Is it me, or have the Dodgers made a lot of trades with the Red Sox lately?
Turns out, it’s just me. The Dodgers have made seven trades with the Sox within the last decade, per ESPN, but they’ve made the same number of trades with the Tampa Bay Rays in the last five seasons, according to this cool graphic from The Athletic. Maybe the list of names that have gone back and forth from Boston to L.A. and back is just particularly noteworthy. In the last 10 years, we’ve seen the following switch coasts
at least once:
- Mookie Betts
- Joe Kelly
- Kiké Hernández
- Walker Buehler
- Dustin May
These five alone represent some big names in the Dodgers organization—and they don’t include Adrián González, who joined the Dodgers from Boston in 2012 and brought serious expertise to both the field and the clubhouse.
So, what makes a successful pair of trading partners? Frequent activity helps. The Red Sox are among the busiest traders in the past five years, with 53 transactions total; they’re bound to buddy up with the same teams again and again. Tampa Bay, with 76 total in the same time period, made at least six trades with the same four teams (the Brewers, Marlins, Cubs, and Dodgers).
Familiarity among front offices is another huge factor. “If you have good relationships, you can say something, you can ask something, and the other person isn’t going to be off-put by the inquiry,” Seattle Mariners president Jerry Dipoto said to The Athletic.
No wonder L.A. and Tampa get along: Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman spent years in the Rays’ front office before joining the Dodgers, so it stands to reason that he still has friends back east.
And what happens when you don’t get along so well? The Dodgers have made 0 trades with the Astros in the last five years and just one with the Padres. Even though trading within a division is less common in general, particularly within the NL West, the Dodgers haven’t made a deal with the Giants since 2007. Make of that what you will.
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