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Key Dodgers multitasker Chris Taylor returns to Los Angeles on a four-year contract with a total guarantee of $60 million. The deal was finalized on Wednesday night.
Taylor’s contract is right in line with our True Blue LA roundtable about his free agency. The average guess of six writers here was $15.67 million per season and a 3.67-year deal. Stacie Wheeler correctly predicted the four-year, $60 million guarantee on the nose. A composite of national MLB contract projections also had Taylor with a contract in the range of four years and $60-65 million.
Associated Press has the full details of Taylor’s contract payout:
2022: $15 million
2023: $15 million
2024: $13 million
2025: $13 million
2026: $12 million club option ($4 million buyout)
If the option as currently constructed is exercised, the contract can be worth $68 million over five years.
There are also performance bonuses in the contract. Again, from AP:
His option price would increase by $3 million if traded before the end of the 2023 season, by $2 milliion if traded after the 2023 season and before the end of the 2024 season or by $1 million if traded after the 2024 season and before the start of the 2026 season. It also would increase by $1 million if he has 525 plate appearances in 2025 or is an All-Star or wins a Silver Slugger award that year.
He would receive a $2 million assignment bonus each time he is traded.
Taylor made $7.8 million last year, in the second season of a two-year contract that bought out his final two years of salary arbitration eligibility.
Taylor’s contract counts $15 million for purposes of the competitive balance tax, which uses average annual value of the guaranteed years.
With Taylor in the fold, the Dodgers have 13 players under contract for 2022 (including Trevor Bauer). Including estimates for the four players eligible for salary arbitration, the Dodgers’ competitive balance tax payroll for next year is roughly $226.5 million. But with a collective bargaining agreement still in the balance amid a lockout, the threshold for and even the existence of the competitive balance tax is unknown for now.