The Dodgers have now taken the NL West for five consecutive seasons. But the current roster wasn’t exactly built with just that in mind. The big-city organization hasn’t won the World Series since way back in 1988.
President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and GM Farhan Zaidi were looking to construct a powerhouse. At mid-season, they struck a deal to land ace Yu Darvish to an already-loaded rotation. Despite a late-season lull, the team racked up 104 wins.
Here’s how it all came together:
[Related: Los Angeles Dodgers Depth Chart and Payroll Outlook]
- HOMEGROWN (7)
- Kenley Jansen, RP: International Free Agent (Curacao) November ’04. Re-signed to five-year, $80MM contract in January ’17.
- Pedro Baez, RP: International Free Agent (D.R.) January ’07
- Clayton Kershaw, SP: Drafted 1st Rd (7) ’06
- Corey Seager, SS: Drafted 1st Rd (18) ’12
- Ross Stripling, RP: Drafted 5th Rd ’12
- Cody Bellinger, 1B/OF: Drafted 4th Rd ’13
- Kyle Farmer, C: Drafted 8th Rd ’13
- ACQUIRED VIA FREE AGENCY (4)
- Yasiel Puig, OF: June ’12 (Cuba) — Signed to a seven-year, $42MM contract.
- Justin Turner, 3B: February ’14 (NYM) — Signed to a minor league contract. Re-signed to four-year, $64MM contract in January ’17.
- Kenta Maeda, SP: January ’16 (Japan) — Signed to an eight-year, $25MM contract. Dodgers also paid a $20MM posting fee for his negotiating rights.
- Brandon Morrow, RP: January ’17 (SD) — Signed to a minor league contract.
- ACQUIRED VIA TRADE (14)
- Andre Ethier, OF: December ’05 (OAK) — Acquired in the trade that sent Milton Bradley and Antonio Perez to the Athletics.
- Yasmani Grandal, C: December ’14 (SD) — Acquired in the trade that sent Matt Kemp and Tim Federowicz to the Padres.
- Austin Barnes, C: December ’14 (MIA) — Acquired in the trade that sent Dan Haren, Dee Gordon and Miguel Rojas to the Marlins.
- Enrique Hernandez, INF/OF: December ’14 (MIA) — Acquired in the trade that sent Dan Haren, Dee Gordon and Miguel Rojas to the Marlins.
- Alex Wood, SP: July ’15 (ATL) — Acquired in the three-team trade that sent Hector Olivera, Paco Rodriguez and Zachary Bird to the Braves and Kevin Guzman, Jeff Brigham and Victor Araujo to the Marlins.
- Chase Utley, INF: August ’15 (PHI) — Acquired in the trade that sent Darnell Sweeney and John Richy to the Phillies.
- Chris Taylor, INF/OF: June ’16 (SEA) — Acquired in the trade that sent Zach Lee to the Mariners.
- Rich Hill, SP: August ’16 (OAK) — Acquired in the trade that sent Frankie Montas, Grant Holmes, and Jharel Cotton to the Athletics.
- Josh Fields, RP: August ’16 (HOU) — Acquired in the trade that sent Yordan Alvarez to the Astros.
- Logan Forsythe, INF: January ’17 (TB) — Acquired in the trade that sent Jose De Leon to the Rays.
- Yu Darvish, SP: July ’17 (TEX) — Acquired in the trade that sent Willie Calhoun, Brendon Davis and A.J. Alexy to the Rangers.
- Tony Cingrani, RP: July ’17 (CIN) — Acquired in the trade that sent Scott Van Slyke and Hendrik Clementina to the Reds.
- Tony Watson, RP: July ’17 (PIT) — Acquired in the trade that sent Oneil Cruz and Angel German to the Pirates.
- Curtis Granderson, OF: August ’17 (NYM) — Acquired in the trade that sent Jacob Rhame to the Mets.
Los Angeles will lose some players to the open market at the end of the year, but all were signed to one-year pacts last winter or added over the summer via trade. That means that the core of the club will remain under control — in many cases well into the future. No matter how things turn out this fall, though, there will likely be quite a few interesting opportunities for the always-creative Dodgers front office to pursue over the offseason to come.
Ethier was acquired for Milton Bradley if I recall.
It will be fixed shortly. Would’ve been a better mix up if I wrote Milton Perez and Antonio Bradley instead of calling them both Perez.
Nice, sorry for the nitpick.
Always thought this a really odd trade for the A’s to make.
I still find it hard to believe the Dodgers were able to secure Maeda with just an 8 year, 25mil contract. Now, there was that 20mil posting fee already attached as well, but still, at the time, I couldn’t believe they got him for what looked like such a steal…
Now, from all the reports I’ve read, Maeda’s contract is absolutely loaded with incentives. I could be wrong, but I think his contract can reach upwards of 106mil..
I’m curious as to how much the Dodgers have actually paid Maeda so far, and also I wonder what Maeda’s actual payout will ultimately look like when everything is all said and done..
Sp, with that being said, does anyone know, with the incentives included, what the Dodgers are actually paying Maeda per season?? Or what they have paid him so far, through the 2017 season??
They’ve paid somewhere around ~24 mill, 15 in 16 and 8.5-8.6 in 17. It’s a 3M base with incentives based on starts for the most part, other easily obtained incentives.
mlbdailydish.com/2016/1/13/10763948/dodgers-kenta-…
Pretty good article on his incentives right there.
We covered the incentives in the post on Maeda’s signing: mlbtraderumors.com/2016/01/dodgers-to-sign-kenta-m…
Kershaw STILL can’t pitch in the postseason! You just won’t hear anyone talking about it because the Diamondbacks pitchers were even worse tonight
He’s fine until he gets past the 6th, then everything kinda unravels
Kershaw has had like three bad innings in his postseason career. One game five years ago has made this stupid narrative.
His numbers aren’t good no matter how you cut it. Choke artist.
Though innings 1-6 in his post season career, he has an ERA of 3.09 in about 70 innings. In Inning 7, and ERA of 25 in about 5 innings. He’s had about three bad innings. That is all.
So are we just gonna pretend that those bad innings didn’t happen?
Right. Trade that bum Kershaw for Teheran — an even-up exchange of Aces….
Dude it was 7-2 after 6 innings 4 ER is a lot but its not the end of the world.
Doesn’t matter. Allowed 4 earned runs
So what? When you have a big lead you can attack hitters more. He would have pitched different if it was a 1 run game. Its meaningless. Dodgers won the game thats all that matters
Kershaw still pitched terribly. Dodgers won yesterday despite him, not because of him.
I love when people insist they are correct
Any chance the dodgers can get under the tax limit this offseason?
Yeah it’s possible. Probably not likely . It’d essentially involved churning and getting lucky on moving a couple of contracts.