LOS ANGELES -- Sometimes it does not pay to be distracted by the glitz and the glamour. Sometimes the most expensive car is not the best mode of transportation to the office.
So while the Minnesota Twins' Brian Dozier and the Detroit Tigers' Ian Kinsler had more star value, the Los Angeles Dodgers opted for Logan Forsythe as their new second baseman, and the hard-working, consistent acquisition could end up being a better fit with his new team.
The Dodgers struck a deal with the Rays on Tuesday, sending pitching prospect Jose De Leon to Tampa Bay.
It is not like the Dodgers are taking a huge flier on what kind of player and teammate Forsythe might be. Manager Dave Roberts knows Forsythe from when both were in the San Diego Padres’ organization. Dodgers senior vice president Josh Byrnes knows Forsythe well since San Diego also is on his résumé. Forsythe was a former first-round draft pick (46th overall) by the Padres in 2008.
But the biggest seal of approval has come from president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, who not only completed the deal for Forsythe on Monday, he also traded for the infielder before the 2014 season when he ran the show in Tampa Bay.
“I just think you do as much digging as you can on a guy you are looking to acquire,” Friedman said. “But it never replaces actually being around a guy just in terms of how he prepares, what type of competitor he is, how he will fit in with the context of your group. And so, a number of us having experience with him gives us that much more comfort in terms of that fit.”
Friedman must have been getting that Forsythe itch. While with Tampa Bay, he acquired the versatile fielder on Jan. 22, 2014. Forsythe’s official trade date to the Dodgers will go down as Jan. 23, 2017.
In that one season that Friedman and Forsythe were together in Tampa, it was not as if Forsythe was an offensive machine. He batted .223 with a .287 on-base percentage, well below his career averages. What Friedman did see was Forsythe’s work ethic. Then, over the past two seasons, Friedman saw from afar as Forsythe validated his original trade hunch.
In 2015, Forsythe posted a career-best .359 on-base percentage. It convinced the Rays to move him to the leadoff spot, where he delivered a .333 on-base percentage and 20 home runs last season.
“We feel that he will fit in incredibly well with the fabric of our group off the field, and on the field we feel he is a great fit as far as the type of baseball player he is,” Friedman said. “He is a grinder, professional hitter, can really handle left-handed pitching as well as right and has some versatility. He is a good baserunner and we felt like he is the type of player that we needed to be aggressive and go out and add to our current group.”
No, Forsythe does not have a season to his credit like Dozier did last year, when he popped 42 home runs with 99 RBIs while playing most of his games at spacious Target Field. He does not have the four All-Star appearances and the Gold Glove that Kinsler can boast.
But Forsythe does check plenty of the boxes. Second base: check. Leadoff capabilities: check. Versatility: check. Solid clubhouse presence: check. Hard worker: check.
And most of all, he can deliver against left-handed pitching. The right-handed batter is a .278 career hitter against lefties with a .343 OPB. Those numbers are both well above his career averages of .255 and .326.
“We are all extremely optimistic that he will fit in really well in our group,” Friedman said. “He complements our existing players really well and will be a very additive part of us trying to accomplish our obvious goal for 2017.”
If anybody would know of the fit, it would be Friedman. It does bring into question, though, why Dozier appeared to be the Dodgers’ bigger priority.
Perhaps some of the reason is that Dozier is owed $15 million over the next two seasons. Forsythe could end up collecting $16.75 million over the next two seasons if he achieves $2.5 million in bonuses that would escalate the 2018 pay on his club option.
But the biggest reason Forsythe is a member of the Dodgers today, instead of Dozier, is that the Rays were satisfied only with De Leon in the exchange. The Twins wanted De Leon and more, perhaps feeling like Dozier could land the type of impact return the Chicago White Sox got when they traded another productive and scrappy player in Adam Eaton.
The Dodgers liked Dozier, just not that much, apparently.
“I think if you go back to the beginning of our offseason, obviously retaining the free agents that we did in Rich [Hill], Kenley [Jansen] and Justin [Turner], kind of embolden us and put us in position to kind of do something like this,” Friedman said. “Re-signing Rich put us in a place where we had some depth of major-league-ready pitching.
“So, obviously, we’ve had a lot of different conversations with a number of different teams and to help really balance out our position player group, we felt the last real lever to do that was a real strong right-handed hitting second baseman.”
In De Leon, the Dodgers are losing what could be a solid pitcher with a long career ahead of him. But the Dodgers’ need was pressing enough to part with a highly regarded prospect, and one who might have thrived while pitching with his good friend Julio Urias
But the Dodgers were dealing from a strength. They still have strong, young starting pitchers in Urias, Ross Stripling and Brock Stewart, all of whom got a chance last year to see what life in the big leagues was like. Further down the road are guys like Walker Buehler and Yadier Alvarez.
“From our standpoint, from where we’re at, it is something that put us in a position to be able to do,” Friedman said. “We feel like we have a tremendous amount on the prospect side, as well as the pitching side of that. And it allows us to use that to address what we felt was our most acute need.”