The Dodgers officially signed starter Aaron Harang to a two-year, $12MM deal with a vesting/mutual option for 2014. Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times has the contract breakdown. Harang is represented by ACES, an agency that has also gotten clients Heath Bell, David DeJesus, and Jose Molina signed quickly.
Harang, 33, enjoyed a nice rebound campaign with his hometown Padres in 2011. The former Reds ace notched 170 2/3 innings, his highest total since 2008, while posting a solid ERA of 3.64, striking out 6.5 per nine, and walking 3.1 per nine. FIP and SIERA marks of 4.17 and 4.25, respectively suggest that Harang, a flyball pitcher (41%) was likely aided somewhat by moving from Great American Ballpark to the spacious confines of Petco Park. His new home park, Dodger Stadium, also has a history of limiting the long ball, though not as much as Petco. The Padres declined Harang's mutual option in October and offered him arbitration last month, so they'll receive a supplemental draft pick for losing the Type B free agent.
The Dodgers also signed Chris Capuano earlier this month. Capuano and Harang complement a rotation that includes Clayton Kershaw, Chad Billingsley, and Ted Lilly. Dodgers GM Ned Colletti has been active in free agency, signing Harang, Capuano, Mark Ellis, Adam Kennedy, Juan Rivera, and Matt Treanor for about $37MM in total.
We first heard that the two sides were making progress toward a deal from Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports yesterday, with Jim Bowden of ESPN and MLB Network Radio reporting that the two sides had all but agreed to terms.
Tim Dierkes contributed to this post.
He was decent in Petco (but what pitcher doesn’t put up good stats there?), but he was absolutely awful on the road. $12m seems like an overpay.
but it’s backloaded. see, there’s the catch. that’s how they getch ya!!!
I love how the dodgers go bankrupt but apparently have money to blow but the Mets play the bird “cheap cheap”
Casman really signed garcia for a bargain. But i do like what the dodgers are doing they can win 86 games next years with that division which could lead to a playoff spot.
I’ll bet you and give you pretty good odds saying that 86 wins does not win the west next year… or the year after
I wasnt implying it would win the west, the wild card team this year had what 90 wins? The dodgers were an 82 win team last year and improved, they have a weak divisions which will help them get wins and challenge for that second wildcard.
THe NL West has been one of the STRONGEST divisions in baseball going back quite a while. I thought MLBTR had smart posters? What’s going on around here, same old ESPN BS
If u say so
Gnats won the world series pretty recently. right??. 2009 rockies won the wild card.. 2007 rockies won the wild card and went to the W.S 2006 Dodgers won the wild card.. 2002 Gnats won the wild card and went to the W.S And 2001 Dbacks won it all.. Not bad for the past 10 years huh?
The N.L. West had a horrible 2005 and all of the sudden is historically one of the worst divisions in baseball… what a joke.
The Dodgers have done well this off season with their situation. They seem alot more stable than some of these other teams.
They are going to be the oldest team in the world minus 3 or 4 people
I don’t see how stockpiling 8-9 hitters and 4-5 rotation spot guys around two stars is “doing well”. These are stopgaps at best, the Dodgers will not compete.
My ONLY solace is that these contracts are limited to the 1-2 year range. Apart from that, they are all clearly stop gaps just to get through next year and for the new owner to come in and for Ned to move on (via firing).
There is really no logic to the signings of all of these utility men. I can assume some of it has to do with injuries rising up, but that is BOUND to happen when you sign people above the 35 year old range. The guaranteed money being thrown around, while not mind-blowingly high, is still rather surprising. With what we know now, wouldn’t Koruda have been the more prudent signing?
Anyway, the signings aren’t terrible and I shouldn’t really have expected anything else from this off season.
logic is they’re utility men. They’re there to help season the youth. Not a bad move at all. How would Karoda help? Is he gonna make Sellers or Gordan better fielders and we’d still need to fill the spots of those that have moved to other teams(Miles, Carroll, Blake, Barajas) not to mention Broxton, Garland, and the other pitchers that are gone. If we signed Karoda for 17mm how do we recoup? I say getting some vets to show the youth how it’s done is a great idea.
*Kuroda
You’re 100% right btw. Kuroda NEVER got run support as a Dodger anyways, so he would have been a waste of 12-13m even if we could have afforded him. We didn’t have enough money to make a BIG splash this offseason besides re-signing Kemp so we did the right thing in filling in the gaps until a new owner can fix things. I also don’t know what some of you guys are saying about the Dodgers not being able to compete next season. We haven’t done that bad this offseason, and I’d actually say that our team is better then it was before.
My bad
Not to mention Blake wasn’t young when we got him and did some good work for us. Also looking further back we’ve had lots of aged vets suit up and show up. Gibby, Mad Dog, Grudzelanek, I could go on and on. Never count the older dogs out is all I’m saying.
ugh dont remind me about the blake trade. Carlos Santana would look so good in dodger blue. That was one of neds worst.
The only way this team is better based on these signings is if it was 2002.
Good point, might as well let the Dbacks have um and go to the playoffs.
Our team is worse than last year, i’m sure of that one.
Worse than last year:
Thames & Gibbons strongly agree with your position.
They are also there to play the utility roles. It seems very strange to me how many fans gripe about the Dodgers hiring two utility infielders to play in utility infielder roles, as if this is weird or something. The alternative is using minor leaguers in this role, which might work if you are giving up on them being position players in the future, and you know that they’re not going to become black holes in the lineup whenever you do need them. Anybody in the Dodgers farm system meet that description?
I agree, we are using the youth in gordan and Fedorowicz while still giving sellers, and sands utility positions. The REAL benefit is having your Kennedy, Treanor, and Ellis to mentor these kids. Not to mention the impact Harang and Capuano will have on Eovaldi and the young pitchers in our bullpen. We didn’t bring in Maddux cuz he was AMAZING in his final year but he can produce and share his tutelage with the younger talent.
Except that Eovaldi will be starting in AA or AAA while Sellers will be in AAA. There isn’t any room on the roster for Sellers with Ellis, Uribe, Hairston and Kennedy, and they’re not going to waste Eovaldi in the bullpen.
Sands is the only guy with a shot at the opening day roster barring injuries.
GREAT he’s the youngest guy on the team. A little more seasoning might be a good thing for the kid. Not like he’ll stay in the minors all year. All in all I see the changes made as a good start. I see us in the mix all year with some post season action.
As I said, the money isn’t astronomical, but my issue is that Ned is giving guaranteed money to players who may not deserve it. The utility signings are Hairston and Kennedy. Both solid pick-ups as utility players but the guaranteed money is just surprising. Ellis will be a starter and a black hole at the plate with declining defense. Wouldn’t Justin Sellers have served this role too? He would also cost $4 million less.
And yes, Kuroda at the price of both Harang and Cuapano is a much better deal, in my opinion (that was for the people above).
Colletti offers backloaded two year contracts to these guys or he probably gets nobody. I think the message we’re getting on Sellers is he would not have served that role. Sure, we all would have preferred Kuroda but that still leaves one open starter slot without enough available payroll to cover it, so we’d end up with a starter who should probably still be in the minors. It isn’t a great situation no matter how you cut it. I see Colletti making the best of what he’s got to work with, which isn’t much.
Justin Sellers and Ivan DeJesus, Jr. really aren’t projected as anything more than utility players. Wouldn’t hurt to use them as such.
I guess it depends on who does the projecting. Sellers only got a shot last year because of all the injuries, and I’m not sure DeJesus even deserves one. If you can imagine that we sacrificed a great opportunity by signing Kennedy and Hairston, I suppose — but I’m not so sure we did, and I’d rather have them as backups than Sellers and DeJesus. Wouldn’t you?
Hairston, yes. Kennedy and Ellis, no.
Hairston has an excellent OBP and actually can provide some value offensively. I like that deal.
Adam Kennedy = Juan Castro. No upside. At $1m I don’t really care too much. But I’d rather utilize Sellers or DeJesus in that role.
Ellis is the worst of the bunch for me. How a guy who hit .248/.288/.346/.634 last season is in line for a $9m deal is just beyond me. Especially when half of that .248/.288/.346/.634 season was with Coors as his home field. Just awful.
Are you sure?
Castro: .229/.268/.327/.595
Kennedy: .272/.326/.385/.711
DeJesus: .188/.235/.188/.423
Looks like Kennedy is way better offensively than Castro. Granted the Major League sample size for DeJesus is small, but his Minors numbers aren’t very impressive either. With Ellis, IDK. If you base everything on last year, then he’s awful, but if you look at the career line and don’t assume last year was a trend then it’s fair. Not great, but okay. I think we all know the market for middle infielders was weak this year, and also that Colletti had to sign several two-year contracts when one would’ve been more appropriate because of McCourt’s financial situation.
Going off of career numbers for a 35 year old isn’t a great way to make your point. If we’re going off career numbers, let’s bring Manny Ramirez back…
Juan Castro’s OPS in his last full season with us (2009) was .650. Adam Kennedy’s been at .655 and .632 in his last two seasons, respectively. At this point in his career, he’s offering basically what Juan Castro did for us. Again, I don’t have a huge problem with this signing, but I think Sellers or DeJesus could offer comparable defense and offense.
With Ellis, the trend is pretty clear. If we go by his previous four seasons, his slash line is .258/.318/.374/.692. Even if we get that, he’s not worth $8.75m over two years. I’d rather just start Hairston than Ellis.
Honestly, Jamey Carroll at the $6.75m price he got from the Twins would’ve been better than Mark Ellis at $8.75m.
We all would have preferred to have Carroll back — no disagreement there. I also agree, an argument can be made that Ellis is in decline — but again, in baseball if you can pick the years, you’re always going to be able to prove your point. I think the most direct way of evaluating a veteran is to at least start with their career stats, and not just look at last season.
With Ellis, Uribe, Kennedy and Hairston, Sellers will not be with the major league team unless someone hits the DL.
What are you doing Ned? Are these guys all stopgaps, for rebuilding, or are you actually trying to compete with them?
As much as I hate the Capuano deal, that’s how much I like this one.
Not to burst your bubble or anything, but Harang was fortunate enough to make 61% of his starts last year at Petco, where opponents hit only .240/.304/.380 off him. Away from pitcher’s paradise he got lit in a festive fashion to the tune of .317/.374/.504.
With a huge frame, previous back issues, and someone who hasn’t made 30 starts since 5 years ago, not to mention putting up that ugly line away from home last year, a multi-year contract was a typical short-sighted move by Coletti.
Not sure why/how Garland last year only commanded a 1-year deal, but Harang gets two. Similar years, with Garland not having crazy stupid splits, not to mention no issue making those 30+ starts. Obviously that didn’t work out well, but I’m not expecting this to be any different.
You keep asking that question and I keep answering it.
5 mil for Capuano + 6 mil for harang + 4 mil for Rivera + DFA Loney (saving 6 mil) = 21 mil that could’ve been used for FIELDER, WTF Ned!
So then we’d have one big bat who can’t play a position and for that good fortune all those other positions would have to be filled with a bunch of unproven minor leaguers. Good thinking.
Giving either of those two starters two years deal wasn’t terribly smart, IMO, or necessary considering the type of arms were talking about.
If he waited the market out he could have found back-end type starters on one-year deals for far less then 5-6m that Capuano & Harang each will get. Can’t believe it took 22m to sign those two. Will be interesting to see how much guys like Aaron Cook & Joel Piniero sign for. Wouldn’t be surprised if it took only 7 or 8m to sign both, on one year deals, with of course the 14-15m salary difference to fill needs next year.
We’ll see if you’re right, but even if you are, the cost is virtually the same if not more. Last I checked $7-8m is more than $5-6m. Next year’s payroll is next year’s payroll and one of these guys can be shifted into a swingman role if Eovaldi is ready or they sign another starter. The fact is the Dodgers needed to plug two slots at the bottom of the rotation. These days journeyman starters go for about $5m/year, minimum. Actually, that’s been true for a long time, so I don’t get the surprise that the Dodgers actually had to pay that much. The other issue is that this year’s payroll budget is obviously heavily constrained by McCourt. Two-year deals are the work-around forced on Colletti. If he doesn’t do that he probably gets us nothing.
That’s 7/8m combined for those TWO speculated arms versus 5-6m each for the two LA additions. Or to put it another way, the Dodgers just gave Harang roughly 4-times (3.5m vs. 12m) then the Padres did last year while giving him twice as many years.
Harang’s numbers should look better then they really are calling another good pitcher’s park home, but as his road number’s posted below attest, he’s far from a commodity away from the friendly confines.
Not a Dodger fan, quite the opposite, but I’d be more pissed about giving these guys two-year deals then slotting them in the back of the 2012 rotation.
Journeymen starters don’t have to be signed to multi-year deals, really have a hard time finding the incentive to do so with these two. Every year numerous arms sign one-year deals.
When I reread your post I realized that you were making the wild suggestion that both of these pitchers could be signed for less than half of what they made the previous year. Now that’s wishful thinking. Not only that, but they both stunk up the room last year, so if any team does get them for under par salary for journeyman starters, it’s because they are barely hanging onto the big leagues. As for the two-year deals, I already explained that. In a situation that is unique to the Dodgers this year, Colletti has to back-load them or not get them.
Those positions are already being filled by replacement level players who cost you more money, are older and still can’t play!! Good thinking
None of which is actually true, but if that’s your argument.
Fielder wouldn’t had signed a 1 or 2 year deal. I can’t believe you just made that comparison, it’s so wrong in so many ways.
With Mark Ellis, Hairston, Uribe, and Kennedy the only category the Dodgers will lead in is versatility and veteran leadership. Obviously the minor cupboard is bare although Colletti comes from SF where Brian Sabean made a career out of piecing together over the hill veterans and cast offs.
I think the Dodgers are quietly having a solid offseason. Their rotation is pretty solid, if not one of the best in the NL. You have two legitimate no. 1’s in Kershaw and Billingsly, plus 3 no. 2-3’s rounding the back end of the rotation. I like the Ellis signing and I think Treanor is a good defensive guy that will be a nice compliment at catcher.
Only issue I have with your post is calling Bills a legitimate “No. 1”. He may be potentially a number one on other teams, but that is all up to Billingsley’s head. The stuff has always been there though.
Glad to see someone likes the moves we made. I hope you’re right….
Billingsley is a league average pitcher. Their rotation and everyday lineup is nothing impressive. Expect another average season from Dodgers.
“if not one of the best in the NL” You’re kidding right? Take away Kershaw and its one of the worst in baseball. Maybe 5th worst after the Astros, Royals, Rockies, and Twins.
Have you seen the Pirates rotation?
Hmmmmm..
Trade Billz and Ethier to someone but undersell them so that they take Uribe also for infield and lhp prospects. Effectively opens up a rotation spot for Eovaldi and a spot in the outfield for Sands and takes almost 25mm off the books. Trade Loney to Milwaukee for McGehee if they sign A.Ramirez or just cut him if they don’t, frees up another 5mm or so. If McGehee doesn’t become available, keep Uribe, play Hairston at 3B over him, and get some real value from Billz and Ethier. Then sign Fielder to the open spot at first.
SS Gordon
RF Sands
CF Kemp
1B Fielder
LF Rivera
3B McGehee/Hairston
2B Ellis
C Ellis
I know I’m going to get ridiculed for suggesting another Fielder possibility, but for some reason I have a feeling Colletti’s working on something. We’re signing way too many of Prince’s friends [Kemp, Gwynn, Hairston] to not sign Prince. There’s got to be a reason we’re still being mentioned in Fielder rumors.
really were not getting fielder sorry but havent you heard they cant get guys like him till there a new owner.
37 M?? for all those subpar fill-ins? Dodgers need a star bat to compliment Kemp. 20+ million for a legit star like Fielder and still would’ve had money to get an SP and some infield depth. So many losers we signed.. I wanna win, not fill in holes with people who can’t really play.
i dont get all the hate for getting these guys. i know it not big stars but it just some up grades from what we had last season. Hairston a younger Carroll by like 2 or 3 years who can play more spots, Kennedy is miles. uribe replaces Blake, the catcher we got might just replace Ellis or there till the young catcher is ready and as for the pitchers there healthier then garland and cheaper then what kuroda would of cost. will miss kuroda, but if bills and lilly can get better then not signing kuroda wont hurt as much. also the Ellis sign for 2nd dont get it but if he can play d and hit around .260 to. 270 then im ok with it
So you are OK with replacing barely mediocre no upside talent with even more barely mediocre no upside talent?
37 Million for signees that might help ? Are there 2 or 3 ball players out there that we could’ve signed for the money these guys are getting ? 1 or 2 even ? Whats the fixation with throwing money away on people who are questionable at best ? 2 years plus of mind boggling signings ! Hurry up new owners !
Nice counter to the Angels Ned!
Dodgers are now the late Bonds era Giants. Loading a bunch of over the hill “Savvy” veterans around one star.
Dodgers fans i am a Mets fan so i know how it feels being the other team in town.Lets Go Mets
Take that Marlins & Angels! Looks like you guys won’t get all the star power. Better start printing those World Series t-shirts now.
well done , sir