Starting pitching is known to be a Dodgers priority heading into next weeks trade deadline, and general manager didnt shy away from that in speaking with the Dodgers beat last night. Gomes and manager Dave Roberts publicly discu sed the difficult decision to designate for a signment but acknowledged that with the slate of arms they have returning from the injured list (to say nothing of a potential trade acquisition), now would be the best time to see if theres interest in Paxton before the deadline ( ). The Dodgers hope to trade Paxton, Ardaya reports, pointing out that a new team would Cayden Primeau Jersey only owe the lefty the prorated portion of his $4MM base salary; Paxtons $3MM signing bonus, $2MM roster bonus and full slate of incentives have already been paid out. On the teams search for additional rotation help, Gomes made clear that the Dodgers arent prioritizing marginal upgrades or back-end innings eaters to help patch things over for the rest of the regular season. Targeting starting pitching, but its going to be an impact-type arm, Gomes said of his clubs approach to the trade deadline. Thats a tall order, of course. The starting pitching market is generally thin. White Sox ace and Tigers righty are the two most impactfulnames expected to be widely available. High-profile targets like Detroits and, to a , the Cubs have at least been the subject of some speculation, but neither is expected to be traded by next Tuesday. As a rotation-hungry club with a deep stock of controllable young talent and high-end prospects, the Dodgers could put together a compelling offer to test the Tigers conviction on Skubal, but any such deal is a long shot and would face steep competition from the Orioles and other similarly positioned contenders. [Related: ] that Crochet sits atop the Dodgers deadline wish list. Given the lack of impact arms who can be controlled beyond the current season, thats hardly a surprising development. Any team that acquires Crochet will have some trepidation about his workload the leftys 107 1/3 innings this year exceed his combined career total since being drafted in 2020 but theres no denying his dominance. The former No. 11 overall pick sports a 3.02 ERA (2.35 FIP, 2.45 SIERA). His 35.2% strikeout rate is tops among the 164 pitchers whove to sed at least 50 innings this season. His 5.4% walk rate ranks 23rd among that same sub-set. As evidenced by the Paxton DFA, the L.A. rotation is in a state of flux. The Dodgers are welcoming and back from the injured list this week. Top prospect made his MLB debut yesterday and to sed 5 1/3 shutout frames. is on the injured list until at least mid-August but is still expected to pitch again this season. Theres hope that recently optioned can return to form and that former top starter can come back from the injured list and still contribute late in the season. Other young, le s-proven options for the Dodgers include , and . Stone, in particular, has emerged as a key arm with 18 starts of 3.19 ERA ball. If everyones healthy, the Dodgers arguably already have a formidable playoff staff but thats a sizable if. Crochet would add more of a question mark to the bunch than a definitive ace, given his workload questions, but its also po sible the Dodgers could utilize him as a multi-inning reliever late in the season or even get him some closing work. Thats speculative, to be clear, but manager Dave Roberts stopped short last night of referring to team saves leader as his closer, Jack Harris of the L.A. Times . Phillips has hit a rough stretch recently, yielding nine runs in his past 7 1/3 innings. A pitcher like Crochet could be an impact arm in either a starting or relief role. He likely holds extra appeal to the Dodgers, given not only his two extra seasons of club control but his bottom-of-the-barrel $800K salary. RosterResource projects that the Dodgers already have $326MM worth of luxury obligations, placing them in the top tier of penalization. As a team paying the tax for a third consecutive season, theyre subject to a 110% overage fee on any new players acquired. Crochet will have about $258K of his salary yet to be paid out come deadline day; hed only cost the Dodgers (or another maximum-penalty CBT team) about $542K in additional salary. Doug Harvey Jersey