10:24pm: The 2016 vesting option can escalate from $7.5MM to $9MM based on games finished, according to Jim Bowden of ESPN.com (via Twitter). League can also earn an additional $500K per year based on games finished.
8:27pm: League's option for 2016 is worth $7.5MM and will vest if he finishes 55 games in 2015, tweets Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times.
8:01pm: The deal, negoatiated by League's representatives at ACES, is worth $22.5MM across three years with a vesting option, according to Tim Dierkes (via Twitter).
7:01pm: The Dodgers have re-signed reliever Brandon League, a source tells Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times (via Twitter). There's no word on the dollar amount yet but Hernandez reports that the deal is for three years (Twitter link).
League's representatives told Hernandez on Saturday afternoon that the two sides were discussing a three-year contract. The 29-year-old earned $5MM last season in his final year as an arbitration eligible player.
The Dodgers acquired League on July 30th for a pair of minor leaguers, outfielder Leon Landry and right-hander Logan Bawcom. In 28 appearances for the Dodgers last season, the California native posted a 2.30 ERA with 8.9 K/9 and 4.6 BB/9. League was less-than-stellar in Seattle but rebounded nicely in Los Angeles and finished out the year as closer.
The Dodgers are hoping to keep most of their bullpen in place and General Manager Ned Colletti has said that he hopes to hang on to League, Jamey Wright, and Randy Choate. As a whole, the Dodgers' pen had a 3.23 ERA on the year, good for fourth-best in the National League and eighth-best in the majors.
yes
Ill take it. Probably will overpay but I’d rather overpay now with money than mid season in prospects
I’m not paying and neither are you, so who cares how much they pay? Just put together a winning team, Ned. That’s all this Dodger fan asks.
All fans are paying.
My ticket prices went down this year.
All fans and non-fans alike pay for horrible contracts. Both through higher ticket prices, but in the unexpected things like products from sponsors of the teams, who charge higher prices to cover their higher advertising costs, which the teams charge more for to recoup the crazy contracts they hand out. We all pay, even the non-sports fans.
In general principle maybe but when you get down to specific cases, not so much. A huge part of a team’s revenue and thus profits come from media rights. If the owners can field a team worth watching on TV they can make a whole lot more money. So good luck figuring out as a fan how you are paying for “horrible” player contracts.
As a Giants fan, I’m absolutely ecstatic that the Dodgers have chosen to pay for a mediocre reliever aided by the ‘closer myth’. Thank you Agent Ned.
I think you mean “pay” for a mediocre reliever, except League is a proven closer who was very, very good for the Dodgers down the stretch.
LOL, we don’t have one closer, we got 3 guys who can close (Belisario, League and Jansen).
If the Dodgers re-sign Choate and maybe add the Japanese closer, Fujikawa, the Dodgers’ bullpen is going to be very good in ’13.
The “proven closer” myth is silly. Todd Jones and Joe Borowski were “proven closers” too.
Besides, how is racking up 37 saves one season and then losing your gig to a rookie the following year proving yourself? League has 60 career saves and the M’s dumped him for a superior arm this season.
League is what he is. A good reliever who throws hard and gets ground-balls. He’s probably miscast as a closer because he’s too one-sided. He crushes right-handed hitters but is underwhelming against lefties.
The problem is, you, and apparently Ned Colletti, believe that the ‘proven closer’ is actually a thing that matters. The Giants just won the world series without a ‘proven closer’, and the bullpen was brilliant in October. Why? Because Bochy was not afraid to actually use his best relievers as they should be used – in the most critical, dangerous situations.
As for League, he doesn’t strike many people out and walks a lot of people – never a good combination. His career era is in the upper 3s, which is awful for a reliever, and his peripherals support that.
Don’t forget the complete and utter meltdown suffered by the Tigers’ own “proven closer.” Valverde was unusable in the World Series.
BS dude. The Giants paid Affeldt to 3 years, $14m and Lopez to 2 years, $8.5m last off-season. Don’t try to change the narrative because your team won the title.
Yeah, and I hated those deals. But at least they were paying for actual performance versus a quality that simply doesn’t exist. They are both better relievers, and worth more, than Brandon League.
Lopez is only valuable vs. lefties, and if Affeldt is better, it’s only marginally. 3 years, $14m for the Giants is equivalent to what the Dodgers gave League (3 years, $21m) as the Dodgers payroll seems limitless.
Have I defended the Affeldt and Lopez deals? I didn’t like them. If I were a Dodgers fan, I wouldn’t like this deal.
Never said I liked this deal as well
They are both better relievers, and worth more, than Brandon League.” No they are not.
Context. They overpaid both those guys to keep their 2010 World Series winning team together. Thats a little different than just overpaying to keep a guy who had a couple good meaningless months around. Also the Affeldt contract wasn’t 3/14, it was a guaranteed 2/9.5 with a 4.5 mil option. That’s significant because most middle relievers are so inconsistent offering multiple years is a big risk. You may as well call League’s deal 4/31.5 if you’re gonna call Affeldt’s 3/14. Also, both those guys are better than League.
He’s a sinkerballer, he gets away with low Ks with an ability to get out of jams. And a 3 ERA for a reliever is not awful. He’s not elite but he is still very good. He had a 3.13 ERA for the year and a 2.3 era with us
Four actually, if Guerra returns in good shape.
Oh, hi Ned!
Dont forget Paco
Colletti pulls a Dombrowski and overpays for a setup man with a three-year deal during the offseason’s infancy.
If it’s something like 3/9 or 3/10 that’s one thing, but if he ends up having paid 3/16.5+ (Benoit’s deal with Detroit) then it’s senseless. Sure the Dodgers have deep pockets now, but what’s the point in setting the market price this early? It’s not like he’s getting another Kenley Jansen type of arm.
League is a solid reliever, but there’s no cause to give three years at market value to a setup man on October 30. I’m sure League is thrilled to be getting three years though, considering nearly tripled his walk rate this season and lost the closer gig in Seattle just three months ago.
You’d think the Guerrier deal would’ve made them more cautious (granted, League is better than Guerrier).
Are you the Dodgers’ accountant?
League made 5M last season and was a rock at the end of the year. There was mutual interest and he dodgers always have strong pens. However, if one of Belisario or Jansen go down, and they each have question marks, he dodgers would be in the market for a reliever. And with that comes overpaying with prospects. I’d rather over pay in dollars, apparently it’s gonna be 7M per, and it gets us out of the market, except for maybe Choate, who will get a one year deal
And who else was available on the market? Not hardly anyone. If the Dodgers get lucky and Jansen’s ticker is okay, Guerra’s oblique heals, and Bellasario keeps his head together, the Dodgers have an embarrassment of riches at the back end of the bullpen in 2013. If they don’t get lucky, then what? The armchair GMs think going for the luck is the better deal.
I was just about to state how this reminds me of Dombrowski’s signing of Benoit. For an overpay, he has turned out well (sans this year’s Hr/9 rate). Of course I still would rather have done the “3/10” but everyone knows Detroit has to overpay to bring stars into town. It’s not as senseless as say, I don’t know, 3/22.5 for a guy that put together half a year.
Speaking of League, I had hope the Tigers would check up on him, but after seeing the years and dollars of the contract I’m glad DD didn’t even get a chance to talk to League’s agent.
And while I’m giving my two cents I’d like to add I hate RP contracts longer than two years plus a team option, but as long as GM’s are willing to pass them out relievers will get deals too big for them.
Except that Bochy still continued to use the traditional closer role–using Romo as the closer. But I agree with you about the Closer title.
This isn’t the best idea in my opinion, but it does free up their best reliever Jansen to be used in more critical situations, rather than being saved for only “save situations.”
3 years, $23M. Oh Ned.
In past years, the dollar amount on this contract would matter because it would limit the money the Dodgers could spend in other areas. But with new ownership, it’s mostly irrelevant. The Dodgers thought his problem was mechanical coming from Seattle, and he pitched well at the end of the season, so they must believe it’s fixed.
I cannot even imagine how big Jeremy Affeldt’s agent’s grin is right now. 7 million for League’s numbers. Wow. Just. Wow.
Threw to a 2.3 ERA with the dodgers, protection for Jansen and Belisario and they feel they fixes the problem in Seattle. An overpay? Yeah, but worth it
Can’t say its worth it yet until this deal is over. Or he suddenly becomes a top 10 reliever in 2013.
He is important for the dodgers. He will give us another guy that gives Donnie another option late in the games
Yes, because $22.5M contracts should be handed out based on a 27-inning sample size. That’s almost a 1-to-1 correlation in innings and millions. By that logic, a Kershaw extension should be right around $1.4 billion over seven years.
Okay, over the last 3 years he has a 3.14 ERA and a 122 ERA+. He is a sinkerballer in a pitchers park and will be our 7th or 8th inning guy. And like I said, if Jansen or Belisario have issues, this contract becomes that much more important. He was most likely going to go to FA looking for more than just a $2M raise. The Dodgers decided to stick with the guy they feel they fixed his mechanical problem and he will make a very strong back end of the pen. Our starters need to go only 6 innings to have a very good shot at a victory. You don’t like it, fine. But this will be a good deal if he is anything like he has been since 2010, which I think you will say is a large enough sample size to have some weight
the problem is “if” he continues to produce. Other than elite closers and very few extremely elite setup men this is a big if. $22M is an unprecedented amount to give a middle reliever, especially considering he only be the 7th inning guy
He’s a reliever that’s half his sample and he has had a good career before that.
I, for one, am looking forward to reading about Kershaw’s 7 year, $1.4 Billion extension
No kidding. Rafael Soriano must be out buying bottles of Dom for everyone he runs into at this point.
Over the last 3 yrs league has been better add that to fact that he’s younger and was in the al, and tell me why affeldt should be grinning?
Affeldt is a free agent. The implication is that because Affeldt is a better pitcher than League his market price just went up to ridiculous levels.
Ahh i see so if other teams gms dont know that affeldt is inferior to league he can get a bigger contract despite his age and the fact that he only found success in the nl got it.
That doesn’t even matter. Even if Affeldt is worse, a MLB caliber relief pitcher was overpaid. The assumption would be that Affeldt is equally likely to be overpaid on a different scale
Eh, the only team that’s gonna hand out that kind of contract is the Dodgers. Maybe they’ll sign all the middle relievers, but if not those guys are probably still gonna be looking at re-signing for the same kind of money they were getting.
That’s…quite the overpay. Just because you have money doesn’t mean you need to be ridiculous with it. League in no way deserves this deal , but good for him though.
Agree with this. And to Dodgers fans saying it doesnt matter because of how much money the owners are willing to spend: it will matter, eventually. Look at the trouble the Yankees are having trying to trim their payroll. This money could have gone toward something more productive, and it’s not like the Dodgers can just continually buy wins until they get enough for a championship. At some point, the opportunity cost of a contract like this could be the difference between making the playoffs or not.
To put this deal in perspective. Different players, yes one’s a starting pitcher and the other is a reliever.
The Giants Madison Bumgarner deal from 2013-2016 will pay him $21 Million which is about $1.5 million less than League. If I’m a Dodger fan I’m excited that ownership will spend the money. If you’re not then, well, hey the Dodgers are who we thought they were. Ned being Ned.
Bumgarner is under team control and his contract covered league minimum and arbitration seasons. I agree that this is an overpay for League, but Bumgarner is a pointless comparison.
Yea its really not fair to compare them at all. While this League contract is insane, he had more bargaining power than Bumgarner did.
Well the Dodgers did have all that payroll flexibility so might as well toss him a little extra right
Dodgers are getting extremely reckless in the spending department.
Not really. They are able to give guys a few million more than most, but it’s not “extremely reckless”. We are paying guys who have performed, not Juan Rivera like last year
Yes really. Simple as that. Yes really. Willing to give guys “a few more million”? Define “extremely reckless” to me. You’ll be paying a late-inning reliever almost double what you payed Juan Rivera per year!
League was going to go into free agency asking for a 4 year deal. Guerrier got a 3 year deal last year and League is a better pitcher. League was going to compare himself to Papelbon, saying his ERA was within .2 runs of Papelbon over the last 3 years before his free agency and he threw more innings over the same number of years. Would he have gotten 50M? No, but again, if someone saw him as a closer- another pitch was gonna be he closed games for a team in the playoff hunt- he easily could have asked for an annual salary of 7M. Like I said, he made 5M without the benefit of free agency. Reckless would be giving him Papelbon’s contract
On what planet do you think League could have sniffed a Papelbon contract? He doesn’t have the track record of dominance, the strikeouts, the control, or the gaudy saves total (which sadly teams will pay for).
The Dodgers outbid themselves on League by a good $12MM. You can like League as a pitcher and you can love the Dodgers, but there’s no sense in blindly applauding every move they make simply because they’re one of your teams.
read it again. I did not say he would have gotten that contract, or should have. In fact, I said he would NOT have gotten 50M. I said he could most likely use it as a selling point to other teams. Like I said, their stats the previous 3 years before free agency are quite similar. Their ERA are very similar and League had more innings pitched during that time. The saves are a big difference, as were the Ks. Not sure what you are talking about control, as the walks were remarkably similar (3.0 for League, 2.8 for Papelbon). Anyways, if you read the post, I said he would NOT get the contract, but that he would use the similarities in his conversations.
And if you read all my comments, I’ve been very clear about what I think about this. We overpaid, no doubt. However, it was a necessary overpayment to do what Colletti said he wanted to do- keep the pen intact. Also, there is no way League was going to get 3/10, when he is coming off making 5M and posted good numbers.
He was very good in his time with the Dodgers, but his overall 2012 wasn’t really that good. A 6.75/4.13 K/BB ratio is pretty awful, not the kind of thing you want to see from a reliever you’re giving multiple guaranteed years to and definitely not the kind of thing you want to see from a guy you’re giving 20+ mil to. This is a pretty insane contract. They didn’t just overpay, they overpaid by at least one year and 12 mil, probably more like 2 years and 19 mil.
You are stating the most important point: League was better during his time with the Dodgers. League has said that Honeycutt found a mechanical flaw and after they corrected it, he was lights out.
Numbers don’t lie: 2.30 ERA/1.13 WHIP/27 K’s/27 IP/6 SVs/ 0 blown SVs
League looked like the League who saved 37 games.
They overpaid, but he was going to probably get at least 3 yrs and $5 million per year from some team who would have used him as their closer, IMO. So they probably paid 33% more.
But if you look big picture, that overpaid amount has no effect on the Dodgers because I am sure they are operating with a really big budget now.
In other words, signing League to this contract is not going to prohibit them from signing Greinke, if a deal makes sense for them. They’ve got plenty of money to spend towards ’13.
“Numbers don’t lie”.
So true. That’s why Sam Fuld is the modern day Ted Williams now.
Yeah you are right, the dramatic improvement he experienced after they fixed a mechanical flaw (returning him more to his form when he closed for the Mariners) was a fluke and a result of small sample size.
LOL, how about the possibility that they fixed his delivery and he was dominant again? He still had the 97 mph fastball and hard slider, he just needed to control them better and he did after they fixed his mechanics.
But, nah, let’s just chalk it up to small sample size…
No, we are not chalking it up to a small sample size. We are chalking it up to the fact that every other GM in baseball would chalk it up to a small sample size so the only people who rally have 100% faith in his mechanics are the Dodgers….meaning they outbid themselves
Your comparison of League to Papelbon is wrong. Papelbon’s big bucks comes from his saves and League is very lacking in that area.
A League/Downs or League/Benoit comparison are much better because they are all mid-relievers.
Scott Downs signed a 3yr/$15m contract after 2010
2010 stats:
– 2.64 ERA, 61.1 IP
– 7.04 K/9, 2.05 BB/9, 0.44 HR/9
Joaquin Benoit signed a 3yr/$16.5m contract after 2010
2010 stats:
– 1.34 ERA, 60.1 IP
– 11.19 K/9, 1.64 BB/9, 0.90 HR/9
Brandon League signed a 3yr/$22.5m contract after 2012
2012 stats:
– 3.13 ERA, 72.0 IP
– 6.75 K/9, 4.13 BB/9, 0.13 HR/9
Back then, I remember people calling the Downs and Benoit deals an overpayment. The reality is that Dodgers did way overpay for League. Why? Because they got Ned Colletti as their GM.
A low HR rate and a low BABIP will be central to League’s effectiveness. His career WHIP of 1.275 is really high for a reliever, so hitters are getting on base. Once guys start hitting HRs, League will be toast. Good thing he pitches in Dodgers’ stadium.
Thats the truth. People like those are what we call “homers”
They just gave League at least 10 mil more total than he would’ve got anywhere else.
Early nominee for worst contract of the offseason. Well done, Colletti.
Since 2010, when he became a full time closer, he has a 3.14 ERA, averaging 70 games a year, with a 122 ERA+. Ill take it for a 7th or 8th inning guy
You realize that’s not that great of an ERA for a reliever, right? And most of that ERA value comes from 2011 where he was walking less than 1.5 batters per 9 innings and had some HR/FB luck. Last year he walked over 4 per 9. This will come close to matching the Juan Uribe disaster in LA.
No use going on about this. Come back next year and give us an update.
Not sure why people are betting bent about this. He is making precisely the League average.
Because league average for any other position is cool, just not for a 7th or 8th inning pitcher. There’s a thousand arms out there that all throw just as hard as League, and any one of them has the potential to step in and throw the ball by hitters just well enough to get three outs. There’s no point in paying relievers top notch dollars when there’s ample evidence that relievers, for the most part, are an unpredictable agent, and should not be paid like the rest of the league.
As a Mariners fan, this contract makes me laugh.
What? League average at the beginning of the season was $3.44MM, according to a report from ESPN. At 3 years, $22.5MM, League is going to make over twice the average salary to give the Dodgers about 60 innings a season.
you didnt get the post…League average as in his name…it was a joke!!
The League average. Good one. 😉
Brandon League…..League average…..i guess some people really do need captain obvious to save them….
Because he’s getting paid like a 1.5-2 WAR player, but he’s only been more than a 1 WAR player once in his career. And his walk rate jumped to an extremely concerning level in ’12. And its doubtful he’ll pitch more than 75 innings. You probably don’t want to pay league average to a guy who is going to be such a small part of your team unless he’s going to be really, really good the few innings he plays.
Jeeze. Talk about overpaying when no other team can even legally bid on your players services.
$7.5 mil per year for a setup man. Ridiculous. I think the fines they will pay for being over the cap is another $1.685 mil per year just on League’s contract.
The best part of the deal? Ned signed him to be the closer, freeing up Kenley to pitch innings other than the 9th.
JJ Hardy 3yr / 21 million deal last yr.
Brandon League 3 yr / 22.5 million
The Orioles gave Hardy a fair contract
I think the Dodgers overpaid for League, especially since he is just an average relief pitcher.
Thank you Dodgers for ruining the market for relief pitchers, hopefully other teams take this with a grain of salt because this is such a silly deal and just write it off as the Dodgers being the Dodgers.
These Dodgers trolls peg on a level of Yankee ones.
Guy seems to walk way too many for a late inning reliever. Should make things exciting. As soon as the NL figures this out, the sooner League will be pitching in the 6th inning for the Dodgers. Bad move. Great for the trade market. Go A’s!!!
First off, Colleti already said they plan to use League as the closer, so he’s being paid $22.5 mill for 3 yrs to close.
Secondly, after the Dodgers found and fixed a mechanical flaw in his delivery, League was lights out. About as dominant as you could find and definitely closer material.
Lastly, opposing fans better get used to this fact: The Dodgers are acting like a Big Market team now and, more importantly, have the RESOURCES to do so. I said before, fully expect Dodger payroll to come in around $240 million this year. There is BIG MONEY coming after this season in the form of a new TV deal.
Colletti said that the coaching staff wanted League back. So either we blame Ned for listening to his coaching staff, or we blame the coaching staff for not paying enough attention to his WAR stats. Either way we know that League could not possibly have gotten a contract like this from any other team. If all of the armchair GMs on these boards say so, it must be true.
even if the dodgers have money the reason you don’t over pay a player is because it inflates the whole market in the long run. also league has never been stellar, the fact that he didn’t even do well while pitching in seattle tells you he is bad. he doesn’t have good command and walks way to many batters to be a 8th/9th inning guy.
Heath Bell sounds a lot better at 6 million now.
This means he would have to be worth 4.5 WAR in the next 3 years to make this deal even become fair market value (1 war = 5 mil.) That is pretty unlikely. And it doesn’t take into account 4th year option.
And he has 2.6 WAR in 9 total seasons.
Okay? Well that seems kind of silly to “lock up” League this early. That’s a lot of money for a reliever.
Ridiculous overpay. This is not worth the money.
It pains me to read that. Wow. Just… That’s unbelievable.
The free agent market for closers this offseason is a total of three legitimate candidates: Soriano, Valverde and League. Soriano just declared, and will be much more expensive. Valverde is erratic, to say the least. That leaves League. It’s a market, folks. This is how it works. The Dodgers had the financial flexibility to nail down that opening in the roster early this year. As weird as that may feel to fans, it’s the new reality. So get used to it.
Yup, in the free agent market, he would have definitely gotten 3 years. Maybe not $7.5 mill per year, but probably at least $6 mill (he made $5 mill last year). So the Dodgers did overpay and I would have liked to see 2 years, but, realistically, he was likely NOT coming back on a 2 yr deal, with the way the market looks.
Its all about the market. Outside of League (who was great for the Dodgers once they got his delivery straightened out), pickings were slim for closers. Yes, Jansen CAN close, but he is also coming off of surgery and, frankly, loading up on power arms is never a bad thing for a bullpen.
No one freaked out last year when the Rangers signed 36 year-old Joe Nathan to a 2 yr/$14.5 mill deal coming off a season when he had a 4.84 ERA. Why? That was where the market was set when he signed with the Rangers.
We can just imagine the complaints if the Dodgers had let League sign elsewhere and they ended up taking pot luck on Bellisario, Guerra and Jansen for the closing duties. This is how it was done in the McCourt years. The new way is better.
All you non Dodger fans don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. This guy is worth the $. You gotta pay the good ones. he struggled in 2 of his outings, the rest he was great.