place Padres did by acquiring Soto along with Josh Bell, Josh Hader and Brandon Drury.

“I feel good about the team that we have in place and the way that they’ve performed,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “For us, if we have an acute need, you’ll see us be more on tilt. And things where it’s less of an acute need and it’s more about talent and how it fits short term, long term, there’s just a different process that goes into that.

“There’s obviously a lot of different factors that go into it. But I feel good about how aggressive we were in trying to line up on different things and the things that we ultimately did. But again, a lot of that stems from a special dynamic that we have in place, as well as the talent that we have here and the talent returning in the next two to six weeks.”

Friedman was referring to a handful of pitchers expected to return from injuries — Blake Treinen, Dustin May, Walker Buehler, et al.

But watching the Padres — 12 games in the Dodgers’ rear-view mirror — turn themselves into serious playoff threats had to be disappointing to watch from the Dodgers clubhouse.

“Of course — but not necessarily in us not getting him (Soto),” Dodgers infielder Max Muncy said. “But a division rival gets one of the best players in the game.

“They got a lot of pieces. It’s going to be interesting.”

As it stands now, the Padres would make the playoffs as a wild-card team and face the Atlanta Braves in a best-of-3 series — with the winner advancing to face the Dodgers, currently the No. 1 seed in the National League, in a best-of-5 division series.

“We fully expected AJ (Preller, Padres GM) and his crew — they’re really good at what they do and really aggressive,” Friedman said. “They made their team way better in the last couple of days and we look forward to that competition. But it wasn’t surprising to us.”

In essentially exchanging Gallo for Lamb as a role player on their roster, the Dodgers get a much better defensive player (Gallo is a two-time Gold Glove winner in the outfield) but a hitter who is having a historically bad season.

Gallo’s current .159 batting average would match Adam Dunn’s 2011 season for the lowest batting average by a player with at least 273 plate appearances since Les Moss hit .157 for the 1947 St. Louis Browns.

“A year ago, he was worth a lot in the industry, was traded for a lot,” Friedman said of Gallo who went from the Texas Rangers to the Yankees in a six-player trade before the deadline last season. “The true talent level remains. We feel like getting him here, getting him with our guys, there’s a real compelling upside story.”

Gallo, 28, was an All-Star with the Rangers in 2019 and 2021 before going to the Yankees. Always a high-power, low-average hitter with lots of swing-and-miss, Gallo hit 103 home runs for the Rangers from 2017 through 2019 with two 40-homer seasons. But he struggled mightily with the Yankees. In 140 games with them, Gallo hit 25 home runs but batted just .159 with a .660 OPS.

With the Dodgers, he will be a left-handed complement to right-handed outfielders Trayce Thompson and Chris Taylor (who started a rehab assignment in Triple-A Tuesday).

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he spoke briefly with Gallo on Tuesday. He is expected to join the Dodgers in San Francisco today.

“My ask to him was just to kind of embrace this new opportunity, fresh start,” Roberts said.

Gallo can become a free agent this winter. The Dodgers will pay him the remainder of his $10.275 million salary this season (approximately $3.8 million).

Sent to the Yankees for Gallo was Beeter, a compensation-round pick out of Texas Tech in 2020 (a pick acquired by the Dodgers from the Minnesota Twins in the Mookie Betts-related deal that also sent Kenta Maeda to Minnesota for Brusdar Graterol). Beeter, 23, was ranked by Baseball America as the Dodgers’ 15th-best prospect this year but he has struggled to stay healthy in his first two professional seasons, logging just 104 innings total. This year at Double-A Tulsa, he had a 5.75 ERA and 1.61 WHIP in 51 2/3 innings.

In the trade with the Blue Jays, the Dodgers acquired right-hander Nick Frasso and left-hander Moises Brito.

A Torrance native who went to Palos Verdes Peninsula High and Loyola Marymount Universtiy, Frasso, 23, has 57 strikeouts and only 10 walks with a 0.74 ERA in 36 2/3 innings at the Class-A level this year. Brito, 20, made his pro debut in the Dominican Summer League this year and has a 1.86 ERA with 32 strikeouts and just one walk in 29 innings.

Vargas gets the call

Miguel Vargas has a tough act to follow.

Vargas is getting a chance to start his big league career two days after his former teammate in Triple-A, James Outman, made a historic debut at the major league level.

Vargas was promoted from Oklahoma City on Tuesday and was scheduled to join the Dodgers at Oracle Park sometime during their game against the San Francisco Giants.

Vargas, 22, (son of legendary Cuban player Lazaro Vargas) came into this season as the 40th-ranked prospect in baseball. His time at Triple-A has done nothing to lessen the anticipation for his arrival.

Vargas hit .291 with an .880 OPS, 15 home runs and 72 RBIs in 94 games with OKC. With the trade deadline passed — and Vargas still in the Dodgers system — he got the call up on Tuesday.

“For us, it was always about opportunities and getting at-bats; we believe in the bat and feel like he can really hit,” Friedman said of promoting Vargas now. “The positions that he had played didn’t necessarily fit us, with things that were going on at the time. So we’ve gotten him some experience in the outfield, which he’s taken to pretty well.”

Vargas has primarily played third base in the minors with some experience at first and second. This season for the first time, he played in the outfield, starting 12 games in left.

His arrival coincides with the Dodgers’ decision to finally put third baseman Justin Turner on the injured list with the abdominal strain that had limited him over the past 11 days.