Top Offseason Priorities
According to CBS Sports, the Los Angeles Dodgers had the highest payroll in baseball, at $242 million. Close to $50 million of that was dead money being paid to players either on other teams or retired. For example, retired outfielder Carl Crawford was paid more than $20 million.
They also paid Adrian Gonzalez, Andre Ethier, and Scott Kazmir a combined $57 million. Kazmir didn’t pitch in the big leagues at all this year, Gonzalez was worse than replacement-level, and Ethier had just 38 plate appearances. Simply put, the team spent more than $100 million on players who did essentially nothing for them.
To counteract those expensive but no-value contracts, the Dodgers got great production from pre-arbitration players like Corey Seager, Cody Bellinger, and Chris Taylor. Also, not all of the Dodgers’ expensive contracts were busts. Clayton Kershaw was his typical excellent self.
This is how the lineup and rotation look for 2018 based on their current roster, with salaries from Cot’s Baseball Contracts at Baseball Prospectus and arbitration projections from MLB Trade Rumors:
- C Yasmani Grandal, arbitration-eligible (projected: $7.7 million)
- C Austin Barnes, pre-arbitration
- 1B Adrian Gonzalez, $21.5 million
- 2B Logan Forsythe, $8.5 million club option
- SS Corey Seager, pre-arbitration
- 3B Justin Turner, $11 million
- LF Cody Bellinger, pre-arbitration
- CF Chris Taylor, pre-arbitration
- RF Yasiel Puig $7.5 million
- OF Joc Pederson, arbitration-eligible (projected: $2.0 million)
- UT Kike Hernandez, arbitration-eligible (projected: $1.3 million)
- SP Clayton Kershaw, $33 million
- SP Rich Hill, $16 million
- SP Alex Wood, arbitration-eligible (projected: $6.4 million)
- SP Kenta Maeda, $3 million
- SP Hyun-Jin Ryu, $7 million
- SP Brandon McCarthy, $11.5 million
- RP Kenley Jansen, $10 million
- RP Pedro Baez, arbitration-eligible (projected: $1.5 million)
- RP Josh Fields, arbitration-eligible (projected: $2.2 million)
- RP Tony Cingrani, arbitration-eligible (projected: $2.2 million)
- RP Luis Avilan, arbitration-eligible (projected $2.3 million)
Free agents: SP Yu Darvish, RP Brandon Morrow, RP Tony Watson, OF Andre Ethier, OF Curtis Granderson, OF Franklin Gutierrez, 2B Chase Utley
The Los Angeles Dodgers biggest area of need is starting pitching. They have five or six starting pitchers who can pitch effectively, but they all have a history of injury problems and this includes Clayton Kershaw, who has pitched 149 and 175 innings the last two years. Rich Hill, Alex Wood, Kenta Maeda, and friends have not been durable starting pitchers. They’ve been good starting pitchers, but not durable.
With that in mind, the Los Angeles Dodgers will be looking for a top-tier starting pitcher, someone who is durable and preferably right-handed. The two big-ticket items are Yu Darvish and Jake Arrieta. Darvish is a year younger and pitched well during the regular season with the Dodgers after they acquired him in a July trade. He had a 3.44 ERA and 3.38 FIP in 49.7 innings.
Of course, as every Los Angeles Dodgers fan knows Darvish got lit up in the World Series. It was only two starts and no one should be judged on just two starts, but it wouldn’t be surprising for Dodger fans to cringe at the thought of the team re-signing him after his Game 7 performance. It’s been suggested that he was tipping his pitches.