The Dodgers already saved about $3.8MM by unloading Manny Ramirez yesterday. With a 4.1% playoff shot according to Baseball Prospectus (5.5 games out in the wild card), they're still not committed to packing it in for 2010. But let's do some simple math to determine how much additional cash the Dodgers would save if they cleaned house. Here's who could go and how much is left on their contracts:
- Hiroki Kuroda, $2.33MM. Kuroda was placed on waivers on August 24th, tweeted Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. If he was claimed, the window to make a deal or dump his contract closed yesterday. Perhaps Kuroda was claimed and the Dodgers pulled him back, killing the chances of a deal. Or maybe his $13MM salary allowed him to clear waivers, and a trade is still possible. UPDATE: Scratch the Kuroda idea, he was pulled back over the weekend after the Padres claimed him.
- Ted Lilly, $2.15MM. Lilly was placed on waivers on August 27th, tweeted Rosenthal. The Dodgers could come out ahead financially on the Lilly portion of their deal with the Cubs. The Dodgers could keep the $2.5MM the Cubs sent but trade the lefty again today, allowing another team to pay the $2.15MM left on his contract. SI's Jon Heyman tweeted today that Lilly will not be moved, however.
- Octavio Dotel, $583K. It's a similar story with Dotel, as the Dodgers could keep the $500K the Pirates sent but trade the reliever again.
- Scott Podsednik, $296K. This assumes Pods voids his 2011 option.
- Brad Ausmus, $179K.
- Reed Johnson, $143K.
- Rod Barajas, $90K. The Dodgers may also save money on Barajas' performance bonuses.
- We'll leave Jeff Weaver, Ronnie Belliard, Vicente Padilla, and George Sherrill out of this discussion, as Padilla can't be dealt and the others are not appealing.
- To sum it up, if the Dodgers moved or dumped Kuroda, Lilly, Dotel, Podsednik, Ausmus, Johnson, and Barajas today, they'd save $5.775MM and add a few prospects. Add in $3.8MM for Manny and the $3MM received in July, and that's a cool $12.575MM. I don't expect the Dodgers to gut their team in this fashion, but it's fun to think about.
They’d save $5.775MM in payroll, but how much do you think they’d lose in fan attendance/concessions? I can’t imagine their fan base would approve a fire sale of that magnitude. Next years season ticket sales might be in jeopardy, as well.
Huh? They’re all going to be free agents after the season anyway? They won’t lose fan attendance for trading non-marquee players who are FAs anyway. Actually,Pods, Dotel, Barajas, and Lilly haven’t been on the team for more than a month anyway.
Are you more likely to go to a game before or after a fire sale? I think it would severely affect their attendance for the remainder of the year. Maybe not next, but definitely the remaining games this year.
I would think that the Dodgers would like to have players like Kuroda, Barajas, and Lilly back in 2011. The rest of the players aren’t worth the effort to trade at this point.
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see the “fun” here. A lot of teams are playoff long-shots at this point, but we’re not having “fun” talking about ultimate fire sales for them. It’s all so arbitrary anyway. Why are Ausmus and Barajas “appealing” (leaving the team with only AJ Ellis and no backup catcher), and Padilla (nearly ready for reactivation) not?
BlueSky,
Padilla isn’t “unappealing” but rather he cannot be dealt, due to his status of being on the DL. Thems is the rules.
I agree, though… “fun” is hardly the word I’d use to describe the thought of a lost season and a quasi fire sale.
What I really don’t get is why they didn’t deal Kuroda to SD. He’s as good as gone, let’s be honest. They’re not re-upping for a 36-yr-old who just made $13mil. Who cares if he helps SD this year?!
Same for Lilly… why keep him around for Sept?! He’ll be 35 and is coming off of two $12mil seasons. He won’t be back in ’11.
They *desperately* need to restock the farm system, and these were two prime opportunities to do so.
I realize that Padilla is not eligible for trading at this very moment, but he’s getting ready to come back, if the reports I read this morning are accurate. As with Manny, dealing players at this point in the season surely does not guarantee prospects in return. Better to offer them arbitration.
EDIT: Yes, I know that players not on the roster on Sept. 1 are not eligible for the postseason.
To be fair, none of the players he’s talking about moving are under contract for 2011. Hardly a fire sale. “Fire sale” implies selling off parts of the team’s core talent. This is just a discussion about dropping players who probably have no future with the Dodgers.
Personally, I’d like Lilly and Barajas to resign with us, and obviously they’d be more inclined to do so if we hold on to them. I wouldn’t move them. I have no idea what Kuroda’s intentions are, so I’d have to trust management there. If they feel he’s inclined to go to the highest bidder this off-season, I wouldn’t mind moving him. If it seems he’s comfortable in L.A. and prefers to stay, I’d keep him. But I’d be wary of more than a 2 year deal.
Podsednik has been great, but I don’t see him returning in 2011 (I’d hope if we are going to spend any money, Werth or Crawford would be considered). Why not give Jerry Sands some playing time? I’d be fine with Johnson, Ausmus and Dotel being moved, too. Xavier Paul, A.J. Ellis and someone like Rubby De La Rosa, Justin Miller or Javy Guerra can take those spots.
I take your point, but it’s also about throwing in the towel and fielding an A-ball team for the last month of the season, for all the damage that does to fan confidence in the team’s future, which is pretty fragile right now. But my real objection is entire premise of the article, which is that the Dodgers might be ripe for this sort of massive payroll shedding. Anybody else? No, just the Dodgers. We all know why. The McCourt soap opera rules.
I sure hope the Dodgers can extend Kuroda for another season or two. Offering him arbitration is hardly out of the question.
I don’t know. Kuroda would probably be due $16m or so if he accepted arbitration (as he made $15.4m this season). With his age and injury concerns, I doubt I would want to risk spending that much on him.
Hard to say what he’d get in arbitration ($16m for a Type B?), but even assuming the worst, it’s probably the only way the Dodgers get him for less than two or maybe even three years some clubs would offer. I don’t see where he’s been a major health risk. His most significant injury was from getting hit by a line drive last year.
The line drive was simply the most dramatic of his injuries. In 2009 he made 1 start in April and missed all of May. He only threw 111 innings in 2009. I believe he’s been on the DL 3 times. He missed 3 weeks in 2008 as well. He’ll be 36 entering next season.
Again, unless he’s taking a significant pay cut, I’d look elsewhere. No way I’d risk offering him arbitration.
Dramatic is not the right word. Unavoidable is a better one. That was in 2009, btw — the year he pitched only 117 innings (not 111). A lot of pitchers don’t come back from things like that at all. Yes, he’s had a few trips to the DL, but nothing out of hand for a starting pitcher at his age. He pitched 183 innings the year before that, and very likely his totals will be the same or better this year. If you don’t offer him arbitration, then you probably don’t offer it to anyone. Which has been the Dodgers’ policy of late.
Please don’t give Ned any ideas…
Why hold onto these guys. The fans aren’t all of a sudden going to abandon the team over the final month. Have people stopped attending since the news of Manny leaving hit?
I wish my team (the Angels) adopted this aggressive attitude. Rodney, Rivera, Hunter, Kazmir, and Abreu.
The Dodgers could probably “trim” $20MM if they got rid of anyone named McCourt.
I don’t see any fun in this either, Tim. I realize that through our clown-like ownership the Dodgers are a joke to most of the media, but what is the purpose in making sport of them when the your beloved Cubs are equally as “funny”. As humorous as the McCourts may be, the contracts of Soriano, Fukudome and Soriano are even more “fun”.
Weird comment…I’m not kind on the Cubs and I do find talking about their bad contracts fun. At any rate, in this context fun just means this isn’t going to happen and we’re playing around with the scenario anyway.
It could be that more than a few Dodger fans I have spoken to regarding your site find that some your comments regarding the Dodgers to be more spiteful and less subjective than other teams. Yes, we realize that Frank McCourt is a never-ending joke and that his GM is a mixed bag of dumb luck and an almost maniacal need to divest the farm system to keep his boss in folding money, but I doubt any of us take as much joy in that fact as you seem to.
If you’ve seen my weird comments, you’ll know how I feel about seemingly every Dodger story having to be wrapped in the divorce story, one way or another, directly or otherwise. I’m asking why we’re reading a “fun” story about the Dodgers dumping salary like crazy but we’re not seeing anything similar for any other team skating on the edge of contending. It’s a fair question, don’t you think?
…I recall a Twilight Zone episode way back in the early sixties… It had a futurist theme, not exactly sure what it was exactly–memory fades… But at the end of the episode, a kid asks the character involved in the futurist plot angle–perhaps time travel?–If the Dodgers were still in Los Angeles. The future time frame was 1999! The answer: “Yes, but they finished in last place!” I thought that wholly absurd. Not with the O’Malley’s at the helm! This current ownership thing, with Frank McCourt and estranged wife, Jamie, is totally reminiscent (in terms of franchise instability) of the late Charley O. Finley in Oakland. An ownership driving baseball’s second or third (behind the Yankees, and perhaps the Cardinals) most storied franchise straight into the ground. A fire sale of Dodger players? Unthinkable under the O’Malley’s…
Nobody in Dodgerland is a happy camper these days. You know, we get it. But come on, blaming the McCourts for three postseason appearances in a row when the Fox ownership gave us years of nada is more than a little forgetful. It’s time to stop pining for the past. The O’Malleys aren’t coming back.
Agreed. It’s time to start pining for the FUTURE. A future that includes owners not name McCourt.
A future that includes a payroll that is NOT less than the far smaller-market Twins.
A future where the DODGERS are mentioned in connection with big-ticket FAs like Carl Crawford.
A future in which the farm system returns to its former glory rather than it’s current shell of its former self.
A future in which we are not forced to sacrifice guys like Carlos Santana for right to pay guys like Casey Blake $18 million.
A future…ah screw it. This would take all day.
As for the Dodgers’ season being over, all I have to say is, Over? Did you say “over”? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Who’s with me?
Pods, Dotel, Barajas, and Lilly have been the ONLY bright spot a the season is getting done to the final outs…and they ALL play like they wanna stay and are the ONLY guys putting up any numbers. Lose Dotel and keep the rest.
between honeycutt and torrie……a total collapse of broxton…not saying he was great…..and they helped on the destruction of sherrill……and management has no idea what their pitchers can do….very, very low morale ….