MLB Suspends Joe Kelly, Dave Roberts
Major League Baseball has issued suspensions in the wake of last night’s bench-clearing action between the Dodgers and Astros. Los Angeles righty Joe Kelly was suspended for eight games and manager Dave Roberts received a single-game ban.
Kelly will appeal his suspension, so it’s not going into effect right away. Roberts will go ahead and sit out this evening’s game. His counterpart, Astros skipper Dusty Baker, will be fined for what went down between the two clubs.
In Kelly’s case, the league made several factual determinations that drove the decision. Kelly was deemed to have thrown “in the area of the head” and also to have “taunted” in a manner that spurred the clearing of the benches. The statement also noted that he had previously been suspended for such an incident.
Dodgers Place Alex Wood On Injured List
The Dodgers have shelved southpaw Alex Wood after he came down with shoulder inflammation. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by righty Josh Sborz.
This is worrisome news from all quarters. Wood had hoped for a return to form after an injury-riddled 2019 showing, while the Dodgers have already had several health issues crop up elsewhere on the starting staff. David Price opted out of the 2020 season citing concern regarding the ongoing pandemic. Clayton Kershaw was scratched from his Opening Day start just hours before he took the hill and placed on the IL with a back issue. And the game at large can ill afford the rash of pitching injuries that seems to be cropping up after a quick ramp-up to competitive action.
All that said, the Dodgers do still possess quite a bit of quality, healthy arms. Walker Buehler has emerged as one of the game’s elite starters, and Los Angeles can support him in the rotation with Ross Stripling, Julio Urias and top prospect Dustin May. Right-hander Tony Gonsolin was effective in last year’s debut campaign and looms in the team’s player pool, as do well-regarded prospects Josiah Gray and Mitchell White.
Wood has battled injury troubles throughout his career, and it’s easy to forget just how effective he can be when he’s healthy and at his best. From 2015-17, the still-29-year-old Wood logged 364 1/3 frames for the Dodgers and registered a tidy 3.29 ERA (3.39 FIP) with 8.7 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, 0.84 HR/9 and a 51.3 percent grounder rate.
Clayton Kershaw Expects To Make 2020 Debut Soon
Just hours before their season began Thursday, the Dodgers unexpectedly placed left-handed ace Clayton Kershaw on the injured list because of back stiffness. Fortunately for Los Angeles, though, it doesn’t appear Kershaw will be out for long. The 32-year-old threw from 90 feet Friday and offered a positive update on his status, telling Ken Gurnick of MLB.com and other reporters he’s optimistic that he’ll return soon.
With Kershaw down for Thursday’s opener against the archrival Giants, the loaded Dodgers turned to right-hander Dustin May as their starter. The hard-throwing 22-year-old proceeded to turn in an effective performance with 4 1/3 innings of seven-hit, one-run ball, adding four strikeouts against zero walks in an 8-1 Dodgers romp.
Of course, even though the Dodgers’ first game went well in Kershaw’s absence, there’s no question they’re a better team with the eight-time All-Star and three-time National League Cy Young winner in their rotation. Kershaw wasn’t at peak form last year, yet he still notched 178 1/3 innings of 3.03 ERA/3.86 FIP pitching with 9.54 K/9 and 2.07 BB/9.
The Dodgers will be glad to welcome Kershaw back when he’s ready, but there’s no timeline for his return as of now. For the time being, then, May will continue to complement budding ace Walker Buehler, Ross Stripling, Julio Urias and Alex Wood in the Dodgers’ rotation.
Dodgers Place Clayton Kershaw On Injured List, Recall Dustin May
The Dodgers announced that they’ve placed scheduled Opening Day starter Clayton Kershaw on the injured list and recalled right-hander Dustin May from their alternate training site. The team has termed Kershaw’s injury as “back stiffness” and will surely provide more details in the near future. Kershaw had been slated to take the hill against the Giants just under four hours from now. May will take the ball in place of Kershaw tonight.
Kershaw incurred his current injury in the weight room earlier this week, manager Dave Roberts tells reporters, adding that right now he’s unsure as to when the left-hander will be able to return (Twitter links via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com). May was made aware of the possibility of this switch last night, per the manager.
With Kershaw suddenly and unexpectedly shelved, the Dodgers’ rotation will now consist of May, Walker Buehler, Ross Stripling, Julio Urias and Alex Wood. It’s still a talented group with plenty of intriguing option in reserve — Tony Gonsolin, Mitchell White and Josiah Gray among them — but it’s clearly a thinner group than anticipated just a few weeks ago when both Kershaw and David Price were still in the picture. That said, the ability to cultivate this type of depth is one of the reasons that the Dodgers have been so successful under the current front office regime.
In turning the ball over to the 22-year-old May, Los Angeles will entrust the season’s first start to one of MLB’s premier pitching prospects. The 6’6″ May made his big league debut in 2019, pitching to a 3.63 ERA with a 32-to-5 K/BB ratio in 34 2/3 frames before adding 3 1/3 innings of one-run ball in the NLDS. A third-round pick back in 2016, May notched a combined 3.38 ERA between Double-A and Triple-A in 2019, including a 2.30 ERA in 27 1/3 frames in a supercharged Triple-A offensive environment.
May is widely regarded to be one of the game’s 25 best overall prospects, so it’s not as though the Dodgers are simply crossing their fingers and hoping that a minor league call-up can hold his own while filling in for an injured star. May is expected to be a key part both of the team’s future and its success in 2020, although he’ll obviously be asked to contribute sooner than the organization had initially anticipated.
Dodgers Select Terrance Gore, Option Dustin May
The Dodgers have made a few final roster decisions in advance of their opening contest, as reflected on their transactions page (h/t Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times, on Twitter). Speedy outfielder Terrance Gore has been selected to the 40-man roster, while young righty Dustin May was optioned to the team’s alternative training site.
It’s easy to see the merits of carrying a speed demon like Gore with expanded rosters early in the season. The 29-year-old has never hit much at any level, but he’s among the fastest players in recent MLB memory. Gore’s pinch-running prowess was on full display with the 2014-15 Royals World Series clubs, and he’ll give the Dodgers some additional range in the outfield should they wish to use him in that capacity as well. Gore seems like the type of player who may eventually be set to alternate camp when the roster is trimmed to 28 and eventually 26 players, but he’ll give the club a unique weapon off the bench early in the year.
As for May, he’ll head to alternate camp to continue getting some work in while the Dodgers rely on a more experienced starting staff that features Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Alex Wood, Ross Stripling and Julio Urias. There are some obvious potential service time benefits to sending May down to begin the year, but given that he already accrued more than a third of a season of service last year, that might not be the sole motivation. He’d need to spend several weeks in the minors to fall shy of a full year and extend the club’s control over him.
May, 22, is considered one of the game’s premier prospects and turned in a 3.63 ERA with a 32-to-5 K/BB ratio in 34 2/3 frames as a rookie in 2019. He maintains that rookie status into 2020.
Dodgers Extend Mookie Betts
7:24pm: Betts’ contract includes a massive $65MM signing bonus, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports (via Twitter). The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal adds that the contract contains $115MM in deferrals, and the salaries are backloaded such that Betts will be paid $17.5MM in 2021 and 2022. There are no opt-outs in the deal, which does not come with a no-trade clause, per Rosenthal.
4:01pm: Mookie Betts is a Dodger for the long haul. The team announced this afternoon that Betts has signed a 12-year extension through the 2032 season. It’ll reportedly guarantee him a whopping $365MM in new money on top of this year’s $27MM salary (which has been prorated to $10MM due to the shortened 2020 season). Betts is represented by the VC Sports Group.
The contract represents the largest amount of new money ever promised to a Major League player on an extension or free-agent signing, topping Mike Trout‘s previous highwater mark of $360MM (over a shorter 10-year term). Trout was already signed at two years and $66.5MM, so his total of 12 years and $426.5MM tops Betts’ 13-year, $392MM figure, but the $365MM new-money benchmark is a notable record nevertheless.
The Betts extension, somewhat remarkably, marks the first time that the Dodgers have guaranteed in excess of $100MM to a player under president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. Though the team is known for its enormous — at times seemingly limitless — spending capacity, the Friedman regime has worked diligently to shed some prior undesirable commitments and creatively limbo underneath the luxury-tax bar. Doing so paved the way for the Dodgers to issue a historic contract to a premium talent.
After missing out on a free-agent pursuit of Gerrit Cole this winter, the team shifted its focus to acquiring Betts, who came to L.A. alongside David Price in a blockbuster trade that sent Alex Verdugo, Jeter Downs and Connor Wong to Boston. There was plenty of talk about the team’s hope for extending Betts, but he’d been outspoken about his desire to test the open market. Paired with the economic uncertainty stemming from this year’s unprecedented revenue losses, there was real reason to wonder whether a deal would get done.
Perhaps that economic turmoil made Betts more amenable to taking a deal now rather than testing the market, or perhaps he was simply willing all along to sign if a team exceeded Trout’s new-money guarantee. His exact thinking likely won’t ever be fully known, but the end result is that Betts now appears poised to spend the remainder of an already excellent career in Dodger blue.
Still just 27 years of age, Betts has produced at star-caliber levels since a 52-game MLB debut back in 2014. A career .301/.379/.519 hitter, Betts is already a four-time All-Star, a three-time Silver Slugger winner, a former American League MVP and batting champion, and a four-time Gold Glove winner. He’s clubbed 139 home runs and swiped 126 bases in 794 Major League games, showing off an impressive blend of power and speed, and his 13.5 percent walk rate over the past two seasons is nearly the same as his paltry 14.5 percent strikeout rate. Add in that Betts is regarded as an otherworldly defender — he’s third among all players in Defensive Runs Saved since 2015, regardless of position — and it’s easy to see why Betts is regarded among the game’s elite players.
The Dodgers already boasted at least one of those elite talents: reigning NL MVP Cody Bellinger. Betts and Bellinger will pair to form what could be baseball’s best one-two punch for at least the next four seasons, as Bellinger is controlled through at least the 2023 season. Out-of-nowhere slugger Max Muncy is also inked through the ’23 campaign on a highly reasonable three-year, $26MM pact, so that trio should continue thriving in the heart of the order for the foreseeable future. The hope is that rising young talents like infielder Gavin Lux and catcher Will Smith will add to that long-term core. Looking shorter-term, the Dodgers are stacked with above-average contributors, including Corey Seager (controlled through 2021), Justin Turner (through 2020), Chris Taylor (through 2021) and Enrique Hernandez (through 2020).
From a payroll and luxury-tax standpoint, the Dodgers can afford to both sign Betts and still pursue a megadeal with Bellinger, should they see fit. Betts’ contract comes with a $30.4MM annual luxury hit (or $30.1MM, if they roll it into the current deal), which is sizable but still only represents about a seventh of next year’s $210MM luxury cap. (That number could well rise in 2021 CBA negotiations, too.) Los Angeles already has more than $152MM in luxury commitments on the 2021 books, including this new deal for Betts, but that number plummets to $73MM in 2022. Betts is the only Dodger on a guaranteed deal for the 2023 season (although Bellinger, Walker Buehler and Julio Urias will all be arbitration-eligible).
With today’s agreement, Betts, Bellinger and Buehler look like the long-term faces of the Dodgers franchise, though the club has boundless young talent, a knack for high-profile trades and as previously noted, plenty of money to spend even with Betts pulling in more than $30MM on an annual basis. The Dodgers have won seven straight NL West titles, and the Betts deal is a strong step toward continuing that trend. That, of course, won’t be enough to satisfy Betts, though. As the star put it during today’s introductory press conference: “I’m here to win some rings.”
WEEI’s Lou Merloni reported earlier today that Betts was closing in on an extension worth more than $300MM. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported the agreement and the terms just prior to the team’s announcement (Twitter thread).
Dodgers Finalizing Extension With Mookie Betts
1:21pm: The new portion of Betts’ contract, once finalized, will guarantee him around 12 years and $350MM on top of this year’s $27MM salary, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link).
The structuring of the deal is in many ways semantics, but it’s worth noting that in terms of new money, Betts’ extension may not top the new money promised to Trout on his prior long-term deal. Referencing the Betts deal as a 13-year, $380MM contract may skew things such that it appears Betts has set a new record, but by that logic, Trout’s contract should be referred to as a 12-year, $426.5MM deal (i.e. the sum of his preexisting two years and $66.5MM and his 10-year, $360MM extension).
If the deal indeed lands Betts in the $380MM range over 13 years, including his 2020 salary, his contract then boils down to the second-richest ever promised to a big league player (whether looking at total guarantee or new money promised on an extension).
11:54am: Betts will top Trout’s deal if the contract is completed, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter).
It’s expected that the deal will actually cover twelve additional seasons, per Jeff Passan of ESPN.com (via Twitter). The total forward-looking guarantee would top $380MM, Passan adds, including Betts’s salary for the 2020 season. (It’s not clear whether that tally includes Betts’s full $27MM or only the pro-rated portion thereof.)
10:42am: In a stunning development that would mark a massive shift in a moribund player market, the Dodgers appear to be closing in on a long-term extension with recently acquired star Mookie Betts. WEEI.com’s Lou Merloni hears that the sides are nearing agreement even as Betts prepares to don the Dodger blue for the first time tomorrow. Joel Sherman tweets that talks are indeed “quite real.”
If completed, the contract would cover a ten-year term and guarantee Betts somewhere in the neighborhood of $350MM to $400MM, according to the report. It sounds as if it would come in right near, if not over, the ten-year, $360MM Mike Trout pact that currently stands as the largest-ever MLB contract.
The Dodgers paid a significant price in prospects and took on a lot of salary (both for Betts and David Price) in order to secure just one season from the 27-year-old. It always seemed the team had designs on a lengthier relationship, though it wasn’t at all clear that vows would be exchanged before Betts hit the open market.
Until the paperwork is complete, Betts stands as the obvious top talent of the 2020-21 free agent class. As MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes explained in his pre-pandemic power rankings, Betts, who is represented by VC Sports Group, seemed situated to “reasonably seek a ten-year term with an average annual value in the $36-40MM range.”
Betts would have represented one of the most interesting-ever free agent cases. Recent market swings and upcoming collective bargaining negotiations provided a fascinating backdrop for the bidding on such a youthful, high-quality player. And then the coronavirus came along, overlaying broad uncertainty onto the situation.
It seems that both the Dodgers and Betts saw a path to limit the risk by striking a bargain now. They’ve certainly had time to get to know one another under trying circumstances over the past several months, even if Betts hasn’t yet recorded any stats for the storied ballclub.
Dodgers Sign Jake McGee
The Dodgers have announced the signing of lefty Jake McGee. McGee is signing right onto the 40-man roster and will presumably have a spot on the active roster to open the season.
Injured righty Jimmy Nelson has been placed on the 45-day injured list, thus freeing a roster spot. Nelson will miss the entire season after undergoing back surgery, as has been anticipated for several weeks.
McGee was just cut loose by the division-rival Rockies even as he prepared for the final guaranteed season of his contract. The Colorado org will remain on the hook for the pro-rated portion of his $9MM salary, less a pro-rated portion of the league minimum for any time he spends on the Dodgers active roster.
It’d certainly sting for the Rox to see McGee thrive in Los Angeles, but the southpaw will need to figure things out to make that happen. Soon to turn 34, McGee is coming off of a messy 2019 campaign in which he was likely fortunate to carry a 4.35 ERA despite permitting 2.4 home runs per nine innings.
McGee’s swinging-strike rate dropped to 8.6% as he continued to surrender fastball velocity to the hands of time. It’ll be interesting to see what the Dodgers have in mind to prolong McGee’s career, now that he’s no longer bringing the elite speed he once did. He turned increasingly to his slider last year with some success, but still went to his trusty heater in four of every five deliveries.
Dodgers Option Gavin Lux
The Dodgers have optioned talented young infielder Gavin Lux,. Lux had recently returned to Summer Camp after an unexplained absence that may or may not have been related to the coronavirus.
It’s not immediately clear why the Dodgers decided against carrying Lux to open the season. It had long been expected he’d be a key part of the roster after destroying upper-minors pitching in 2019 and holding his own over his MLB debut. That may still come to pass, but Lux will begin the year at the team’s alternate training site awaiting another call-up.
There’s obviously some potential here for service-time implications for the 22-year-old. He logged only 28 days in the majors last year, so even a brief absence in a shortened season could leave him shy of a full year of service when the 2020 campaign wraps up.
Lux obviously has nothing more to prove in the minors, so this decision surely isn’t about his development. With thirty active roster spots, there’s ample space to work with, though the Dodgers are surely committed to carrying loads of extra pitching. The uber-deep organization certainly has many viable candidates to cycle through at second base, where Lux had been the presumed option, though it’s still a bit difficult to imagine he truly fell short on a pure talent assessment.
It’ll be interesting to see how the organization (and Lux himself) discuss the decision when reporters have a chance to pose some questions. It could be there’s some as-yet-unknown developmental or motivational prerogative, or perhaps the Dodgers feel Lux is just in need of further work after a layoff. Whatever the reasoning, the service implications are hard to ignore given that the team could stand to pick up an extra year of control on the back end.
Dodgers Add 3 To Player Pool, Activate Pedro Baez From Injured List
Outfielder Terrance Gore and infielders Kody Hoese and Devin Mann have all been added to the Dodgers’ 60-man player pool, MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick reports (Twitter link). In other roster news, right-hander Pedro Baez was already in the player pool but has now been activated from the 10-day injured list.
There is some mystery to the Baez news, as Gurnick notes that the team hadn’t previously announced that Baez was on the IL, or why he had been absent from Summer Camp. The lack of information inevitably leads to COVID-19 speculation (whether Baez tested positive for the virus or perhaps was just held up by a delay in getting test results back), though we won’t know for certain unless Baez agrees for such information to be made public.
Whatever the case, the Dodgers bullpen will be bolstered by the return of a pitcher who become a key part of the relief corps. The 32-year-old has a 3.03 ERA, 3.15 K/BB rate, and 9.5 K/9 over 339 career relief innings for Los Angeles, and delivered just a touch below those career norms over 69 2/3 frames in 2019. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told Gurnick and other media that Baez is expected to be ready for Opening Day, and will throw a simulated game against teammates at some point this week.
Of the new players joining the player pool, Gore is the best-known name, as the outfielder has appeared in 100 Major League games over the last six seasons. The majority of that experience has come as a pinch-running specialist, as Gore has only 77 plate appearances (and a career .608 OPS) to his resume, though he has stolen 40 bases from 49 attempts. That total jumps to 45-for-55 if you count postseason games, and Gore was a valuable bench piece for the Royals in their back-to-back trips to the World Series in 2014 and 2015.
Hoese was selected 25th overall in the 2019 draft, and the Tulane product has a .299/.380/.483 slash line over 171 plate appearances as a pro. Since Hoese has yet to play above the A-ball level, his inclusion in the player pool is likely more about getting him some high-level reps in training camp than it will be about potentially making his MLB debut in short order. The same could be true of Mann, a fifth-round pick in 2018 who has also yet to advance beyond high-A. Hoese and Mann rank seventh and 22nd, respectively, on MLB Pipeline’s list of the top 30 Dodgers prospects.