I don’t know. But Bernardo Fallas and Zachary Levine of the Houston Chronicle handicap the field today. Included in their analysis: the Dodgers, Mets, Yankees, Braves, Reds, Nationals, White Sox, and Phillies.
As the writers note, there are issues with all of those, including the willingness to spend money (Dodgers, Phillies), the fact that they aren’t a real contender and thus Oswalt may reject the notion (Mets, Reds, Nationals, Chisox) or the fact that they don’t really have room in the rotation. The writers include the Braves in that last group, though I don’t think it’s safe to say that Kenshin Kawakami is going to keep Roy Oswalt out of the Braves starting five if he were to come over. For Atlanta, the issue is more likely payroll.
Though it’s not at all clear to me that Oswalt — a county boy, we are constantly reminded — wants to play in Los Angeles, the Dodgers make the most sense to me from a baseball perspective. And heck, it’s not like Houston is a small town anyway. They seem to have less of an excuse than any of the other contenders to not at least try for Oswalt given both their needs and their means, whether or not they’re willing to fulfill them and use them, respectively.
I think the most important thing in all of this is that it’s really, really early in this process. Trades of this magnitude just don’t come together overnight. Most of the time they sort of linger until the deadline, which is still two months away. In that time we’ll get a stronger sense of who’s a legitimate contender and who is not and the market will mature.
But really, the Dodgers should totally make a play for the guy.
