MLB Insider Drops Surprising Dodgers Free Agency Report...

Bleacher Report just told the Dodgers who replaces Tarek Scouble, and they named Trevor Rogers, 5 years, more than $100 million off a 4.03 ERA last season. And honestly, that's not a bad signing. He's a real starter with real experience, and the team needs innings. But the headline is hiding something. The Dodgers don't have a pitching problem, they have an age problem. Their hitters averaged 30.9 years old this season, the oldest in baseball, The Brewers who swept them out of the NLCS averaged 27.3. So Rodgers helps. The question is whether helping is enough, because a team this old can't sign its way back to young. Now I'll start with why it works. In 2025, Rodgers had a 1.81 ERA, over 109.2 innings. This season, with Baltimore, beat their 169.2 innings, a career high, and struck out 157 hitters. And he finished strong, a 2.86 ERA over his final 17 starts after he added more sweepers. He's a left-hander who finished 2nd in 2021 Rookie of the Year voting, and at 29 years old, he should still be in his prime. Over 7 seasons in the MLB, he has a record of 34-48 with a .388 career ERA across 689.2 innings. And look at who else the Dodgers are linked to. Paul Blackburn is heading into his age 33 season, and Oker is 35. So the youngest arm anyone has connected to this team is Trevor Rodgers. He's 29. That tells you everything you need to know. And if you want breakdowns like this, be sure to subscribe to the channel and give the video a like. Helps get all of the Dodgers fans here so we can grow this community. Now, the first thing to note for Trevor Rodgers is he is not yet a free agent. Baltimore gave him a qualifying offer worth $23.15 million for 2027, and he has until November 17th to decide. Is he going to accept it or decline it? And if he turns it down, the team that signs him loses a draft pick. An analyst, Jim Bowden, had Rodgers at three years and $64 million with Pittsburgh. Kelly's number is a lot higher. So the same pitcher is worth three years and $64 million to one writer, and five years more than $100 million to another. That's really how unsettled this is right now, while we're still waiting for a lot of different names to decide whether they will be free agents or not. And the Dodgers won't be alone on this. The Athletic reports the Cubs have already had early interest in Trevor Rodgers as well. And the pitcher he'd replace pretty much guarantees that would be Tarek Skubal. He's meeting with six teams, including the Dodgers, the Mets, and the Padres. And the Dodgers seem to be getting backup options ready for if they don't end up retaining Tarek Skubal. John Haywin has the Padres ahead of LA, and Bleacher Report has Scooble going to the Mets on 9 years and $387 million. Which means Rodgers might not be plan B for a plan A the Dodgers wanted. He might be what's left when plan A signs elsewhere. And to be fair, you can't blame all of October and the second half of the season on birth certificates. The Dodgers won 100 games, then Milwaukee swept them 4 games to 0. In the NLCS, and LA went 4 for 27 with runners in scoring position. A year earlier, LA had swept the Brewers. Milwaukee won 103 games to LA's 100. The run differentials were very, very close. 214 for the Brewers in the positive, and positive 201 for the Dodgers. Otani hit 192 in the postseason with one home run and three RBIs, and he struck out 10 times. He also hadn't pitched since July 3rd. Freddie Freeman went 1 for 14, Muncie, Edmond, Will Smith and Quique Hernandez combined to go for 11 for 58. And Tucker and Diaz, the two big free agent additions, both had the worst seasons of their careers. CBS's Agassiz has blamed the players first and Dave Roberts second, saying it's hard to win when your best player is diminished. And not all of that is age, but when the veterans slump at the same time, there's nobody young And that's a real cost of an old roster. But a good signing and a good plan are two different things. Rodgers is top 25 starts in a season exactly once. The article itself says he probably won't give you 200 innings. Tarek Skubal is 29. Trevor Rodgers is 29. Swap one for the other and the roster doesn't get a single day younger. And Skubal only got here because LA paid for him. The deadline trade cost two top 100 prospects, Zaire Hope and River Ryan. He was 7-5 with a 2-79 ERA and 16 starts for Detroit. Before that trade, and he'd be gone after a few months. So the Dodgers already spent young talent to rent an ace. Now, the prediction is to spend big money on the next arm. And the bigger hole may be the bullpen. Sports Illustrated lists as LA's main need with Alex Osea, Evan Phillips, Blake Trinan, and Bruce R. Gratterall, all free agents. And while they shop for pitchers, here's what actually ended their season. If we zoom out, baseball reference has Dodgers hitters at 30.9 years old on average, the league average being 27.8, only the Phillies at 30.1 are even over 30. Dodgers territory Katie Wu put it this way, we saw what looks like when you have the oldest position playing core in baseball in October. That's a polite way of saying the Dodgers biggest strength is also their biggest risk. That's about 3 years older than a normal team, and 3.6 years older than the team that just beat them. And next year it gets worse, Freeman will be 37, Muncy will be 36, Betts and Teoscar Hernandez will be 34, Ohtani will be 32, that group averages 33.4 years old alone. Now count the stars under 30. There's one, it's Andy Pajos, who's 26 years old. It's like a championship car with a great engine and a lot of miles on it. It can still win, but it just breaks down when it matters. And the scary part is the Dodgers are pretending they didn't know. Andrew Friedman himself said it. We knew what things were going to look like in 2026-2027. And Freddie Freeman said it in the middle of the NLCS. We do know we're an old team. Then he added, I don't feel old. And I get it, because nobody wants to admit or say that they feel old anyways. But he's 402 hits from 3,000, and he says he wants to play until he's 40. And Andrew Friedman's answer is youth, slowly. He says you can't phase in three guys and expect them to hit the ground running, but he says the wave is coming. And Friedman said, The wave of young players gives him a high degree of confidence about being able to sustain this. So the plan isn't young players, but slowly. And slowly is the problem. Because the core they're waiting to replace isn't going anywhere. Otani is signed through 2033. Mookie Betts through 2032. Yamamoto through 2035. The next season, those three alone count for about $104 million against the tax. And Yamamoto is the only one of those three still in his 20s. So the core can't get younger by subtracting. The only way is adding, and that means the firm. The firm isn't the problem. MLB Pipeline has it number one in August, with six of the top 100 prospects. Even after the Scooble trade, Jose de Paula currently sits at number six in the rankings of 100. But here's the catch. The ones close to the majors are outfielders. The infield prospects are more than a year away. And the prospects may not even stay put. Dodger Blue reports trades are likelier than big free agent splashes this winter because the class is weak. One Dodgers Nation host D-Mac warned, there is a world where after this core, the Dodgers go 30 years without a World Series. His answer is to trade the prospects now. And that's the trap. Trade the prospects to win now, and you're old again in a few years. Keep them, you risk the window. And think about this, Jose DePaulo was 5 years old when Freddie Freeman made his Major League debut. And Trevor Rodgers doesn't decide this either way. At best, he gives you time to decide. So you can see how this goes. Rodgers eats innings in 2027, likely taking some from Shohei Otani. Tapala and the rest show up a year or two later, Tapala likely earlier than the rest of the group, and in between, a 37-year-old first baseman has to carry the lineup. So here's my take. I think still sign Trevor Rodgers. He's a proven left-hander who ended the year last year with a .286 ERA, and over his last 17 starts, it's a good use of money. But don't call it the fix. It's a patch at most. The real fix is hitters, somebody under 30, who can play every day, whether that's Jose de Paula, or a trade, a signing, or something else. And Trevor Rodgers is a good answer to the rotation questions, it's just not the question this team should be asking themselves. And I know the counter, they won 100 games, don't fix what isn't broken, but the team can be great this year, and still be on the clock. So here's my plan if I am Andrew Freeman. I'm signing the arm, I take Trevor Rogers, Maybe another. Give Jose DePaula a real shot in the outfield. Let him be that opportunity to start there every day because we still don't know what's going to happen with Oscar Hernandez. And make every veteran deal from here on is shorter than the last. Because the Brewers didn't beat the Dodgers with a lot of stars. They beat with a lineup that is far younger and just playing good baseball. The Dodgers can be a great team and an old team, but they can't stay both for much longer. And watch for November 17th, the qualifying offer deadline. That's the first domino for Rogers and what LA does next. So tell me in the comments below, who should LA chase, Trevor Rogers or Tarik Skubal, comment R or S down below.