Exclusive | Dodgers dominant farm system makes them most dangerous team at MLB trade deadline: Beats the alternative

The Dodgers’ plan, as it always is when the subject of the trade deadline is raised, was simple as their front office mapped out this season.Spend big in the winter.Build as strong of a roster as possible at the outset of the campaign.

And hope that, come the deadline, they wouldn’t be in a position where they have to go out and buy more talent at inflated midseason prices.“Our goal this whole time,” general manager Brandon Gomes told the California Post recently, “was to have made all of our headline acquisitions in the offseason.”So far, so good on that objective.Three months in, the Dodgers have the most wins in the majors.Even with several star players sidelined with injuries, they have built a nine-game lead in the National League West that — given the reinforcements they’ll have coming off the injured list in the coming weeks and months — already feels close to insurmountable not even halfway through the year.Still, as is also the case at the deadline every year, the Dodgers will be looking for upgrades as they chase a third-straight World Series.They could be a player for two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal.

They could try to shore up a bullpen that has been up and down since Edwin Díaz underwent an elbow procedure back in April.At the very least, they’ll be lying in wait to see how the market develops.And if the opportunity for a splashy acquisition strikes, they’ll have plenty of ammunition to swing almost any caliber of deal.For all the uncertainties that remain more than a month out from the Aug.3 deadline, the one thing the Dodgers know is that they have is a deep, talented and highly-coveted minor-league farm system.They figured that would be the case entering the year, when their pipeline was once again ranked among the best in the sport, receiving near unanimous top-five rankings from industry outlets.But since then, the performance of their minor-leaguers — and a loaded group of hitters in the outfield, especial...