019 season and has holes in his defense, which lowers his trade value.

A return of Pederson and Gray should be more than enough to make the Tigers budge. The team would essentially be trading one year of Castellanos for multiple years of Pederson — who had a WAR only 0.3 less than Castellanos, per FanGraphs.

Throw in Josiah Gray, who the team acquired from the Cincinnati Reds and the Tigers would be getting a more than suitable replacement as well as a nice prospect.

While the defense could be a concern for the Dodgers, as we saw with Matt Kemp, the team is great with positioning fielders in a certain way to mask any defensive inefficiencies.