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Rafy comes home

I wasn't keen on a 3 year deal for Rafy but at these prices I'd have a hard time coming up with a negative reaction. MLB is reporting the contract as

Furcal receives salaries of $6.5 million, $8.5 million and $12 million. The team option for 2012 is for $12 million, but vests with 600 plate appearances in 2011. There is a $3 million deferred signing bonus.

We could have some pain in 2011 if he isn't healthy but I'm sure glad we will  have him in 2009, even as I worry about his health. They even structured the contract perfectly to coincide with the contracts that drop off next year. I'm very impressed that we just didn't walk away from this deal but worked at it until both sides were happy.

This should not block DeJesus in that he can either move to 2nd, move to CF, Furcal can move to CF, or we could simply trade DeJesus/ DeWitt for some young pitching.

Below is the updated salary table. One column is estimated and one is current. As you can see once we add in the expected arbitration amounts for Martin, Ethier, and Broxton, the expected salary for Manny, and a possible starting pitcher we are close to hitting $120 Million. The salaries of Pierre/Jones/Schmidt are still hurting us. If we sign Manny I have to believe that something will be done with either Pierre or Jones to mitigate the salary in 2009. If we don't sign Manny we could have a sub $100 million budget in 2009.

2009 Dodger Salary Overview

Name POS Age Est-2009 Current-2009
Russell Martin C 26 $5,000,000 $500,000
Back Catcher C ??? $825,000 $825,000
James Loney 1st 25 $450,000 $450,000
Blake DeWitt 2nd 23 $410,000 $410,000
Mark Loretta Utility 35 $1,250,000 $1,250,000
Rafael Furcal SS 31 $7,500,000 $7,500,000
Chin Lung Hu SS 25 $400,000 $400,000
Casey Blake 3rd 35 $5,000,000 $5,000,000
Andre Ethier OF 27 $3,000,000 $400,000
Juan Pierre OF 32 $10,000,000 $10,000,000
Matt Kemp OF 24 $450,000 $450,000
Andruw Jones OF 32 $17,100,000 $17,100,000
Manny Ramirez OF 36 $23,000,000 $
Tony Abreu Bench 24 $415,000 $415,000
Delywan Young Bench 27 $410,000 $410,000
Cory Wade RP 26 $410,000 $410,000
Takashi Saito RP 39 $2,200,000 $
Jonathan Broxton RP 25 $2,000,000 $450,000
Relief Pitcher RP ??? $ $
Ramon Troncoso RP 26 $410,000 $410,000
Hong-Chih Kuo RP 28 $450,000 $450,000
Scott Elbert RP 23 $410,000 $410,000
Chad Billingsley SP 25 $600,000 $415,000
Hiroki Kuroda SP 34 $12,400,000 $12,400,000
Clayton Kershaw SP 21 $410,000 $410,000
Starting Pitcher SP ??? $6,000,000 $
Eric Stults SP 29 $410,000 $410,000
James McDonald SP 24 $410,000 $410,000
Jason Schmidt SP 36 $15,500,000 $15,500,000
Totals $116,820,000 $76,785,000

Don't nitpick a 10,000 - 50,000 difference as we will get them  fixed when we get the final amounts but if you see large errors like the $7Million - $5Million for Blake or the error on Ethier's age please let me know. Remember the amounts for Martin, Broxton, Billingsley, and Ethier are estimates.