We've still got over 48 hours until the MLB trade deadline hits, but moves are being made.
The Philadelphia Phillies have already shored up their outfield and their bullpen. The San Diego Padres have acquired an upper tier reliever with an eye now on starting pitching. Arizona, Milwaukee, and the New York Mets have all added players for the stretch run. And that's just in the National League.
But the National League is where our focus should be in the present, given the Los Angeles Dodgers' standing as a member. While those teams either aren't a direct competitor or stand no chance of catching up in the NL West, there's a chance they'll see Dodger Blue on the other side once October hits. As such, we could go as far as saying that it's the Dodgers as a primary reason behind such notable activity this far ahead of the deadline.
The Dodgers spent the winter acquiring seemingly everyone available. Shohei Ohtani. Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Tyler Glasnow. Teoscar Hernández. Injuries haven't derailed their standing atop the NL West given their strong core group. But they've been a factor and will be one in whatever moves the team makes pre-July 30th.
So with apparently endless resources, their NL counterparts are likely wanting to jump the line ahead of the Dodgers. At the very least, they're probably doing so subconsciously.
At the same time, we should also be maintaining a keen eye on squads that are a part of the Senior Circuit. While the earliest the likes of Baltimore or the Yankees would see the Dodgers is the World Series, they're also in the market for some of the same players or skill sets.
We are still aware of a handful of names available ahead of the deadline. Detroit starter Jack Flaherty. Washington reliever Kyle Finnegan. Infields aplenty including Isaac Paredes, Nico Hoerner, and Luis Rengifo. To say nothing of the names we haven't heard about. And while those names have been linked as potential targets for the Dodgers, it's not as if they're the only team competing for the respective services of those players.
With that in mind, it's hard not to attribute at least some of this early activity to a desire to get out ahead of the currently-sleeping-giant out of L.A. The knowledge that the Dodgers could likely make a move whenever they want looms over the NL teams they could face in the postseason or the AL squads which are competing for the same types of players.