:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/photo_images/3205715/117886188.jpg)
This morning General Manager Ned Colletti found his Los Angeles Dodgers trailing the NL West leaders by 13 games. Conventional wisdom would dictate that the team should be a potential seller at the the upcoming trade deadline, and certainly not be a buyer.
As the the month of July wanes, let's take a look back at the midsummer maneuvers made by the Dodgers during Colletti's tenure at the helm. (For the purposes of this article, I considered any trade made on July 25 through July 31 to be a July deadline deal.)
| Year | GB* | Date | Acquired | Traded Away |
| 2006 | 5.5 | 7/25 | Elmer Dessens (P) | Odalis Perez (P), Blake Johnson (P), Julio Pimentel (P), cash |
| 7.5 | 7/28 | Wilson Betemit (3B) | Danys Baez (P), Willy Aybar (3B), cash | |
| 5.5 | 7/31 | Greg Maddux (P) | Cesar Izturis (SS) | |
| Julio Lugo (SS) | Joel Guzman (IF/OF), Sergio Pedroza (OF) | |||
| 2007 | 0.0 | 7/31 | Scott Proctor (P) | Wilson Betemit (3B) |
| 2008 | 1.0 | 7/26 | Casey Blake (3B), cash | Carlos Santana (C), Jonathan Meloan (P) |
| 1.0 | 7/31 | Manny Ramirez (OF), cash | Andy LaRoche (3B), Bryan Morris (P) | |
| 2009 | up 7.0 | 7/30 | George Sherrill (P) | Josh Bell (3B), Steve Johnson (P) |
| up 7.0 | 7/31 | Vinny Rottino (C) | Claudio Vargas (P) | |
| 2010 | 6.0 | 7/29 | Scott Podsednik (OF) | Lucas May (C), Elisaul Pimentel (P) |
| 7.0 | 7/31 | Octavio Dotel (P) | James McDonald (P), Andrew Lambo (OF) | |
| Ted Lilly (P), Ryan Theriot (IF), cash | Blake DeWitt (P), Brett Wallach (OF), Kyle Smit (P) | |||
| * GB = Games Behind the NL Western Division leader before games played on that date | ||||
Clearly Colletti considered himself a buyer at each July deadline during his reign. While many believed being a buyer last season was foolish, the Dodger GM would probably point to his first year and say, "In 2006 we trailed by a similar deficit and we made the playoffs." Watching him operate as a potential seller is a new July experience for the Dodger faithful who read the agate type the wire Twitter anxiously while awaiting word of player movement.
Because Colletti is operating under conditions that are new to him, it is hard to make predictions based on his track record about the moves he might make. Nonetheless, it may be useful to see review his past actions and to see all his deadline deals collected together.
Some other notes:
- Colletti nabbed a relief pitcher at every July deadline except in 2007.
- Most acquisitions were more "role" type players, with 2008 standing out as not being like the others.
- Money left the Dodgers in 2006 and 2010, but came to the Dodgers in 2008 (Manny had a big contract, but let's not talk about the cash in the Blake deal, shall we?).
- Colletti collected exactly one minor-leaguer in these deals, a non-prospect (Rottino) for a pitcher he was likely going to DFA otherwise (Vargas).
- Julio Lugo became a Type A free agent in the 2006 off-season and signed with the Red Sox. The compensation draft picks the Dodgers received became Chris Withrow (#20 overall with Boston's #1 pick) and James Adkins (supplemental round). The Dodgers gave up their own #1 pick to sign Jason Schmidt.
- The Dodgers dealt away
fourteenseventeen minor-leaguers in these trades andsixseven major-leaguers, acquiringtentwelve MLB players and the aforementioned one minor-leaguer. - Wilson Betemit was the only player on both sides of the ledger.
(Sources: mlb.com, baseball-reference.com)