Clint Lamb
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First, Max Scherzer was going to the San Diego Padres. That was the tweet originally sent out by Ken Rosenthal with The Athletic earlier on Thursday. Unfortunately for Padres fans, that ended up not being the case.
Instead, the star pitcher and his teammate, shortstop Trea Turner, are both heading to the Los Angeles Dodgers in what Jeff Passan with ESPN is describing as “the blockbuster of blockbusters.” That news first broke on Thursday evening and was confirmed soon after.
BREAKING: The Dodgers are finalizing a deal to acquire star right-hander Max Scherzer and star shortstop Trea Turner from the Washington Nationals for a massive prospect haul, sources tell ESPN. The blockbuster of blockbusters is going to happen.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 30, 2021
According to ESPN, the Dodgers are sending the Nationals a slew of prospects in the dealing. That includes right-handed pitcher Josiah Gray, catcher Keibert Ruiz, right-handed pitcher Gerardo Carrillo and outfielder Donovan Casey.
Gray and Ruiz are both listed as top-50 prospects on MLB.com.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers are getting a three-time Cy Young Award winner and an All-Star shortstop. So far this season, Scherzer has a 2.76 ERA to go along with his 8-4 record in 19 starts.
He had a say in where he ultimately landed due to his 10-and-5 rights, but he obviously felt comfortable packing up and heading across the country from the East Coast to the West Coast. He is currently in the final year of his contract, however.
Turner, who recently tested positive for COVID-19, has been fantastic once again this season. He’s currently hitting .322 with 66 runs, 18 home runs, 49 RBIs and 21 stolen bases. We’ve seen the 28-year-old flirt with 20-40 multiple times throughout his career.
How do the Dodgers keep doing it? Braves fans and several others want to know.
Follow Clint Lamb on Twitter @ClintRLamb.
Scherzer, Turner, Schwarber, Hudson and Hand gone. The reset button has been activated. I hope it doesn’t take 10 years to rebuild. Good luck to all of those guys.
The Dodgers are beyond ridiculous at this point. If all healthy at the same time, might be the best on-paper team of all time.
How can one team have so many prospects to deal and never seem to run out?! LA has a corner on the talent market top to bottom it seems. I’d be handing their scouting director and minor league development director a blank check to come to my org.
When new ownership(Guggenheim Partners) took over in 2012 one of the immediate priorities was to beef up international scouting. It produced Julio Urias, among others, and two of the four(Ruiz and Carrillo) prospects sent out in the deal.
Before they were able to beef up the minor league system they traded for Hanley Ramirez, and his contract, in one deal and Adrian Gonzales(and others) in another, but had to take on Carl Crawford’s contract in the process. So early on they simply used their financial might to be viable immediately, they’ve won their division every season since 2013.
Go Blue!