The Dodgers walked into the second half expecting a quiet trade deadline. Two weeks out from the Aug. 3 cutoff, MLB.com’s July 20 deadline column says that plan is already unraveling — and the reasons are both wearing Dodger blue.
Shohei Ohtani will not make his scheduled pitching start Wednesday in Philadelphia, and MLB.com reports he could miss additional turns on the mound as he manages the left-knee soreness that has lingered for more than a month. Manager Dave Roberts told reporters Ohtani received a lubricating injection over the All-Star break and would test the knee off a mound before returning, and Roberts said he would prefer to build in a rest day after each of Ohtani’s starts even when the schedule doesn’t provide one.
The bigger blow is behind the plate. Roberts said catcher Will Smith, dealing with a neck injury, has been fully shut down from baseball activity for a week before any ramp-up begins. Roberts put mid-August as the earliest realistic return and, per the report, did not rule out the possibility that Smith misses the rest of the season.
Taken together, the two injuries hit the Dodgers where they are thinnest. Ohtani’s uncertain availability leaves the rotation a starter light at the worst possible moment, and losing Smith — one of the game’s premier offensive catchers — turns a position of strength into an open question. MLB.com frames it plainly: Los Angeles may need to be more active than it planned, with sudden needs both in the rotation and at catcher.
That reshapes the market as much as it reshapes the Dodgers. A team that looked like a peripheral shopper now has two credible needs and the deepest pockets in the sport to fill them. With the deadline set for 6 p.m. ET on Aug. 3, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman has roughly two weeks to decide how far to reach.
