Dodgers reveal blockbuster trade pursuit of rival $340 million MVP candidate
The Los Angeles Dodgers are just three wins away from the World Series.
After persisting as baseball?s best team all year, they are tied with the New York Mets in the ongoing National League Championship Series. And with three former Most Valuable Player Award winners leading their batting order in Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts, they?ve got to like their chances to advance.
But the Mets have their own star players standing in the way, including 2024 National League MVP candidate Francisco Lindor.
As the star-studded pennant series endures, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman has revealed that his team pursued a trade for Lindor in the 2019 offseason that would have kept him from ever joining the Mets and dramatically transformed the baseball landscape.
?We engaged quite a bit,? Friedman said of negotiations between the Dodgers and Lindor?s team at the time, the Cleveland Guardians, per Andy McCullough of The Athletic. ?Had some traction here and there. I wouldn?t say it was anything that was close. But he was definitely on our target list of guys.?
Ultimately, the Dodgers acquired Betts from the Red Sox instead and the Mets landed Lindor in 2021. Lindor went on to sign a 10-year, $341 extension with the Mets and now has his team in a strong position to win the National League pennant.
But it?s hard not to imagine what might have been. A lineup consisting of Freeman, Ohtani and Lindor would look vastly different than the one that includes Betts, who is primarily an outfielder. And, had the Mets failed to land their franchise star from Cleveland, they might have gone in any number of alternative directions.
Ultimately, though, none of the teams or players involved have reason to regret the way things played out.
?The actual outcome cannot be quibbled with by any of the involved parties,? McCullough added. ?Betts, a perennial All-Star, led the Dodgers to a title in 2020. The Mets acquired Lindor that winter and made him the face of the franchise. The package sent to the Cleveland Guardians included second baseman Andr?s Gim?nez, who has won two Gold Gloves and plays every day for the American League Central champions. All three clubs remain alive in the postseason.?
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