Was It All Worth It for the Dodgers?

The Phillies are the National League champions. As Jacob mentioned earlier, this obviously means that the Dodgers are not and that they're facing a pretty good amount of uncertainty this winter with a lot of players, namely Manny Ramirez, Rafael Furcal, and Casey Blake all facing free agency at the end of this season. Without Furcal and Ramirez, the Dodgers don't even win the 84 games that they won in 2008 and there's a good chance they miss the playoffs. That begs and important question: was the spending spree that General Manager Ned Colletti went on at the trade deadline to acquire Ramirez and Blake worth it?

For Blake, the Dodgers traded minor league reliever Jonathon Meloan and minor league catcher Carlos Santana to the Indians. For Ramirez, they traded Andy LaRoche and minor league pitcher Bryan Morris to the Pirates as part of the three-way trade that involved Jason Bay. That's four pretty decent prospects for two months of Ramirez, who was awesome, and two months of Blake, who was not.

I suppose the first question is whether or not just making the playoffs is enough. The Dodgers probably could've given the Diamondbacks, who fell apart down the stretch, a run for their money with someone much less talented than Manny Ramirez. Still, that's a futile line of reasoning. The Dodgers won the division with Manny Ramirez and they beat the Cubs because Casey Blake enabled them to not have to start Angel Berroa or Jeff Kent at second base. Still, four prospects for four months that didn't result in even a pennant?

Of course, a lot of this depends on what happens down the road. Andy LaRoche was an absolute bomb with the Pirates, hitting .152/.227/.232 for an absurdly bad OPS+ of 22. Of the four guys traded away, he was certainly the blue chip. If he never finds his stroke with the Pirates or anyone, it's hard to say Colletti erred by trading him away, even though his team fell short. Of course, if he does find the stroke he showed in the minors, the Dodgers may be awfully sad with Blake DeWitt playing third base.

More of this depends on what happens in free agency. If trading for Manny Ramirez gave the Dodgers an inside track to signing him this winter and he puts up three more big years for them, of course they win the trade. If he signs somewhere else and leaves them in the dust, they won't be nearly as happy about it.

One thing is for certain though -- Colletti's trade deadline activities were both more successful and less destructive then most people (myself certainly included) expected in August. There were rumors that he was thinking of dealing Matt Kemp. He didn't. There were rumors that he was thinking of dealing LaRoche for Jack Wilson. He got Manny Ramirez instead. There was a lot of interest in James McDonald, who he held on to. And Ramirez did help them win the division and beat the Cubs.

The Dodgers may not be the Rays, but they still have a good, young core of talent that was relatively undisturbed by the trade deadline. They have work to do, but not as much as you might think that a team that loses Ramirez and Furcal would have. In the end, a lot of aftermath of the Dodger's moves at the deadline won't be known until down the road, but as we stand right now, it's hard to argue that Collitti did a bad job, even if the Dodgers didn't win the pennant.