Los Angeles Dodgers: Fans are overvaluing Francisco Lindor

Francisco Lindor is a fantastic player that the Los Angeles Dodgers could potentially trade for. However, his value has been slightly inflated.

The only big thing remaining for the Los Angeles Dodgers to do this offseason would be trading for either Francisco Lindor or Mookie Betts, both of which have ties to the Dodgers. There is also the possibility of Kris Bryant being traded to the Dodgers, but he has no strong connections to the team yet.

This has sparked a debate on who would be the better fit for the Dodgers and who has more value — Francisco Lindor or Mookie Betts? We actually did an entire article breaking down Lindor vs. Betts with the pros and cons that you can find here.

And while we did not come to a definitive conclusion — we left that to the readers with the evidence we provided — we did realize that of the two, Lindor has been receiving a little bit more love than is justified.

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They both are phenomenal players, but somehow, it appears as if Lindor is the more desired of the two when really, if we are looking at pure talent, Betts is probably the better player with an MVP under his belt.

In fact, Lindor is not even that much of an upgrade from Corey Seager. Yes, he had more pop in his bat last season, he has elite fielding and he is a switch-hitter, all of those things lead to him being one of the best shortstops in baseball.

However, Seager has pop in his swing, is a great defensive player and succeeds against both righties and lefties. Seager at his best is absolutely as good as Lindor and even with the setbacks from Tommy John surgery, Seager ranks fourth in the MLB in fWAR since 2016 among shortstops.

Based on his pace, if Seager had as many games played as Lindor, who leads shortstops in WAR in that span, Seager would have a 22.3 WAR, 0.9 WAR behind Lindor. Lindor is better, but only marginally.

The problem with Lindor and the reason why I feel as if he is being overvalued is the potential package that the Dodgers would have to trade. It appears that the team would either need to trade Dustin May or Gavin Lux, or both, as well as other elite prospects.

The other option would be to package Seager with another top-100 prospect and other prospects in the Dodgers’ top-30. That is a massive price to pay when you have Seager and you have a promising middle infielder in Lux who is coming off being the Minor League Player of the Year.

The biggest argument I see as to why Lindor is worth an elevated price is team control. Mookie Betts is a free agent after this season, which has led to some fans swaying to Lindor.

However, Lindor only has one extra year on his contract! Sure, it gives the Dodgers more time to work out an extension, but would it really be worth selling the farm more for Lindor for one extra season? Probably not.

Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see Lindor in Dodger blue. However, if the price for him is as much as we have been led to believe then the Dodgers are probably better off trading for Mookie Betts.

The only way it would be worth it for the Los Angeles Dodgers is if they also got Mike Clevinger in the deal, which is a possibility. However, for just Lindor, the price should not be as steep as expected.