Dodgers notes: Justin Verlander, Nolan Arenado, MLB trade deadline

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers have made three trades, adding four players in four days. But even after Friday’s deal that brought Lance Lynn and reliever Joe Kelly to Los Angeles, the Dodgers aren’t necessarily done doing business before Tuesday’s 3 p.m. PT trade deadline.

“I think there’s always a chance. There’s still time on the clock,” manager Dave Roberts said Friday. “I think we’ve raised the floor, and raised the ceiling. But until the clock runs out, we’re still trying to find ways to get better.”

One of those ways to get better is to try to add more starting pitching. Per Jack Harris and Jorge Castillo at the Los Angeles Times, the club remains in pursuit of pitching, preferably a high-end starter.

“Of all the remaining starting pitchers who could possibly be moved before the deadline, no one checks more boxes than [Justin] Verlander, the three-time Cy Young Award winner in his first season with the New York Mets,” Harris and Castillo wrote, among other pitchers the Dodgers are exploring.

The Dodgers trading for both Kiké Hernández and Amed Rosario was about restoring some balance on the position-player site of the roster, improving against left-handed pitching while at a relatively minimal cost, writes Craig Goldstein at Baseball Prospectus: “For their part, Hernández and Rosario are likely roster upgrades the moment they arrive, and each has the potential to improve.”

More smoke to the Nolan Arenado fire came in the form of Katie Woo at The Athletic reporting that the Cardinals and Dodgers have in fact discussed a potential trade for the star third baseman, confirming Thursday’s LA Times report, though Woo noted that such a trade is unlikely.

Also in Woo’s article was postgame reaction from Arenado, who told reporters he has not yet been asked by the team about his no-trade clause:

“I would assume the Cardinals are doing their due diligence to figure out how to make this organization better,” Arenado said. “I don’t really have much to say about it. I haven’t heard anything yet. So I’m just sitting here, going out and competing and that’s about it.

“Whatever happens, happens. It’s hard for me to sit here and speak on some of these things. I think the Cardinals, those guys are smart up there and I think they’re looking at every way to make this team better.”

Zach Buchanan at the New York Times wrote about the lost art of purposely fouling balls off, to spoil pitches, if you will. Said Wilmer Flores of the Giants, who has scrapped that contact-heavy approach at the plate, “It doesn’t get you paid anywhere now.”

On the Angels not only keeping Shohei Ohtani, but aggressively adding a starter (Lucas Giolito) and reliever (Reynaldo Lopez) in a deal with the White Sox, Marc Normandin at his newsletter wrote, “Going for it now makes sense. There is no real later for an organization on the cusp of losing literally Shohei Ohtani.”