MLB: Los Angeles gets Kepler colleagues

The Los Angeles Dodgers have strengthened their squad shortly before the Non-Waiver Trade Deadline on Tuesday. From the Minnesota Twins came Second Baseman Brian Dozier.

For Dozier, who will become a free agent at the end of the season, Max Kepler’s team will receive Infielder Logan Forsythe and the prospects Luke Raley and Devin Smeltzer. Raley, an outfielder and first baseman, was considered the nineteenth-best prospect in the Dodgers organization according to the MLB pipeline.

The Dodgers also brought reliever John Axford from the Toronto Blue Jays. For him, right-handed Corey Copping went to Canada.

The latter is supposed to strengthen the weakening bullpen. However, he is not the dominant setup reliever the team had hoped for. “I don’t know if we’re going to develop into a team with a clear man for the eighth inning. Instead, we’ll be looking at the matchups towards the end of the game,” General Manager Farhan Zaidi told reporters after the deadline.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers did not take on significantly more pay as the ex-Twin earns $9 million this year, Forsythe’s salary is $8.5 million. Los Angeles thus remains below the luxury tax threshold of $197 million in average salaries this season.

This article was published without previous view by the Major League Baseball.