Dodgers avoid sweep against Astros, then continue to wait for trade-deadline action

HOUSTON —  Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Sunday there are many “paths” the team could take leading to Tuesday’s trade deadline.

When asked where the club could still upgrade its roster, Roberts listed many options.

“Whether it’s starting pitching, relief pitching, infield, outfield help,” he said, “what you do is assess all the organizations in baseball and opportunities to get better. I don’t think anyone can specifically say what it’s going to be. We’re just looking to get better.”

But when the team crossed the 48-hour threshold for the deadline on Sunday afternoon, the Dodgers had yet to make a major trade. They’d yet to land an impact addition. And, even after avoiding a weekend sweep with a 6-2 win over the Houston Astros on Sunday, they remained mired with an 11-11 record this month, playing well below their World Series standards.

For many Dodgers fans, the frustrations of the team’s on-field play recently — when they’ve been without Freddie Freeman (family emergency list), Mookie Betts (broken hand), Max Muncy (oblique strain), Yoshinobu Yamamoto (shoulder) and others — have been dwarfed by concerns regarding the club’s deadline plans.

The team already has missed out on one deadline target in Randy Arozarena. While the Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays had discussed an Arozarena deal since early this month, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation who weren’t authorized to speak publicly, the Seattle Mariners ultimately outbid all other parties for the 29-year-old outfielder.

Other contenders, meanwhile, have already struck notable improvements. The Philadelphia Phillies acquired former All-Star outfielder Austin Hays and former All-Star closer Carlos Estévez. The New York Yankees added Miami Marlins star Jazz Chisholm Jr. Even the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres — who have moved to within 6 1/2 games of the Dodgers in the NL West — have bolstered their bullpens.

The Dodgers, on the other hand, continue to wait.

“There’s already been a lot of players that have moved, so I think there’s less paths than there were a couple days ago,” Roberts said. “But I think it can go a lot of ways still.”

One complicating factor for the Dodgers is their murky injury situation.

Even without a major deadline addition, the makeup of their roster could drastically change in the next couple of weeks as injured players return.

Six weeks since breaking his hand, Betts has resumed hitting drills and is likely to return at some point next month. Walker Buehler and Bobby Miller both made starts with triple-A Oklahoma City this week, though neither was sharp enough to warrant a return to the big leagues yet. Yamamoto is continuing to progress from his shoulder injury and scheduled to begin throwing bullpen sessions at the end of next week. Relievers Brusdar Graterol, Ryan Brasier and Michael Grove are also on rehabilitation assignments, their final steps before rejoining the Dodgers’ bullpen.

About the only player whose long-term status is a major question is Muncy, whose recovery from an oblique strain has remained “pretty stagnant over the last few weeks,” Roberts said.

While tests haven’t revealed any further issue for Muncy, who has sat out more than two months with what was initially considered to be a minor injury, Roberts said the slugger was still dealing with some “uncomfort” that has prevented him from swinging.

Roberts said he still expected Muncy to return this season but sounded less than confident about what the third baseman might be able to provide after being sidelined for so long.

“To get back, to get at-bats, to then be able to feel that he has the confidence, that we have the confidence to go into the postseason ready — I mean, the calendar is getting shorter,” Roberts said. “I don’t know that answer. But that’s one of those things where you’ve got to make bets internally on what’s best for the ballclub for 2024.”

That’s why, two days from the deadline, the Dodgers’ range of options seemed as wide as ever, according to conversations with multiple people with knowledge of their deadline plans.

The team remains interested in Garrett Crochet, apparently undeterred in their pursuit of the Chicago White Sox left-hander after reports this week that he’d desire a contract extension from any team that acquired him.

Jack Flaherty of the Detroit Tigers is another player on the Dodgers’ radar, and perhaps the only other starting pitcher the team would make an aggressive play for (assuming, as many industry observers believe, the Tigers don’t move their best pitcher, Cy Young front-runner Tarik Skubal, and the San Francisco Giants don’t entertain sending a two-time Cy Young winner, Blake Snell, to a division rival).

On the reliever market, Miami Marlins closer Tanner Scott is also an option for the Dodgers, though the bidding could be steep for the left-hander, even in the last year of his contract.

Offensively, the club could go a number of directions. White Sox outfielders Luis Robert Jr. and Tommy Pham are fits (Robert as the bigger-name, higher-priced target). Controllable infielders such as Luis Rengifo of the Angels, Nico Hoerner of the Chicago Cubs and Tommy Edman of the St. Louis Cardinals have been linked to the team in recent days, though they all seem like long-shot targets at this point.

Other names could emerge in the coming days.

To this point, the Dodgers’ apparent reluctance to thus far pay somewhat inflated prices, in what has decidedly been a seller’s market, has left some around the sport wondering whether they will make a big splash at all — or instead put trust in their internal depth and opt for smaller moves around the margins of the roster.

“There’s a threading of the needle on who you’re going to bet on, as far as performance versus health, [among the] guys coming back,” Roberts said. “I still believe we need something. I just don’t know where, what it is or who it is.”