Add The California Post on Google Eric Lauer has heard the rumblings.
“Oh, my wife hates it,” the veteran pitcher said Wednesday night, when asked about the seemingly increasing likelihood that the Dodgers could trade him before next Monday’s deadline.
“I love it here. I think I’m thriving here,” he later added. “And I would love to be part of this team.”
All too aware of his situation, however, Lauer knows he might not be over the next couple days.
When the Dodgers acquired the 31-year-old left-hander earlier this year, plucking him off the DFA scrap heap in a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays, they told him early on that his stint might only be temporary; that he was a stopgap for a rotation that had endured a couple key early injuries.
“I was aware of coming over here that it might be like a rental thing,” he said. “There’s some big guys that have injuries that there was just a need. So, see a need, fill a need kind of thing.”
And though Lauer has exceeded all expectations since then –– going 5-0 with a 2.96 ERA in nine Dodgers outings, all of which have also been Dodgers wins –– that need he was filling will soon be invalidated, with Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and (eventually) Shohei Ohtani all expected to rejoin the team’s rotation for the stretch run of the year.
That has meant, for a Dodgers team long inclined to selling excess players at the deadline in hopes of cashing on inflated midseason prices, Lauer has long looked like a potential trade candidate:
Superfluous on the Dodgers’ roster. But capable of perhaps netting them a prospect at the deadline.
The Dodgers have a history of similar deals, having turned James Paxton into one lottery-ticket talent in 2024 (Moises Bolivar, a 19-year-old infielder who had an .839 OPS in the Arizona Complex League this year), and Dustin May into two higher-ranked prospects after being squeezed out of the rotation last summer (James Tibbs III and Zach Ehrhard, both of whom have had impressive seasons in triple-A Oklahoma City).
Still, the fact that Lauer has become the latest such candidate is a testament to the turnaround he has made since coming to Los Angeles, where his ERA has been less than half what it was in a swingman role for the Blue Jays earlier this season.
“He’s been great,” manager Dave Roberts said Wednesday night, after Lauer pitched six shutout innings with only one hit allowed in a 4-2 win over the Mariners. “He was always good against us, with just the makeup, the preparedness. And what he’s done for us as far as giving us length – it seems like every time he pitches, we win.”
Lauer gave credit back to the Dodgers on Wednesday night, saying everything (and everyone) in the organization is “geared towards winning the day and winning the pitch.”
He also noted the renewed confidence he has found in his slider and his changeup of late, which helped him rediscover his career-reviving form from 2025 (when he had a 3.18 ERA with the Blue Jays after returning to MLB from a stint in South Korea).
“The changeup for me has always kind of been like the holy grail of what I need to round out my repertoire and get something going armside,” Lauer said. “So being able to just be confident using that now and mixing that in a lot more has been huge to keep guys off balance.”
Lauer’s departure from the Dodgers is not yet a fait acompli.
It will still be at least several weeks, after all, until the team’s rotation is back at full strength. And even then, Lauer could provide value as a swingman in the bullpen, especially if the Dodgers look to curb the late-season workloads of some of their bigger starting arms.
For now, Lauer said he has not heard anything recently from the front office about his chances of getting traded.
“I don’t think that that’s really something that a player would necessarily even want [to know],” he noted. “You don’t want to play GM too much in your head because then you start getting away from what your job is and how you prepare. Thinking you’re halfway out of the game, you’re halfway out of the clubhouse, that’s just never good for anybody.”
In a perfect world for the Dodgers, however, Lauer would likely not be part of their preferred playoff pitching staff.
While he has unlocked a renewed level of consistency with the team, he still lacks the kind of overpowering stuff usually required in October, averaging a nearly league-worst 91 mph with his fastball and barely five strikeouts-per-nine-innings.
Somewhere else, he might be more valued. For a number of pitching-hungry playoff contenders, he could be a more attainable alternative to rounding out a rotation.
Right now, Lauer isn’t trying to think about that.
“Those decisions are made way above my pay grade,” he said.
Alas, he also understands the reality of his situation, too; acknowledging that, even after one of his best starts with the Dodgers on Wednesday night, he knows that it could very well also be his last.
