The Los Angeles Dodgers have been fairly quiet thus far into the offseason, but rumors suggest they're ready to make a splash at the Winter Meetings.
While a lot of the offseason rumors have focused on a Yasiel Puig trade, the Dodgers could look to move other players on their MLB roster as well as some of their top prospects to acquire what they need.
Here are the latest rumors from expert MLB writers:
"As far as trade pieces to offer, the Dodgers would be willing to move the contracts of veteran outfielders Carl Crawford and Andre Ethier, but other clubs will more likely be asking for closer Kenley Jansen (one year from free agency) and Puig," writes Ken Gurnick of MLB.com.
Will rising FA prices help #Dodgers move Crawford and/or Ethier? LAD still will need to include $$; CC owed $41.75M/2, Ethier $37.5M/2.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 4, 2015
source says Pederson not involved in shelby miller talks. LA made clear rathe consider trading from deep prospect stash.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) November 30, 2015
Also, here's what Heyman added in his latest edition of Inside Baseball:
"A few teams have called about Puig, but the Dodgers' focus now is to 'try to reach him' and get the best out of him again. They apparently don't love the idea of selling low ... They may more seriously consider trading Crawford or Ethier depending on a late market. The large number of free-agent outfielders may make that difficult, however, especially in the case of Crawford."
The Dodgers could attract potential buyers if they offer to pay a good portion of the remaining money on the contracts of Ethier and Crawford, but there's still no guarantee in the early going as Jason Heyward, Alex Gordon, Justin Upton, Yoenis Cespedes and Dexter Fowler are still available.
Nonetheless, if the Dodgers re-sign starter Zack Greinke it'll be interesting to see how they handle Puig, as previous reports have found the two players don't particularly get along. It's clear they'd much rather get Crawford and/or Ethier off their hands to have a more definitive situation in the outfield, since they perhaps feel obligated to give those two high-paid players sufficient time on the field, which may have affected the development of others.
Trading one or both of them would give Puig and maybe Alex Guerrero more playing time and allow them to get in more of a rhythm. If the outfield consists of Puig, Guerrero and Pederson, the Dodgers could then set their future infield up to have Corey Seager at third (if he the team wants to move him there) and Kike Hernandez and Jose Peraza taking over the middle positions.
Heyman is also probably right about the team not wanting to move Pederson, who had a tremendous first half of 2015 before enduring a terrible second half. It was his rookie season and there's a lot of room for improvement, so it's doubtful they trade a young player with so much potential, especially in the power-hitting department. He lost playing time to Hernandez during his slump, but Pederson should adjust his issues this offseason and be ready for 2016.
With a deep farm system, it's more likely the Dodgers use that surplus of talent to acquire a young starter since speculation has grown after they checked in with the Braves regarding Shelby Miller.
If they land Greinke on another mammoth deal, it's possible they'll halt the spending and look to tinker other aspects of the roster on the trade market, as they did last offseason.
The Winter Meetings begin on Monday and there will be no shortage of action on the Dodgers' end.
