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With the Dodgers’ season now over after their NLCS exit, the offseeason is begrudgingly here. Let’s take a detailed look at the 40-man roster, which currently has 47 players thanks to all the players on the 60-day disabled list.
Free agents (9)
LHP Brett Anderson
RHP Joe Blanton
RHP Jesse Chavez
LHP Rich Hill
LHP J.P. Howell
RHP Kenley Jansen
OF Josh Reddick
3B Justin Turner
2B Chase Utley
These nine players will become free agents officially at 6 a.m. PT the morning after the World Series ends. There is a quiet period of five days (ending at 9 p.m. PT on the fifth day) during which no free agent may sign with a new team, though he may negotiate with any team during that time.
The Dodgers will almost certainly extend a qualifying offer to both Jansen and Turner, which is a one-year contract at the average of the top 125 salaries in MLB. This year, the qualifying offer is expected to be $17.2 million per Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports.
That’s an increase from $15.8 million last offseason, an amount accepted by Anderson but declined by Zack Greinke and Howie Kendrick. Keep in mind that a new collective bargaining agreement is currently being negotiated, to replace the current version that expires on Dec. 1, but should the mechanism remain the same, if a player declines a qualifying offer and signs with a new team, that new team forfeits a first-round pick (unless it is in the top 10) and his old team gets a newly-created sandwich pick between the first and second rounds of the 2017 draft.
Qualifying offers must be extended by 2 p.m. PT on the fifth day following the World Series, and players have one week to accept or decline, with a 2 p.m. deadline on the 12th day after the World Series.
Players who switched teams in season are not eligible to receive a qualifying offer, so even if the Dodgers wanted to extend the offer to Hill or Reddick, they cannot.
Options (2)
Scott Kazmir has two years and $32 million remaining on his contract, but can opt to become a free agent.
Carlos Ruiz has a 2017 club option worth $4.5 million, with a $500,000 buyout.
We will know the outcome of these choices within five days after the World Series ends.
Under contract (8+)
The Dodgers have eight players under contract for 2017 and beyond, plus three more players off the 40-man roster — Erisbel Arruebarrena, Yasiel Sierra and Dian Toscano.
You can click on the player names in the table for more specific details.
| Pos | Player | 2016 Salary | 2017 Salary | Signed through |
| OF/IF | Howie Kendrick | $10,000,000 | $10,000,000 | 2017 |
| OF | Andre Ethier | $18,000,000 | $17,500,000 | 2017* |
| 1B | Adrian Gonzalez | $21,000,000 | $21,500,000 | 2018 |
| RHP | Brandon McCarthy | $11,000,000 | $10,000,000 | 2018* |
| OF | Yasiel Puig | $5,500,000 | $6,500,000 | 2018^ |
| LHP | Hyun-jin Ryu | $7,000,000 | $7,000,000 | 2018 |
| LHP | Clayton Kershaw | $32,000,000 | $33,000,000 | 2020 |
| RHP | Kenta Maeda | $12,900,000 | $3,000,000 | 2023 |
| SS | Erisbel Arruebarrena# | $677,596 | $4,000,000 | 2018 |
| OF |
Dian Toscano# | $1,000,000 | $1,300,000 | 2018* |
| RHP |
Yaisel Sierra# | $7,000,000 | $2,500,000 | 2021 |
| Includes signing bonuses and/or other payments. Details here. *potential option;#not on 40-man |
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^One to note here is Yasiel Puig, who at three years, 102 days of service time is eligible for salary arbitration, and his contract allows for him to opt out of his deal and into salary arbitration when eligible. But there is no way he is beating $6.5 million in 2017 through arbitration, so that seems unlikely.
Puig is under contract through 2018, but that doesn’t mean he’s a free agent once his deal is up. He would need six years of service time, so he is bound to the team through 2019. Puig is also out of options, having used his third option season in 2016.
Clayton Kershaw is under contract through 2020, but can opt out after the 2018 season.
In addition to the players under contract, the Dodgers in 2017 will pay a total of $29.5 million to three players no longer on the team — Carl Crawford ($21 million), Alex Guerrero ($5 million) and Matt Kemp ($3.5 million). Should Crawford or Guerrero sign elsewhere, the Dodgers would be off the hook for whatever major league salary they earn next year (likely the league minimum).
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Arbitration (8)
The Dodgers have eight players eligible for salary arbitration. We will dive deeper into each individual case as the offseason rages on, but for now we can use the early 2017 projections from Matt Swartz and MLB Trade Rumors.
| Pos | Player | Service Time | 2016 Base Salary | 2017 MLBTR projection |
| C | Yasmani Grandal | 4.115 | $2,800,000 | $5,300,000 |
| RHP | Chin-hui Tsao | 4.075 | unknown | $800,000 |
| RHP | Louis Coleman | 4.018 | $725,000 | $1,500,000 |
| LHP | Luis Avilan | 3.146 | $1,390,000 | $1,500,000 |
| OF/1B | Scott Van Slyke | 3.151 | $1,225,000 | $1,300,000 |
| RHP | Chris Hatcher | 3.146 | $1,065,000 | $1,400,000 |
| LHP | Alex Wood | 3.123 | $530,000 | $2,000,000 |
| RHP | Josh Fields | 3.092 | $900,000* | $1,200,000 |
| *acquired midseason | ||||
Luis Avilan, Louis Coleman and Chris Hatcher are out of options.
Yasmani Grandal, Josh Fields and Scott Van Slyke have one option year remaining.
Chin-hui Tsao has two option years remaining, and Alex Wood has three.
The service time listed is years and days, so 4.115 for Yasmani Grandal means he has four years, 115 days of service time. There are 183 days in a major league season, but it only takes 172 days to accrue a full year of service time. A player cannot receive credit for more than 172 days in a season.
Just because these eight players are eligible for salary arbitration doesn’t mean they will necessarily go through the process. The deadline to tender contracts to players for 2017 is Dec. 2. We will know by then which players are still with the team.
Last offseason, for instance, the Dodgers sent arb-eligible Chris Heisey and Justin Ruggiano outright to the minor leagues, and both elected free agency. Juan Nicasio was non-tendered at the deadline.
The deadlines for teams and players to file and exchange salary figures for arbitration is usually the second week of January, and will be finalized with the new collective bargaining agreement. Arbitration hearings are usually Feb. 1-20.
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Team control (20)
Here is the rest of the 40-man roster, the players with between zero and three years of service time, the ones still under team control, along with their major league service time and options remaining at the end of the 2016 season.
| Pos | Player | Service Time | 2016 Base Salary | Options Used | Options Left |
| RHP | Pedro Baez | 2.059 | $520,000 | 2014 | 2 |
| IF | Charlie Culberson | 2.054 | $535,000 | 2012,2013,2016 | none |
| IF/OF | Kiké Hernandez | 2.054 | $520,000 | 2014,2015 | 1 |
| OF | Joc Pederson | 2.028 | $520,000 |
none |
3 |
| RHP | Yimi Garcia | 2.004 | $517,500 | 2014,2015 | 1 |
| LHP | Adam Liberatore | 1.106 | $515,000 | 2015 | 2 |
| RHP | Carlos Frias | 1.076 | $517,500 | 2015,2016 | 1 |
| OF | Trayce Thompson | 1.063 | $512,500 | 2014,2015 | 1 |
| RHP | Josh Ravin | 1.054 | $515,000 | 2013,2015 | 1 |
| IF | Chris Taylor | 1.037 | $515,000* | 2015,2016 | 1 |
| SS | Corey Seager | 1.032 | $510,000 | none | 3 |
| C | Austin Barnes | 0.124 | $512,500 | 2015,2016 | 1 |
| RHP | Ross Stripling | 0.115 | $507,500 | 2016 | 2 |
| LHP | Julio Urias | 0.099 | $507,500 | 2016 | 2 |
| OF | Andrew Toles | 0.087 | $507,500 | none | 3 |
| 2B | Micah Johnson | 0.083 | $512,500* | 2015,2016 | 1 |
| LHP | Grant Dayton | 0.074 | $507,500 | 2014,2015 | 1 |
| OF/1B/3B | Rob Segedin | 0.057 | $507,500 | none | 3 |
| RHP | Brock Stewart | 0.037 | $507,500 | 2016 | 2 |
| RHP | Jose De Leon | 0.029 | $507,500 | none | 3 |
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*Estimated |
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Pedro Baez, Grant Dayton, Adam Liberatore, Josh Ravin and Andrew Toles were all optioned at some point in 2016, but because they didn’t spend 20 total days on optional assignment this did not count as having used an option year.
The minimum salary for 2016 was $507,500. Next year’s minimum will be set by the new CBA.
Other dates to remember
November 20: The date to set 40-man rosters for purposes of the Rule 5 draft. Relief pitcher Jacob Rhame and probably catcher Kyle Farmer, both 2013 college draftees, are among the ones to keep an eye on here.
December 8: Rule 5 Draft, on the final day of the winter meetings in Washington D.C.