The Los Angeles Dodgers have a problem nearly no other team has to contend with: too many starting pitching options.
When you have Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, and Shohei Ohtani on your team, you’re going to struggle to find innings for other talented arms. There’s a core of young Dodgers pitchers struggling to crack the rotation, while some injury-prone veterans are also on thin ice.
At this point, Tony Gonsolin seems like the odd man out. The 30-year-old righty, once an All-Star in 2022, hasn’t thrown a big-league pitch since 2023, as a back injury in spring training delayed his return from the Tommy John surgery that cost him all of last season.
The Dodgers met the New York Mets in the National League Championship Series last season, and the two teams could easily link up in the playoffs again. But if both teams sense an opportunity to get better by trading with one another, could a deal still be possible?
On Saturday, Cory Leibowitz of Athlon proposed a hypothetical trade that would send Gonsolin to the Mets, floating infielder Brett Baty and right-handed pitcher Tylor Megill as possible return pieces.
“Los Angeles could get some prospects and picks for the future and maybe even another pitcher. The Mets would get a really good pitcher who is going to be back and healthy to help fix their pitching woes,” Leibowitz wrote.
“One name that has been in trade talks a lot is Brett Baty, a 25-year-old third baseman. Pitcher Tylor Megill is another name the Dodgers could possibly want back in return for Gonsolin. Aside from one of those two players, a possibility is a Triple-A guy or two.”
Gonsolin, when healthy, has been almost always excellent. He owns a career 34-11 record and 3.19 ERA across 375 2/3 innings, holding the opposition to a .195 batting average since debuting in 2019.
If the Dodgers are indeed planning to trade Gonsolin, it’s likely the Mets’ trade package would have to be the best by far to consider sending him to New York. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible, but one would have to imagine LA would call around before authorizing the deal.