Dodgers Rumors: Team In ‘Active Discussions’ For Starling Marte
It’s rumor season, and the big ones keep rolling in. Michael Duarte of NBC Sports Los Angeles has the latest one, coming hot off the press on Sunday evening.
While most of you were busy watching football – the Dodgers were in ‘active discussions’ with the Pittsburgh Pirates for outfielder Starling Marte. Furthermore, Duarte states that the deal has been discussed over the course of several weeks.
Sources: #Dodgers having ‘active and ongoing discussions’ with #Pirates for Starling Marte. They’ve discussed a deal in previous weeks as well. Not known what other players are involved, or if teams are close to a deal. Marte is under contract with Pittsburgh through 2021.
— Michael J. Duarte (@michaeljduarte) January 21, 2019
Now, tell me how you would feel about Starling Marte in a Dodgers uniform folks? This would be a really good fit given that Marte hits from the right side of the plate, offers some power and speed, and can play center field.
Marte is coming off his age-29 season in which he had an OPS of .787 to go along with 20 home runs and 33 stolen bases. Equally important – his durability. Marte played in 145 games and logged 606 plate appearances.
As mentioned by Duarte – it’s not known what players the Dodgers are dangling to possibly lure in Marte from Pittsburgh. However, one can assume it’s the usual suspects. Any deal like this that would bring aboard a near 4 bWAR player to Los Angeles probably has Alex Verdugo going back.
We will continue to update this ongoing story and see if it catches fire with any other sources. One thing is clear: Los Angeles is looking to add a right-handed bat who can play up the middle.
The Dodgers Might Still Have Interest in Josh Harrison
Marte would be a decent fit, but not enough to trade away Verdugo. I think he’s a keeper.
Agree. Wonder if they would take less than Alex ?
Being a Pirates fan, I am sure our idiot front office would accommodate your Dodgers without issue. The rich keep getting richer.
I would offer Joc and maybe a pitching prospect. I would also demand a recent PED test in Marte.
The PED cheater Marte is not as good as Pederson, or Kiké Hernandez, or Chris Taylor and will be paid as much in 2019 as Pederson and Kiké combined.
How is pitching not their main focus? I’m happy with the Joe Kelly acquisition, but is he going to be enough? Can they rely on Pedro Baez? And what happens if Kenley performs like he did last year? I didn’t watch enough of Kelly last season to judge the way he pitches, but I know that anytime Baez or Jansen was put in the game, I would expect some runs to be scored. I just don’t understand how you can be in “win now” mode when each season you let key players go to free agency and refuse to do anything to fill the gap they leave behind. If they haven’t won a World Series yet, isn’t something missing? They’re running out of prospects to trade, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the near future. Let’s see which rental they’ll trade the remainder of their prospects for at the deadline.
I feel really good about the staff, especially the starting pitching. Deepest in all of baseball. That’s not to say I wouldn’t want more. But a RH bat right now with some speed I would prioritize ahead of it.
Clint, you are exactly right on what IS the # 1 priority. A RH bat for middle of order. If he has some good speed great but being a run producer i believe is more important. With the recent history of most of the Dodger’s LHB not being able to hit LHP, and that is partly because they get limited or no chances at all a little balance is what Dodgers probably are looking for. As it stands, I am pretty sure most opposing teams will throw as many LHP at us as they can based upon recent performances by current team members.
I’m okay with an outfield of:
– Peterson in LF
– Verdugo in CF
– Bellinger in RF
All are plus defenders, can run, and have power. The key issue is cutting down on strikeouts. The “launch angle” offensive strategy is betraying them once they reach the playoffs where there is elite level pitching.
Fortheloveofgod… Hit singles and doubles instead of constantly swinging for the fences!
I am not sure an all LH hitting OF playing basically every day is such a good idea.. Even if those 3 ya mentioned show something in the way of improvement against LHP it won’t be the same as they most likely can and will do against RHP. and if that is the case, that will further convince dodgers to continue a platoon system going forward. I am all for Dodgers learning to put the ball in play instead of swinging for the fences but remember that we don’t go deep in these past 2 PS without those HR’s And in case ya haven’t noticed,Dodgers needed to keep up with their own pitching staff that has served up lot of HR’s especially in these past 2 seasons (363) and these past 2 WS (23)
Can the dodgers afford to make a ruun at both (Pollock and Marte?
Honestly I would prefer Pollock. Since he’s a free agent, the Dodgers wouldn’t have to give up any prospects for him. Plus I think when both Pollock and Marte play their best, Pollock is the better player. The only thing that scares me is the injury history. I tend not to buy into that as much as some people, but I’d obviously prefer to have outfielders that can play more than 110 games each season.
A couple current roster guys would thus need to be moved, but I would believe so
I definitely understand your point. I used to think the same thing. Teams can’t constantly rely on homers to score runs. However, I heard something recently that caused me to change my mind. In 2018, the average batting average in Major League Baseball was .248 (Baseball Reference). This means that less than one out of every four at-bats would result in a hit. So would you rather have your players trying to hit home runs every at-bat, or would you rather try and get lucky enough to collect two or three hits in one inning? In my opinion, this is why teams like the Red Sox and Astros have such a good offense. They have some players that specialize in getting on base and some guys that specialize in homers. They can score both ways.
Remember how many times they struck out in the WS? It was terrible
Andrew, and also consider both Astros and Red Sox had more in the way of a consistent lineup to put out there when it counted the most and did not have to resort to the platooning the Dodgers did, especially against the Red Sox
No thanks, leave the PED cheater in Pittsburgh
Hey socal…what happened to the blog on the Dodger MLB page some time ago.Was it to much work for them?
The thing about Verdugo is that so far he doesn’t really hit HRs.
And Verdugo is yet just another LH batter too.
I am absolutely not OK with the Dodgers trading Alex Verdugo for (up to) 3 years of a player suspended for PEDs. Pederson+ is fine, but not Verdugo.
Why would you even trade Pederson straight up for a PED cheater? Get a better deal by trading Pederson to Chisox, or Braves, or Rays, or anyone else not offering a cheater in return
Hello there and I concur. If Pederson is the one to be dealt make sure it’s for the right return and Dodgers one would think can do better than Marte. I also would suggest that if I had to choose between Pollock and Marte I would go with Pollock. I know about the injury history but at the very least Pollock would allow Dodgers to maybe put CT3 at 2nd on a more consistent basis.
Marte trade not happening. Neal and Kevan not interested in trading him. Dont worry Dodger fans
I don’t think Verdugo has shown all he’s able to do. I hope he brings it out this season and quick. Somebody else with those great numbers and no drugs would be great.
The rumor is not true…. Neal and kevan have no interest in trading Marte
I can’t get too excited about Marte. We need to do better than that! We got rid of Puig only to replace him with someone like this? If we’re not upgrading what is the point? Where is the big signing or significant trade to upgrade the line-up? As it stands, we are diminished and that is not going to cut it to actually win the WS this time. Boston, New York and Houston are likely all better teams at this point. What happened to Bryce Harper, Corey Kluber or J. T. Realmuto? Nothing!! Oh, no we got Russel Martin I forgot.
Forget about this cheater,Joc is way much better than this steroid user.Let Joc Play everyday period