The Dodgers’ offseason is going to be fascinating, with several holes in their roster they need to fill, plus rumors they might go with a youth movement and try to get under the luxury tax for one year to reset their escalating penalties. There are some huge names on the free-agent market, though, which makes for a lot of temptation for Andrew Friedman and his front office team.
Over at MLB.com, Mark Feinsand played “matchmaker” with the available free agents, picking one player for each of the 30 teams. An exercise like this doesn’t really produce true predictions, because the rules — one and only one player per team, no one going back to their original team, etc. — don’t necessarily apply to the real world of free agency.
Still, Feinsand’s pick for Los Angeles is fascinating.
Dodgers: Aaron Judge, RF
Los Angeles has plenty of its own free agents to deal with this offseason, but the idea of adding Judge to a lineup that led the Majors in runs scored seems unfair. The Dodgers have a ton of money coming off the books, putting them in play for pretty much anybody they want. Judge could play right or center field, and Mookie Betts is open to the idea of a move to second base.
Scroll to Continue
Feinsand doesn’t even mention left field, which might actually be the position Judge would be most likely to play in LA, simply because moving a six-time Gold Glove right-fielder to second base is the kind of thing people talk about in the offseason but teams don’t really do and Judge doesn’t really have what it takes to play center field on a regular basis.
The Dodgers can definitely afford Judge, although their concern will undoubtedly be more about paying him in 2030 than in 2023. But he would definitely add some impressive ammunition to an already-potent Dodgers offense.
.