Dodgers right-hander Pedro Baez won his arbitration hearing against the team, MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez reports (via Twitter). Baez will be paid at the $4MM rate submitted by agent Kelvin Nova rather than the $3.5MM submitted by the team, as shown in MLBTR’s 2020 Arbitration Tracker.
Baez, who’ll turn 32 in a month, has been one of the Dodgers’ most-frequently-used middle relief/setup pieces since debuting back in 2014. While the L.A. organization has had bullpen troubles in recent seasons, Baez’s overall results in that time and throughout his career have been steady. In 2019, he turned in 69 2/3 innings of 3.10 ERA/3.52 FIP ball with 8.9 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and 0.78 HR/9.
Baez, who notched a career-high 25 holds in ’19, has appeared in 52 or more games in each of the past five seasons — averaging 63 appearances and 63 innings along the way. He’s never posted an ERA higher than the 3.35 mark he recorded back in 2015, and his overall body of work has perhaps quietly been terrific. In 339 innings as a big leaguer, Baez has a 3.03 ERA with 356 strikeouts (9.5 K/9) against 113 walks (3.0 BB/9).
This was Baez’s final trip through the arbitration process. As a player who currently possesses five-plus years of Major League service time, he’ll reach the free-agent market for the first time in his career next winter.
The win for Baez and Nova finally puts the players on the board in this year’s arbitration proceedings. Prior to this hearing, teams had gone 4-for-4 in arbitration hearings. The Dodgers had previously beaten Joc Pederson, while the Twins (Jose Berrios), Braves (Shane Greene) and Rockies (Tony Wolters) had also come out ahead in their own cases.
That’s going to break the Dodgers bank. There goes some of the Joc savings.
Good!
What Joc savings? Joc is still with Dodgers!
That’s another 500k added to the Dodgers payroll…
Yup Cbt looks lost-
They almost had it to where they could sneak under but I think they realize now it would take something drastic like trading Price or sending prospects with Pollock (dont think they would even consider that- Shame as quite a bit of high draft picks will be affected this year from being over
one of the most underrated players in the game
Hardly
He’s awful in high leverage situations.
And he’s high in awful leverage situations
He was supposed to be a bridge to Jansen and failed miserably.
Batters hit .135 against him with a .206 OBP in high leverage situations. Looks really good to me. But then I am not a Dodger’s fan, so what do I know?
baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=baezp…::none
Wouldn’t the substance abuse program catch that?
Yeah, fans forget about the 86.5% of the batters who made outs in those situations against him. They just remember the bad outings.
I watched him get into trouble a lot. Other pitchers bailed him out. I would keep him if Roberts didn’t put him in high pressure situations where he could hurt the team. But Roberts did. The team always bailed these guys out in the end
Understand the bad are… R E A L L Y B A D!!
He sucks
Stoked for Pedro. ‘Atta boy!
Was it really worth it for the team to fight him over $500k….the guy throws gas with good numbers…pay the man!
It’s not just about that player, it’s setting the market for those that follow.
It is about setting the market, but you’d think for such a relatively small difference, they could have just met in the middle. Some teams hardly ever go to arbitration with their players. I hear those meetings can leave hard feelings at times and there are teams that find it worth it to just avoid those, especially since if they win half and lose half, they probably come out even as if they just split the difference most years.
It’s the same $500,000 that Baez is arguing over, though one can argue it’s a bigger slice on his pie chart than the clubs. As mentioned here, if the club were to give in to every player arbitration, even if only $500 G (I say that like it’s chump change, lol) the amount would add up.
It’s crazy how “making it” at a young age has such a difference in your earnings. He is 32 and still in arbitration, meanwhile other guys have made 100s of millions before they hit 30.
did it take as long as he does between pitches?
Human rain delay.
Mediocre player.
Where are your stats, so if you’re mediocre or not?
At this point its almost a certainty Dodgers wont get under the Cbt which is a shame bc it will affect 3 of their top picks next year… something of great value
They would now have to shave off Joc Kiki and Stripling to just scrape under….this would also lead to no activity during trade deadline…. I just dont know how realistic it would be
If Price could get you surplus value say Rengfo straight up (value wise) I dont hate the idea of getting rid of Price before he ever throws a pitch with us- By trading him you
* Avoid 3 years of risk
* Get under CBT, improve draft picks next year
*Get a nice controllable asset like (Renigfro) which helps the farm
* Have a little extra money for a trade at deadline along the edges
* Clear the 2022 ledger which has a boatload of Superstars in free agency and will be the 10th div title run against a ALMIGHTY Padres team by then when you probaly needto flex harder in FA than this year…… Cant imagine Price will be worth 16 mill then in his last year on the contract
I think this is a better route than having to shave Joc Kiki Strip for sub-optimal value
We cant forget that there is still risk in Price at 3/48 and you can only sell a pitcher when Skies are Blue which seemingly they are right now for Price
Not a terrible idea. Reunites price with maddon and gives angels reasonably reliable innings.
With all the extra early pick goodies next year I just find it hard to believe they penalize that by being 10-15 mill over this year
Somethings got to give to right?
Now Im sure theres at least a 85+% chance Price pitches the whole year with the Dodgers but….id explore it? at least………
Price is no longer reliable innings. That is why the Red Sox had to include Betts and $48 million just to get him off their books.
Well yes and NO NO NO ……… Theres a big difference between 96 and 48…..
Now does he have enough surplus to net Renigfo (the Angels 4th best prospect 2019/ love how thier fans cast him off as nothing)
……idk………. But I do know its wise to try and trade with a team whoes fan base is clamoring for a Sp with a name attached to him who also has an owner who might let emotion trump logic at times…. Arte’s tantrum withstanding which could subside in a week
Wouldn’t have had to eat as much or include Betts if they were just taking back AAAA filler in return.
Nobody is casting Rengifo as nothing. Hard for the guy to shine when you have Fletcher, Simmons and Rendon in your infield. Utility guy and depth for the Angels, which they’d be willing to part with for some offense and pitching.
So John Luke do you trade Renigfo for Price straight up ?
Same thing they said about Verlander. There are parallels here. It’s a well planned gamble to land Betts. With anything good Price does as icing on the cake and a sure WS victory if he becomes a top 15 pitcher.
Don’t you think that the Red Sox have been trying to dump him all year?? You speak as if it’s an easy trade for the Dodgers to make!!! The Dodgers had to take him to get Mookie.
Well yes and NO NO NO ……… Theres a big difference between 96 and 48…..
Now does he have enough surplus to net Renigfo (the Angels 4th best prospect 2019/ love how thier fans cast him off as nothing)
……idk………. But I do know its wise to try and trade with a team whoes fan base is clamoring for a Sp with a name attached to him who choses emotion over logic at times…. Arte’s tantrum withstanding which could subside in a week
Def dont think its an easy trade to make by any means but when the number is now 48 and not 96 I think we can agree it becomes quite a bit easier
Dodgers just introduced him at a presser. No way they’re trading him before the season starts.
What are you talking about?
There’s only a draft pick penalty if they go 40MILLION over
At the moment, their tax bill with be about 2.5M, for being 13M over the line…. no draft pick impact….
Well commonsense…. you’re right, and WRONG at the same time.
It’s true the top pick dropping 10 slots is way off.
But you’re wrong in that any QO draft picks drop from 2nd rd to 4th rd if a Rev sharing club like LAD exceed the cbt.
So there is a penalty of sorts for going over – just not the one that entered your mind
Link it, cause you’re wrong. For first time penalty for Luxury tax only 13M over, there’s no draft pick penalty
You talking about qualifying offers? Lmfao Swing hard dipsh**
m.mlb.com/glossary/transactions/competitive-balanc…
I don’t see how adding $2 million/yr to the CBT max compensates for the amounts teams are signing FAs to. My beef is that a club should be able to keep their own players without a penalty.. It rewards teams for doing nothing.
Dave loves “Petey.” I don’t like Dave, so i guess that I don’t like Petey. In reality, a lot of teams would love to have him. He’s just streaky.
Two wrongs make a bigger wrong.
He has put more gas on fires than any pitches er the Dodgers have had since Nidenfeuer. Best news in this article is that he’ll be able to leave as a free agent next year and hopefully will sign with some team the Dodgers will face in a future playoff series.
Doesn’t seem like it. baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=baezp…::none
Those are his 2019 splits not career numbers. His career high leverage numbers are 185/245/350 which are pretty good. However, he got hit around in a game or two in the ’14-’16 playoffs and had a bad 2019 NLDS.
Kind of sad the Dodgers went to arbitration over $500,000 for a guy that’s given them 339 innings of 3.03 ERA (131 ERA+) ball over 6 seasons.
Agree – and it’s rare for them to go to arb. And they did it twice.
I don’t what what you were watching but he was giving leads up regularly. Both he and Garcia. I cringed every time one of them was called. And Roberts kept putting them in
I don’t what what you were watching but he was giving leads up regularly. Both he and Garcia. I cringed every time one of them was called. And Roberts kept putting them in
You said that twice. The second time was for me. thanks
Because it sets a precedent for every player that comes after. It’s not just 500)K for Petey.
Baez is one of those special kind of pitchers, one possessing a 97 mph fastball, yet determined to throw 8 change-ups in a row….for science.
He’s ineffective.
How is a guy with a career ERA of 3 ineffective?
All his numbers were good last year — seems like a losing fight whether they won or lost to quibble over half a million for somebody that’s been in your organization 6 years.
2019 stats
69.2 innings
3.10 ERA
3.52 FIP
0.947 WHIP
5.6 hits/9
0.8 hr/9
8.9 SO/9
The team has billionaire investors to satisfy. How will the Guggs survive with you as the GM? You should be ashamed, takin’ money away from Walters’ kids
Personally I feel like he’s under appreciated from the FO and fan perspective. He’s not perfect but he’s a real solid 6th/7th inning guy
He’s not elite Kenley, but he’s a great pen arm imo
As an observation, it seems every Home run he gave up was in an incredibly important spot. He was literally booed off the field in 18 by the average crowd of 40,000. that kind of sums it up. Very unreliable and pitches well in non pressure situations.
Better science than for religion!!
They got rid of one run Garcia thank you
Baez is extremely underrated and a big piece to the pen. Get your money! Lol
I just hope LA doesn’t trade him to get back at him. There may be a brief time this year when he’s the closer if Treinen doesn’t right himself. Kenley is like Rudy Guliani, a hand grenade waiting to go booooooom!
The only penalties for exceeding the CBT threshold is monetary. Since this will be year 1 for the Dodgers, they would only pay a 20% on all salaries above the $208M mark. The Dodgers can do this with ease.
Draft position (losing 10 spots) only get affected when a team is $40M over the threshold ($248M+) which the Dodgers aren’t even close to, so they really don’t have to worry about the CBT this year. They’re not even close to $248M and still have plenty of room to make a mid-season acquisition.
The only reason this dude has an era of 3 is because he does really well when the Dodgers are up by 10 or down by 10 runs. Dude gives up the lead almost every time
It can be said. With no pressure and in the weakest part of the order along with the Umpire having a big strike zone, He’s the man.
Petey is nails in the clutch. Anyone that suggest otherwise hasn’t watched enough games, has biased emotional memory or is put off by his 35 seconds between consecutive pitches. The facts say he is good. Your feelings might say otherwise
Good for Baez!! His body of work seems to warrant this ARB win. At 32 years old, it’s not like he’s making the big bucks either. He’ll have a better chance in FA next year to sign a modest 2-3 year deal and make a little more money…..again…..not crazy money….,but solid. Hope he has a good walk year!
Well that’s clears it up. Now the Dodgers have the best pen in Baseball!!! They just signed Mr Unclutch for another year.
It’s been like 11 or 12 years since the Dodgers had a hearing, I think. They usually (wisely) settle before the lawyers get involved. I wonder what’s changed.