Los Angeles Dodgers: Felipe Vazquez is not worth the asking price

The biggest area that the Los Angeles Dodgers can improve in at the trade deadline is the bullpen, which has led to ties to Pittsburgh’s Felipe Vazquez.

For the most part, the Los Angeles Dodgers have a complete roster that really does not need to be improved on at the trade deadline. If anything, the roster is a bit too full with several starting-caliber players needing to take a step back once the team is fully healthy.

Not only is the team deep with position players but the starting pitching is immensely deep at well. The Dodgers sent three starting pitchers to the All-Star Game in Hyun-Jin Ryu, Clayton Kershaw and Walker Buehler and probably would have sent Rich Hill too the way he was pitching if he had a healthy first half.

The one caveat is the bullpen, which ironically is the one area that pretty much any team can improve in. It is very hard to build an entire bullpen full of solid arms and the Dodgers certainly have their fair share of untrustworthy options.

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That has created trade speculation regarding Pittsburgh’s Felipe Vazquez, who has emerged as one of the best southpaw relievers in the league. Velazquez has a 2.11 ERA this season, a combined 2.16 ERA over the last three years and could be the bridge to Kenley Jansen.

Heck, Vazquez could even see himself closing games in October if the ninth inning is left-handed heavy. That or either him and Jansen can rotate being that fifth-sixth inning shutdown guy that can stop rallies in October, otherwise known as the Andrew Miller role.

The problem is that the Pirates are simply asking for too much. The Pirates reportedly want at least two elite prospects out of the group of Gavin Lux, Dustin May, Keibert Ruiz and Will Smith.

After losing back-to-back World Series, some fans may say so what. Take the risk and get the southpaw reliever that is elite, locked down for multiple years and can help the team win the World Series.

However, that asking price is simply too high. Those are four elite prospects and two send two of them for a reliever would do more harm than good in the long run. If it was one of the prospects and an established, young big-league talent, like Matt Beaty, then fine. However, two of the four is crazy.

Vazquez may be elite but the Dodgers bullpen has probably been much better than you would think. Sure, the team started out slow and still has its hiccups but over the last 30 days, Dodger relievers have a 2.95 ERA, the third-lowest in that span.

There is no doubt that the Los Angeles Dodgers would be better with Vazquez but the team does not need to spend high to get an elite arm. Just getting a left-handed specialist to get left-handed hitters out, the role Scott Alexander is supposed to be in, is more than enough.

It might seem like the Dodgers are being cheap but based on the bullpen’s performance and the Pirates asking price, it would be much better to take this “cheap” approach than make a desperate move.

And when those guys are in the big leagues contributing like Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager, Walker Buehler, Joc Pederson, Alex Verdugo and Julio Urias are, you will be thankful that they did not trade them away for Vazquez.