The Rangers and Phillies have inquired about Alex Call, putting the Dodgers' righty-swinging outfielder into the middle of deadline traffic on August 1, 2026. Call has not seen a plate appearance in the past five days and has come to the plate only seven times since the All-Star break, a stretch that helps explain why rival clubs are asking now.
Call, 31, is batting.246/.355/.314 this season and is under club control for three more seasons through 2029, with $1.6 million due in his first year of arbitration as a Super Two player. He also has a track record that gives teams a reason to check: a lifetime.243/.343/.364 line in 1,146 big league plate appearances between the Guardians, Nats and Dodgers, and a better split against left-handed pitching this year at.326/.418/.457.
That makes him a useful fit for the teams calling. Texas wants a right-handed outfielder because Evan Carter has had longstanding trouble against southpaws, while Philadelphia is carrying a left-handed-heavy outfield and leaning on Edmundo Sosa, Derek Hill and Bryan De La Cruz as bench options after season-ending injuries to Adolis Garcia and Johan Rojas. The Phillies are also a luxury tax payor in the top tier of penalization, so a controllable, relatively inexpensive bat like Call is the kind of player that can fit if the price is right.
The Dodgers are not acting like sellers, and that is the part that keeps the market from getting simple. They have been listening on veterans who could be squeezed off the eventual playoff roster, and Teoscar Hernandez, Tommy Edman and Enrique Hernandez are healthy again after Enrique Hernandez was reinstated from the IL on Wednesday. In other words, Los Angeles does not need to move Call, but his limited run makes him one of the names other clubs can plausibly pry loose if the Dodgers decide roster fit matters more than keeping every extra bat.
Call was traded from the Nats to the Dodgers at last deadline for minor league righties Eriq Swan and Sean Paul Linan, and that deal now hangs over the next one. The Dodgers are still in the race, but the way they are handling a player with Call's control, salary and usage suggests the open question is not whether he has value. It is whether Los Angeles values him more than the clubs asking about him do.
