Los Angeles Dodgers Rumors: Five potential LA-bound trade options
By Paul Ashley
The Kansas City Royals have a very productive second baseman that they kept through the trade deadline last season. Although the front office would like to keep him in the fold, they would likely be willing to move him for the right offer as they look to continuously retool their roster instead of pursuing a full rebuild.
According to FanGraphs, the second basemen of the Dodgers finished last in the entire MLB with a -0.9 total WAR last season. There was quite a revolving door at second base for the team as Logan Forsythe, Chase Utley, Brian Dozier, Enrique Hernandez, Austin Barnes, Max Muncy, Chris Taylor, and Breyvic Valera all spent time at the four position.
Despite many familiar names that had a lot of prior MLB success, the Dodgers only received a total of 44 extra base hits (XBH) and 55 runs batted in (RBI) during the 163 combined regular season games from the second base position. As a comparison, the Dodgers catchers combined for the next lowest numbers with 56 XBH and 80 RBI through the same amount of games.
However, Whit Merrifield could help resolve this situation if the Dodgers are able to convince the Kansas City Royals to move the on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) machine to Los Angeles. He has only compiled 2.101 years of service time thus far in his career, so he would also easily fit within any potential payroll constraints due to his near minimum salary for next season.
Through 158 games last year, Merrifield put together an impressive slash-line of .304/.367/.438 alongside 88 runs scored (R) and 45 stolen bases (SB). He also compiled a 5.5 WAR, 58 XBH, and 60 RBI, which all ranked higher than the total combined effort of Dodgers second basemen last season. His .806 OPS ranked him 5th amongst MLB second baseman that qualified to be a league leader. Ben Zobrist, Jose Altuve, Scooter Gennett, and Javier Baez were the only players ranked higher than Merrifield in 2018 within the OPS category.
Even though Royals general manager Dayton Moore has advised that the team does not intend to move Merrifield, that could all change with the right offer. The return of Cory Seager paired with an acquisition of Whit Merrifield could give the Dodgers an incredible amount of offensive production from their middle infield. This production could be a large key in helping the organization obtain its seventh straight NL West division title as well.