Dodgers say `c'est la vie' to former trade target
LOS ANGELES » The only signs of what could have been came with the faintest smattering of boos, a few early birds at Dodger Stadium expressing displeasure as Eduardo Rodriguez took the mound on Monday night.
Surely, when Detroit Tigers starter Rodriguez invoked his no-trade clause to axe a trade-deadline deal that would've been a godsend for the Dodgers' rotation, there was no intent on offending anyone, Tigers manager AJ Hinch told the Southern California News Group on Monday. It was about his family, Hinch said. But there was certainly surprise from the other side, as Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told media, “that he didn't waive his no-trade to come here to play for a team that's contending.”
And, oh, the what-ifs. On paper, the lefty Rodriguez would've been a hand-in-glove fit with a Dodgers rotation limping to the regular-season finish line — in the midst of a career-year, former teammates with Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez, carrying World Series-winning experience.
Except Rodriguez never responded to Martinez's texts. And Roberts plays no what-ifs.
“I think if a guy doesn't want to be here for whatever reason,” Roberts said Monday, than “c'est la vie.”
An idiom used often, in English, to signal resignation and thus farewell. And on Monday night, Martinez bid an emphatic farewell to ghosted texts and shattered rotation dreams, blasting two homers and driving in five runs in an 8-3 Dodgers win.
The guy the Dodgers did get at the deadline wasn't too shabby on Monday night. After an eyesore of a 2023 start with the White Sox, right-hander Lance Lynn has been better since a late-July trade to L.A., but not overwhelmingly: posting a 4.60 ERA in eight starts and surrendering 13 homers as a Dodger entering Monday's tilt.
His place in Roberts' postseason rotation, theoretically, should be set. But Lynn's had mechanical tweaks to make from his previous couple of starts, Roberts said Monday, and the manager said the Dodgers needed to see “a little bit more out of the gate” in Lynn's starts.
“He's built to go deep into games,” Roberts said. “That's how he's wired. But I think having the mindset of, going as hard as you can for as long as you can, is what I'm looking for for the next two starts.”
Lynn's line showed enough — five innings, six hits, six strikeouts, three runs allowed — that he could reasonably take the ball in a mid-series October game. And it was enough, on this night, behind Martinez.