The Dodgers have won back-to-back World Series. They aren't losing any major contributors to free agency, so they'll go into the winter with a really strong roster and the ability to bolster it further.
Guaranteed Contracts
- Shohei Ohtani, RHP/DH: $560MM through 2033 ($68MM of salary deferred annually)
- Yoshinobu Yamamoto, RHP: $260MM through 2035 (deal includes multiple opt-out chances, beginning after 2029 or any season in which he is traded)
- Mookie Betts, SS: $235MM through 2032 (includes $40MM of signing bonus still to be paid out; $10MM of salary deferred annually in 2026-27, $11MM annually 2028-32)
- Blake Snell, LHP: $104MM through 2029 ($13.2MM of salary deferred annually; deal includes conditional club option for 2030)
- Will Smith, C: $83.45MM through 2033 ($5MM of salary is deferred annually)
- Tyler Glasnow, RHP: $81.5625MM through 2028 (2028 is either $21.5625MM player option or $30MM club option)
- Tanner Scott, LHP: $56MM through 2028 (includes $15MM of signing bonus still to be paid out; $5.25MM of salary deferred annually; deal includes 2029 conditional option)
- Freddie Freeman, 1B: $54MM through 2027 ($12MM of salary deferred annually)
- Tommy Edman, IF/OF: $52MM through 2029 (includes $3MM buyout on $13MM club option for 2030; $6.25MM of salary deferred annually)
- Teoscar Hernández, OF: $33MM through 2027 (includes $6.5MM buyout on $15MM club option; deal also includes conditional 2029 option; $8MM of salary deferred annually)
- Blake Treinen, RHP: $13.5MM through 2026 (includes $2.5MM of signing bonus still to be paid out)
- Hyeseong Kim, IF/OF: $9MM through 2027 (including $1.5MM buyout of $10MM two-year club option for 2028-29)
Other Financial Commitments
- Owe $4MM buyout to released IF/OF Chris Taylor
Option Decisions
- Team has $10MM club option on 3B Max Muncy with no buyout
- Team has $3.65MM club option on LHP Alex Vesia with $50K buyout (Vesia would remain controllable via arbitration even if option is declined)
2026 guarantees (assuming both options are picked up): $283.15MM ($127.7MM deferred)
Total future commitments: $1.559 billion ($792.55MM deferred)
Arbitration-Eligible Players (service time in parentheses; projected salaries courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz)
- Brusdar Graterol (5.167): $2.8MM
- Tony Gonsolin (5.152): $5.4MM
- Evan Phillips (5.136): $6.1MM
- Alex Vesia (5.078): $4.1MM (Dodgers hold a $3.65MM club option with a $50K buyout)
- Anthony Banda (4.135): $1.7MM
- Brock Stewart (4.093): $1.4MM
- Ben Rortvedt (3.135): $1.3MM
- Michael Grove (3.031): $800K
- Alex Call (2.161): $1.5MM
Non-tender candidates: Graterol, Gonsolin, Phillips, Banda, Stewart, Rortvedt, Grove
Free Agents
- Clayton Kershaw (retiring), Michael Conforto, Kirby Yates, Enrique Hernández, Miguel Rojas, Michael Kopech
The Dodgers have a strong willingness to bet on talent and not worry so much about injury concerns. That is partly due to their almost unlimited budget, which allows them to take risks other clubs may not be able to afford. It's also because the lineup is so good that they are almost guaranteed to make the playoffs each year, which gives them the wiggle room to let their players get healthy as opposed to rushing them back during the regular season.
This has led to some inconsistency in how things end up when October rolls around. In 2023, they were so banged up that they were swept out of the ALDS by the Diamondbacks. In 2024, the Dodgers had just enough of a rotation to win the title. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler were the three traditional starters as the club relied heavily on the bullpen. In 2025, that flipped. The bullpen had been stripped down by injuries but the rotation had Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell and Shohei Ohtani all healthy. Manager Dave Roberts tried to avoid his traditional relievers as much as possible. He often allowed his starters to pitch deep into games. In Game Seven of the World Series, he used all four of Ohtani, Glasnow, Snell and Yamamoto.
Going into 2026, it wouldn't be a surprise to see the Dodgers target more pitching, but the rotation is actually in good shape. The four starters they were using in this year's playoffs are all healthy and under contract. Roki Sasaki wound up in the bullpen due to some shoulder trouble but he could be stretched back out next year. Guys like Emmet Sheehan, Jack Dreyer, Ben Casparius, Landon Knack, Bobby Miller and Justin Wrobleski worked both as starters and relievers in 2025 and could be in the mix for starts again next year. Each of Kyle Hurt, River Ryan and Gavin Stone spent 2025 recovering from surgery but should be factors next year. Top prospect Jackson Ferris now has 33 Double-A games under his belt and should be in Triple-A next year.
Nick Frasso finished 2025 hurt and his current status isn't clear. Tony Gonsolin will likely be non-tendered since he underwent internal brace surgery and will miss at least the first half of 2026, though the Dodgers could afford to pay him and hope for a late-season return if they wanted to. Michael Grove missed all of 2025 due to shoulder surgery and could also be non-tendered, though he can still be controlled for three more seasons.
However it plays out, it's an impressive collection of talent, even with Clayton Kershaw retiring. The club has been very active in adding pitching in recent offseasons. After their aforementioned rough ending in 2023, they added Ohtani. However, he wasn't an immediate upgrade to the staff since he was recovering from surgery at the time, so they also added Glasnow and Yamamoto. Coming into this year, they signed Snell.
With the depth suddenly looking overwhelming, the Dodgers may not be as aggressive on the free agent starting pitching market. In fact, there are so many names on the chart that they could probably trade some away, though they could also opt to hold and just have lots of depth on hand for the inevitable injuries that will arise.
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I fart in their general direction.
Me too. If enough of us do, maybe they will stink?
They’ll still smell like world champions.
LA might miss the playoffs next season. Every contender is going to put their 2026 roster together with beating LA in mind.
Teams will go cheap knowing a lockout will follow the season
Too early into the off-season to say, but the Dodgers are still likely to make the playoffs.
I don’t see how they don’t. Unless everyone gets injured, the likelyhood of them making the playoffs are near 100%.
If that’s the case all they have to do is be like the 2025 Angels who swept them twice this year. Probably a bad plan.
Those two sentences almost fit together.
I don’t think the Dodgers will ever miss the playoffs with Walters owning the team and Kasten and Friedman running the team.
They are making it. Ohtani is almost better the Babe Ruth if not near as good, a team like that you gotta appreciate the guys.
mikeywinner1: Huh? “Almost better than Babe Ruth” and “not near as good” are completely different and diametrically opposed.
He can’t be both better and not as good.
They already do that to try and unseat the champs.
Crazy comment of the day.
Yucki is always wrong.
I love it. Which NL West team is going to knock them out?
Padres vs Giants vs Diamondbacks vs Rockies. Super scary. Yep.
Outfield and bullpen are key needs but I agree they seem unlikely to spend big on pen given how little they got from Yates, Scott and Treinen and how seldom they had spent big in the past on bullpen.
Agreed. Maybe they lower the payroll down a tier?? Team is already pretty solid. Can probably find a taker for Scott hell send him back to Miami??
They can lower costs by trading for Skenes. He’s controllable for quite a while.
Idle predictions:
After game 7, it would be difficult to not bring back Rojas for a farewell tour. Might not be the best thing for the organization, especially if Kike’ is also re-signed, but often success brings indulgences, for better or for worse.
Rushing will get another season and will take 1/3 of the starts to keep Smith fresh for the playoffs. Plenty of time for him to develop.
Unless his ankle problems are permanent, Edman will be back in CF. Teoscar can move back to LF, where he was almost adequate in 2024.
Dodgers will offer Tucker a very high-AAV 3 year contract. Probably not good enough.
Wild card? Moving Muncy to 2B for Murakami. 2B was Muncy’s best position when he came to the organization, granted that was 8 seasons ago.
YMMV
Muncy was able to play 2B in the days of the shift. Those days are gone.
highflyballintorightfield: YMMV? Try to be even more cryptic next time.
Your mileage may vary.
They’ll decline Muncy’s option. Hot take….
They need to decline Muncy’s option because he’s nothing but a K machine during his many slumps.
Bad take.
As cut throat as it is they need to get younger and integrate Kim and Freeland. Rojas or Hernandez should probably not come back
Sign Tucker and sign two bullpen arms while hoping the arms they have have a bounce back season. I don’t think they’ll go big in the off season since they already have two WS titles.
Signing Tucker would be huge…
This article should have been two sentences long. “Spend a billion dollars. Defer all of it”
aww, someone is still a bit salty.
I’ve been against it for years, sorry. I don’t think deferred contracts belong in sports.
Harper isn’t getting deferred money?
That’s fine, but direct your angst towards MLB.
Phillies don’t defer often but they’ve done so with Realmuto and Gregorious.
No, he’s not. The Phillies have only deferred money on two contracts, as mentioned below, Didi and JT
I’m aware, and I hate the fact they did it.
philliesfan215: And Whit Merrifield.
What is wrong with deferred contracts? All deferred $ has to be funded annually to cover future deferred payment and is accounted for in today’s value against Luxury Tax.
Not understanding how deferrals work or the rules governing them does not make them advantage nor does it make them in any way nefarious.
philliesfan215: If ignorance is bliss, you must be the happiest guy on earth.
Sad you don’t understand finances
Buy Kyle Tucker
Buy Tarik Skubal
Buy Suarez and Diaz for pen
Buy the 3B from Japan DH Muncy or something
Defer another billion dollars and lower their cbt tax hit so they don’t have to pay as much.
It’s remarkable that you still refuse to research deferrals as they relate to CBT. Net. Present. Value. It’s also remarkable that you refuse to acknowledge that every team has the power to defer money. It’s not exclusive to the Dodgers. Now that I think about it your handle is rather ironic.
Average of 10 year 700 mill = 70 mill not 46
Thanks. Please graduate elementary school before commenting next.
NPV clown. Crazy how the league, owners, and players were all perfectly content with deferrals. Keep dying on that hill though.
You don’t have to go away angry. Going away is good enough
On the contrary. I look forward to your future oblivious takes.
So what you can whine about them in the future lol? Well, however you choose to spend your time is your business I guess. I look forward to your weird acronyms like NPV (negative predictive value) and you being so upset you resort to more name calling.
The difference in $70M and $46M does not come from the Dodgers. It is accrued interest paid out by a 3rd party financial institution.
Under your school of thought should Luxury Tax also account for any investment I come players made from $ earned in prior years??
Klink, they only understand mathball
Someone gets it
Ah, how silly of me.
Sounds good to me!!
*fart noise*
“Buy every available free agent, defer as much money as possible, buy another title.”
There, I fixed it for you.
And why cant your team do that. You just gave them the recipe. Dont say its too much because you van just defer it.
If every team did it the dodgers wouldn’t be so good fyi
@Oppo nacho; if every team did it they would be competitive too, and you and the rest of the sore losers & trolls wouldn’t have anything to cry about! FYI!!
So you admit things aren’t competitive as is, and fans of other teams have an actual reason for being upset… well done
At best, I suspect LAD will offer Tucker an AAV for 4 years in excess of any other team ($200-225m). That won’t be close to the offer Tucker will receive from Giants, Cubs, Mets.
Given the quality arms returning from 2025 (Shohei, Snell, Yoshinobu, Glasnow, Roki, Emmett, Wrobo, Henriquez, Vesia, Dreyer, Casperius, Klein, Miller) and returning from rehab (Brusdar, Ryan, Stone, Hurt, Scott), I’d be surprised if Friedman pursues any pitching (starters or pen) this offseason. Some of these guys could be dealt in a package for an outfielder; but that seems unlikely.
Trades are far more likely this offseason than FA signings.
I’d love for them to give one of their top OF prospects a shot at the job.
As many have pointed out, that line up isn’t getting any younger.
An infusion of youth (and speed, depending on the prospect) would be fantastic.
Me too; but I doubt that’s the plan for 2026–maybe 2027. One or more of those OF’s will emerge though and I suspect one will also be traded—perhaps as soon as this winter. Your point though is also we do need OF improvements in 2026; which is why I think a trade is most likely. Tucker is just going to cost too much in the out years of the deal he will not doubt receive from some team. But, as you imply Klink, 1-2 of those young outfielders are a primary reason why a long term deal with Tucker makes little sense.
yes I agree 100%. Tucker is intriguing but I’d rather allocate that money elsewhere. I know that De Paula is the highest rated out of the bunch, but i think im most bullish on Zyhir Hope. Despite the annoying jokes from all the haters, the Dodgers money is not, in fact, endless. It would be great to have a couple hitters on league minimum contracts.
dodgers already made the 700M from Ohtani.
Not even close to being accurate, but thanks for chiming in.
Yeah they did. There’s an article from sports illustrated that reported on it.
Yep. si.com/mlb/dodgers/onsi/news/dodgers-made-back-sho…
Haha. The unimpeachable online Sports Illustrated that employs JP Hoornstra who with certainty reported Ohtani was flying to Toronto to sign with them.
Josue is my favorite; but, any of the four could turn out to be the keeper. It’s so comforting knowing that the player development side just keeps producing high quality, exciting talent!
wrong- that’s their overall net, not just from Ohtani.
@norcalblue & Klink; I agree with both of you but, I think acquiring one good starting pitcher along with a corner outfielder should be high on the list. Glasnow said his side was hurting after his stint in game 7. He cannot be counted on for a complete season. Snell has his ups & downs health wise. Ohtani is coming off his second TJ and needs to be monitored closely. Stone, Graterol, Ryan, Hurt & Scott, no telling how they will do. Other areas for improvement again are corner outfield, 2nd and 3rd.
There’s always room for improvement.
LA Deferrals will continue to get whatever players they want
Look for Friedman to sign Tucker & work out a trade for Skubal
Oh look, another clueless person selling the same obnoxious narrative.
Klink, you’re another obnoxious Dodger fan, read the room.
Appreciate it.
chalk73; you need to read the room. The article is for Dodgers fans, not jealous cry babies! 😭
Why trade for Skubal and pay him when they can trade for Skenes and lower their payroll?
We have plenty of players and prospects to make it happen.
Will it happen? Unlikely.
Is it fun trolling haters because there is a non zero chance of it happening? Yes. Yes it is.
Almost $1.6 billion in future commitments just looks crazy. But, when I see how dumb the AI bubble is with like six companies circling billions, it seems like pennies.
Due to the almost unlimited budget DOdgers can afford to do what other teams can’t . Sums up the outlook .
Bring back Kopech
Sign Díaz
Sign Tucker
Trade for Skubal
I would say trade some of the offense who strike out well over a 100 times since 5 out of the 9 in the lineup did and would have been six if Muncy didn’t spend any time on the IL, but LA doesn’t need to hit in the World Series to win is what I’ve learned.
As someone who is always bashing Dave Roberts I need to give credit for the great job he did managing game 7.
Los Angels truly does have a need for another outfielder, I wonder if they make a play for someone like Brandon Lowe. He can play a solid corner OF and also cover 2B.
Alex Bregman also makes some sense for them as a replacement for Muncy that can also pop over to 2B/LF.
I don’t think they get Tucker
Media won’t tell you this – maybe they don’t know- but teams like the Dodgers, Yankees and Phillies will have to pay $1.60 for every $1.00 a free agent like Tucker demands. Why? Because they are three time violators of the Competitive Balance Tax.and they’ve exceeded it by a lot. So, there’s additional tax penalties. Each of these teams will need to think long and hard about which contracts to add and which ones to dump. Tucker $427M top end predicted contract will cost these teams over $500M+ unless they “reset” the CBT meter by getting below it for one season. Boston, Cubs and Giants were below the CBT for 2025
I think Cohen will get Tucker for missing the playoffs. He’s mad and wants that WS title.
Be really hard for the Dodgers to dip under til at least 2028 even if they don’t lock in any long deals between now and then. My guess is that they wouldn’t even try til at least 2029.
Cube delivering the trophy in his Impala at the Stadium celebration was boss….
Another good reason why Friedman passes on Tucker. good point statyllus
wonder who their Japanese farm system will produce this year ?
Looking forward to finding out. If they aren’t a good fit we’ll let them sign elsewhere. So generous, right?