That last few years, the Dodgers have been the team to beat when it came to high profile acquisitions. Naturally, those acquisitions have come at a hefty price for the Dodgers front office.
With the highest active payroll coming into the 2015 season, the Dodgers also were subject to a payroll of $85.75 million for players not on their roster.
After Zack Greinke opted out of his contract, and Johnny Cueto appeared on the market fresh off a World Series, most speculated the Dodgers would continue the trend of their high spending ways in order to land at least one of two. However, it appears the Dodgers front office has taken a new approach.
The Dodgers let arch nemesis San Francisco Giants land Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija, and let Arizona D-Backs sweep away Zack Greinke like a flash flood in the Arizona desert when no one expected it.
Coming into the winter meetings and beyond, the Dodgers front office sat silently with the exception on of an Aroldis Chapman trade that they would eventually back out of, and a three way trade that landed them some marketable prospects from the Chicago White Sox.
Silence eventually became noise when the Dodgers signed free agent Scott Kazmir, and reportedly Japanese pitcher, Kenta Maeda.
Skepticism is high on whether Kazmir and Maeda can come together to fill the hole that was left by Zack Greinke, but unless the Dodgers have other plans, the way the Kazmir deal and apparent Maeda deal seems to be structured should help fill the financial holes created by the team’s high spending over the last couple of years.
With Scott Kazmir, the Dodgers get to defer $8 million a year in Kazmir’s three year $48 million contract, allowing the organization to spread the deferred payments from 2019- 2021 if he remains with the team for the full three years.
If Kazmir opts out after the 2016 season, the Dodgers only have to pay $8 million for 2016 on top of the $16 million they’ve already paid him for salary and a signing bonus. If that’s not creative enough, the Dodgers get even more creative in their pending deal with Kenta Maeda.
The details haven’t been fully released for Maeda, but as time goes by and details continue to leak, the deal is looking more and more into the long term financial favor of the Dodgers.
The most up to date report from Jon Heyman on Twitter is that the Meada deal is 8 years for $25 million. If you’re counting, that’s two more years than what Zack Greinke is getting from Arizona, but for $181.5 million less than what Geinke is getting from Arizona. The catch, is that deal is being built on incentives that are rumored to be between includes $10-12 million.
There is no telling what the incentives are until they come out, and considering two previous deals have already fallen through for the Los Angeles Dodgers this offseason, there is no guarantee that the deal is even for sure. Nonetheless, if the deal does happen and the leaked details are true, it looks like the Dodgers are making sure they get the most out Maeda for their buck.
If it’s successful on the field, the Dodgers may be out more money but would hopefully have a Commissioner’s Trophy at some point to show for it. Either way, Maeda’s deal could set a trend for how teams deal in the future, especially when it comes to long term deals with pitchers.
Main Photo:
