Dodgers Predicted to Trade For an 'Impact Bat' to Replace Michael Conforto
The Los Angeles Dodgers have one of the best offenses in baseball. Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, and Will Smith have the Dodgers second in baseball in team OPS at .776.
But, even with a strong offense, Fabian Ardaya in The Athletic's "Bold Predictions" article had the Dodgers' trade deadline plans revolving around finding more offense. He predicts that "The biggest deadline acquisition will be a bat."
"They have three former MVPs and the current leader in the NL batting race." Ardaya wrote. "They have a bigger priority in the bullpen that they'll need to address. But one way to mitigate all the questions about the Dodgers' pitching staff is to create a lineup with no holes."
The Dodgers offense is already strong, and the pitching staff is full of question marks, and yet, Ardaya predicts that the Dodgers will go after an offensive upgrade. And there's one clear way to upgrade the offense: replace Michael Conforto.
"The Dodgers clearly saw that in adding Michael Conforto this winter," Ardaya writes, "But that hasn't worked out - he has a .620 OPS. If they can find a way to add an impact bat, they can move around the pieces to make everything else work."
Other than Conforto's .620 OPS this season, he has -0.6 WAR, and is batting just .184 on the year. His 76 OPS+ is by far the worst in his career, nearly 20 percent worse than his previous career low of 95 OPS+ in 2016.
Adding a replacement for Conforto would go a long way. If they find a new left fielder, the Dodgers' lineup would be, from top to bottom, one of the most dangerous in the league.
While pitching is still a need, and Ardaya isn't shutting down the possibility of adding bullpen help especially, the biggest addition according to his prediction will be a bat. And the most obvious player to replace is Conforto in left field.
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 18, 2025, where it first appeared.
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