Rafy comes home

by Phil Gurnee on Dec 17, 2008 7:18 PM PST

I wasn't keen on a 3 year deal for Rafy but at these prices I'd have a hard time coming up with a negative reaction. MLB is reporting the contract as

Furcal receives salaries of $6.5 million, $8.5 million and $12 million. The team option for 2012 is for $12 million, but vests with 600 plate appearances in 2011. There is a $3 million deferred signing bonus.

We could have some pain in 2011 if he isn't healthy but I'm sure glad we will have him in 2009, even as I worry about his health. They even structured the contract perfectly to coincide with the contracts that drop off next year. I'm very impressed that we just didn't walk away from this deal but worked at it until both sides were happy.

This should not block DeJesus in that he can either move to 2nd, move to CF, Furcal can move to CF, or we could simply trade DeJesus/ DeWitt for some young pitching.

Below is the updated salary table. One column is estimated and one is current. As you can see once we add in the expected arbitration amounts for Martin, Ethier, and Broxton, the expected salary for Manny, and a possible starting pitcher we are close to hitting $120 Million. The salaries of Pierre/Jones/Schmidt are still hurting us. If we sign Manny I have to believe that something will be done with either Pierre or Jones to mitigate the salary in 2009. If we don't sign Manny we could have a sub $100 million budget in 2009.

2009 Dodger Salary Overview

Name	POS	Age	Est-2009	Current-2009
Russell Martin	C	26	$5,000,000	$500,000
Back Catcher	C	???	$825,000	$825,000
James Loney	1st	25	$450,000	$450,000
Blake DeWitt	2nd	23	$410,000	$410,000
Mark Loretta	Utility	35	$1,250,000	$1,250,000
Rafael Furcal	SS	31	$7,500,000	$7,500,000
Chin Lung Hu	SS	25	$400,000	$400,000
Casey Blake	3rd	35	$5,000,000	$5,000,000
Andre Ethier	OF	27	$3,000,000	$400,000
Juan Pierre	OF	32	$10,000,000	$10,000,000
Matt Kemp	OF	24	$450,000	$450,000
Andruw Jones	OF	32	$17,100,000	$17,100,000
Manny Ramirez	OF	36	$23,000,000	$
Tony Abreu	Bench	24	$415,000	$415,000
Delywan Young	Bench	27	$410,000	$410,000
Cory Wade	RP	26	$410,000	$410,000
Takashi Saito	RP	39	$2,200,000	$
Jonathan Broxton	RP	25	$2,000,000	$450,000
Relief Pitcher	RP	???	$	$
Ramon Troncoso	RP	26	$410,000	$410,000
Hong-Chih Kuo	RP	28	$450,000	$450,000
Scott Elbert	RP	23	$410,000	$410,000
Chad Billingsley	SP	25	$600,000	$415,000
Hiroki Kuroda	SP	34	$12,400,000	$12,400,000
Clayton Kershaw	SP	21	$410,000	$410,000
Starting Pitcher	SP	???	$6,000,000	$
Eric Stults	SP	29	$410,000	$410,000
James McDonald	SP	24	$410,000	$410,000
Jason Schmidt	SP	36	$15,500,000	$15,500,000
Totals			$116,820,000	$76,785,000

Don't nitpick a 10,000 - 50,000 difference as we will get them fixed when we get the final amounts but if you see large errors like the $7Million - $5Million for Blake or the error on Ethier's age please let me know. Remember the amounts for Martin, Broxton, Billingsley, and Ethier are estimates.

0 recs | 6 comments

Comments

The Dodgers have options.

We could always trade away Furcal, or Blake. Or bench Blake later on in his contract which seems more likely.

Tripon - December 17, 2008 reply

Agreed

This is a great deal and gives us a lot of flexibility all of a sudden. Its cheap for a player of Furcal’s caliber (considering Lohse signed 4/41 earlier in the offseason, and Lowe might get more than double this much money for just one extra year, and he’s 4 years older!) and won’t hurt us too much even if he is injured frequently. I am excited to see him on our team again.

Brendan Scolari - December 18, 2008 reply