David Ross recently recalled a conversation with Theo Epstein from the fall of 2016, about the Cubs' trade for Aroldis Chapman. In the midst of that season, with Chicago holding a big lead in the National League Central, Epstein had traded star prospect Gleyber Torres and others to the Yankees for Chapman, and at the time Epstein made the deal, he was transparent about his motive: This was a trade made to win the World Series. Nothing less.
Epstein told Ross that the only way he would've felt OK about trading Torres would have been if the Cubs had won the championship. Chapman mostly thrived in his short time for the Cubs, and although the left-hander was weary from a heavy workload and struggled in the epic Game 7 of the World Series, the team won its first championship since 1908, and Chapman, catcher Ross and GM Epstein cemented their places in Chicago history.
Which brings us to the 2019 Los Angeles Dodgers, a great team with exceptional starting pitching, a good defense, an excellent offense. A great team with a bullpen problem.
It's a team so good that the Dodgers' front office should make its version of the Chapman trade, or the deal that the Indians made for Andrew Miller in 2016, to get the setup relievers badly needed. Somebody like the Indians' Brad Hand, who can be pried away from Cleveland for the right offer, or the Nationals' Sean Doolittle, the Pirates' Felipe Vazquez, the Giants' Will Smith. Through the addition of a couple of excellent relievers, the Dodgers' chances of winning the World Series for the first time since 1988 will improve -- and it seems unlikely L.A. can win without improving this part of the roster.
In recent years, the Dodgers' front office has habitually worked to improve the team at midseason. Yu Darvish was the most discussed starting pitcher in the days leading up to the 2017 trade deadline, and L.A. waited for the price for the then-Rangers right-hander to drop and closed a bargain in the last hour. Last summer, the Dodgers engaged the Orioles in talks for Manny Machado right after the amateur draft, and those discussions led to a deal at the All-Star break.
Darvish was awful in the 2017 World Series, and Machado's impact was diminished by all of the conversation about his effort. But Andrew Friedman has demonstrated he will pay a premium for players he perceives to be potentially difference-making.
No group has a greater volatility in performance than relievers. Consider that last winter, Edwin Diaz was roundly regarded as baseball's best bullpen piece, coming off a 2018 season in which he struck out 124 of the 280 batters he faced, and the Mets doled out many tens of millions in cash and prospect resources in anticipation they would have the game's most dominant ninth-inning pitcher. But Diaz's slider hasn't been as sharp this year, and he hasn't been quite as good, yet.
The best reliever last October was Joe Kelly, and because of that month of domination for the Red Sox, he got a $25 million deal from the Dodgers -- and has been terrible.
This kind of volatility is why baseball executives are sometimes queasy about making expensive trades for relievers. However, every October seems to reinforce Tony La Russa's long-standing mantra that the postseason is won with strong bullpens and benches, so a lot of the major contenders will add relievers before July 31. The Cubs signed Craig Kimbrel, and the Braves, Phillies, Twins and Rays figure to grab help as well. The Yankees and Astros have excellent bullpens already, but they could be aggressive in pursuit of relievers, understanding the importance of depth and the notion that they could keep a high-end reliever away from a competing team.