Logan Forsythe? Upon further review, another smart Dodger move

Upon first hearing about the done deal between the Dodgers and Rays today, I was a little underwhelmed. Logan Forsythe, my limited knowledge told me, is a good player who isn’t a star, but is probably an above average second baseman — something the Dodgers didn’t have most of last season.

@DustinNosler @JaredJMassey really though nothing not to like about this totally reasonable if slightly underwhelming trade right?

— Owen (@owenmain) January 24, 2017

Some of Dodger twitter had similar reactions.

Logan Forsythe: Better than what the Dodgers had before. By Keith Allison on Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons

Can I just stop for a minute and say thank you to Dodger Twitter. I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll restate my love for Dodger Twitter in this way — if there wasn’t such a good Dodger fan/commentator community (and larger sports fan global community) on Twitter, I would say that the medium is complete garbage.

Instead, there are fans that do exist and, while many of them have been understandably less baseball-centric over the past few months, it’s so awesome to think that in a matter of weeks, we’ll have baseball things to read about again. Hooray baseball!

OK, my love of Dodger Twitter aside, here are a few good/relevant tweets on the trade today:

Dozier 15-16: .818 OPS / 117 wRC+
Forsythe 15-16: .791 OPS / 119 wRC+

OPS counts OBP/SLG equally. wRC+ values OBP higher. (+is park adj)

— Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) January 24, 2017

Mike Petriello is the man. Seriously, the former MSTI blogger turned MLB advanced stats gatekeeper always has the most well-informed and logical takes about the team and stays pretty positive too.

This is a pretty rosy view of the difference between the two players. The Dodgers definitely took their single biggest lineup weakness and made it a relative strength today. Some fans won’t be happy, but those people probably aren’t happy with anything. This move made sense already to me and Petriello’s tweet made me happier about it.

Surprised by how attached fans are to JDL

— Mister Doctor (@EephusBlue) January 24, 2017

Me too, though I understand it given how high on prospects positive fans have had to be in order to justify not trading for or signing certain stars in recent years. I’ve talked about 2018 as a target year for a while, but you’ve got to build up to it and the front office is starting to move that direction now. Sorry prospect huggers, the Dodgers are starting to slowly, deliberately, cash in their chips in ways that make sense for winning sooner and sooner.

Dodgers hoard prospects: "Oh god, why won't they build to win now"
Dodgers trade prospects: "Oh god, Delino for Pedro round two"

— Daniel Brim (@DanielBrim) January 24, 2017

Like I said, you’re kind of damned either way, but this move made total sense.

Jose DeLeon is really well-regarded among scouts and prospect watchers. Internally, Dodgers think Urias, Alvarez and Buehler are better.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 24, 2017

So why wouldn’t you do the deal?

Glad the Dodgers found their second baseman but I'm really gonna miss JDL. Hope he has a long and successful career.

— Jared Massey (@JaredJMassey) January 24, 2017

And I’ll end by echoing Jared’s thoughts. Good job Dodgers. Good job Dodger Twitter. Thanks allowing me to open up Twitter and not have to think about… other things… .