Daily Archives: November 18, 2011

Dodgers Add Five, Remove Ely & Monasterios

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Today – by which I mean, about an hour from now – is the deadline to add eligible players to the 40-man roster before the Rule 5 draft, which takes place on December 8. I saw a lot of teams announce who they’d be adding this morning, but clearly the Dodgers took just about every minute available to them. As a reminder, eligible players who were not added to the 40-man roster are exposed to the draft, and if they’re selected they must stay on their new team’s 25-man roster (or disabled list) for the entire season – like Carlos Monasterios did in 2010.

Minor leaguers Scott Van Slyke and Alfredo Silverio were added a few weeks ago, and they’ll be joined by outfielder Alex Castellanos and pitchers Michael Antonini, Josh Wall, Chris Withrow, and Stephen Fife. Only Wall and Withrow were Dodger draftees; Castellanos came from the Cardinals in the Rafael Furcal deal, Antonini came from the Mets for Chin-lung Hu, and Fife came from Boston as a part of the Trayvon Robinson trade. Monasterios and John Ely were removed from the 40-man and outrighted to Triple-A, though that doesn’t necessarily mean their time with the Dodgers is over. That puts the 40-man roster at 38, at least until Hong-Chih Kuo is inevitably non-tendered, and Dana Eveland, Ramon Troncoso, Trent Oeltjen, and Jamie Hoffmann could all easily be removed if space becomes an issue.

Brandon Lennox at TrueBlueLA has a list of interesting eligible names who weren’t added, most of which will mean absolutely nothing to you:

Ethan Martin, Kyle Russell, Tony Delmonico, Jon Michael Redding, Cole St. Clair, Nick Buss, Jordan Roberts, Austin Gallagher, Andres Santiago, Chris Jacobs, Griff Erickson, Justin Miller, Tim Sexton, Jaime Pedroza, Matt Wallach, Pedro Baez, Geison Aguasviva, Rafael Ynoa, Carlos Frias, Bladimir Franco, Ramon Jean, Jose Dominguez, Daniel Tamares, Charlie Mirabal, Pedro Guerrero, Elian Herrera, Josh Walter, Steve Smith, Joseph Becker, Robert Booth

Not 100% sure on E Martin, but I do think he is eligible

While it may seem surprising to see interesting names like Erickson and Russell unprotected, remember, a team would have to carry such a player on their big-league roster all season, making them unlikely to take such a risk. To be honest, the name that stands out there to me is lefty Cole St. Clair, who has struck out 187 in 176.1 minor-league innings, with a 46/13 K/BB in Double-A last year. He’s occasionally been mentioned as someone who might be a depth piece for the Dodger bullpen last year, so it wouldn’t be a complete surprise if a pitching-needy team snaps him up. (That goes for Martin as well, though as Lennox mentions, I’m unsure of his eligibility.)

Matt Kemp Officially Agrees to New Contract

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Right about now at Dodger Stadium, the team is preparing to make the announcement we’ve been waiting for all week – confirmation of Matt Kemp‘s new eight-year, $160m contract. Dylan Hernandez has the yearly breakdown:

2012: $10m (includes $2m signing bonus + $2m deferred to 2013)
2013: $20m
2014: $21m
2015: $21m
2016: $21.5m
2017: $21.5m
2018: $21.5m
2019: $21.5m
Signing bonus: $2m

Kemp reportedly does not have a no-trade clause included, though that’s largely irrelevant; either he’ll play well enough that the Dodgers won’t want to move him or the dollar figure will make him impossible to move anyway. (Unless Tony Reagins gets another GM gig, I suppose.)

The big item there is that Kemp will count as only $8m against this year’s budget, a big deal since he might have otherwise made in the $14m-16m range through arbitration. With the concerns about what’s left to fit under the 2012 payroll ceiling, taking back a few extra million might just be the difference between Hiroki Kuroda or pretending I like Chris Capuano, Aaron Harang or Jeff Francis. As for the deal itself, having had a few days to digest this, my feelings haven’t really changed. This is an enormous amount of money, by far the biggest in both team & league history, and there’s inherent risk that goes along with that. But if you’re going to make that gamble, making it on an athletic outfielder that you know well and who is just entering his prime is a much smarter choise than doing it on a player already into his 30s who is an uncertain commodity. (Yes, I’m talking about Jayson Werth‘s seven-year deal, though others apply as well.) As risks go, this is among the safer ones, though it’d be nice if the contract also contained language restricting Davey Lopes from ever wandering more than 50 feet from Dodger Stadium for the rest of his life.

Besides, though there’s no arguing the shocking dollar amounts here, this isn’t likely to be the biggest or even the second-biggest contract signing of the offseason. Albert Pujols could get north of $200m, and Prince Fielder is still targeting Ryan Howard‘s $25m/year as his baseline. Once we see where those land, ~$20m/year for a player who is neither over 30 (like Pujols), terrifyingly built (like Fielder), or tethered to first base (like both) could seem almost like a bargain. Even if Kemp doesn’t exactly repeat his fantastic 2011 every season, he’s still likely to be the 4-5 win player that it’d take to make this contract worthwhile.

Taking a larger view, this signing was more important than just baseball, anyway. Sure, locking up your MVP candidate center fielder is fantastic, but as I hardly need to remind you, the last two years have been nightmarish for the Dodgers and their fans. Letting their most marketable homegrown star walk for nothing – or even having to deal with an entire 2012 of “is this Kemp’s last season?” - would have been yet another massive PR disaster after dozens upon dozens of them.

If that required paying a premium, well, so be it. It’s a good day to be Matt Kemp, I’m guessing; it’s definitely a good day to be a Dodger fan.