The Los Angeles Dodgers have taken a similar path after winning the World Series over the last two years, but president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman hopes the 2026 MLB trade deadline will bring about change.

After the Dodgers won the 2024 World Series, they re-signed Teoscar Hernández, Blake Treinen and Clayton Kershaw; and added Roki Sasaki, Blake Snell, Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates.

Following Snell’s introductory press conference at Dodger Stadium in 2024, Friedman recalled a sentiment he first expressed in Spring Training before that season.

“Naively, last February, I was like, ‘The dream is to be in first place and be a seller.’ Because my goal is to not buy in July,” Friedman recalled. “I am setting that out there right now. My goal is to do everything we can right now to not buy in July. It is a terrible time to acquire talent.

“So we’re going to do everything we can to put ourselves in a position to not. Obviously as we saw last season, we will if we need to. But our goal is to not. Last February, I naively joked about how we may even be in position to be sellers and be in a good position. I will never make that mistake again.”

Sure enough, the Dodgers faced needs and were active at the 2025 trade deadline. Across separate deals they acquired Brock Stewart, Alex Call, Paul Gervase, Adam Serwinoski, Ben Rortvedt, James Tibbs III and Zach Ehrhard.

L.A. also did manage to be sellers in some regard as they had enough starting pitching depth to trade Dustin May in exchange for prospects in Tibbs and Ehrhard.

Andrew Friedman wants ideal Dodgers trade deadline

Coming off another World Series win, the Dodgers aggressively filled their roster needs in free agency. This time it was by signing Edwin Díaz and Kyle Tucker.

After Tucker was formally introduced at Dodger Stadium, Friedman reiterated his preference for the trade deadline.

“We talked about this last year around this time, but our goal is to do everything we can to put ourselves in position to not be on the buy side in July,” he said. “In fact, if we can have enough depth where we can even trade some, that would be ideal.

“But that rarely comes together. So yeah, there’s some things, but I think in terms of more seismic changes, I think we’re pretty well set.”

Time will ultimately tell if Friedman gets his wish at the trade deadline, which MLB has set for 3 p.m. PT on Aug. 3.

Recommended articles