The Dodgers Should Hope Yasmani Grandal Accepts the Qualifying Offer

The Dodgers tendered a qualifying offer to Yasmani Grandal.  If Grandal accepted, that would be the best case scenario for the Dodgers.

The Dodgers sent Yasmani Grandal a qualifying offer this week.  For those who don’t fully understand how the qualifying offer works, here is a good read up.  In layman’s terms, Yasmani Grandal could accept a one year deal with the Dodgers worth $17.9 million or he can choose to test free agency.  Grandal has until November 12 to accept the QO.

For the Dodgers sake, it would be in their best interest if Grandal decided to accept the qualifying offer.  While Yasmani had a rough ending to his season, particularly in the playoffs, he is still one of the premier catchers in baseball.  In fact out of all the postseason teams, an argument can be made that Grandal was the best.

There is no doubt that Yasmani Grandal was atrocious in October, but given an off season to clear his mind, and a contract year to motivate him to show up in shape, this could be the perfect storm.for the Dodgers if Grandal decides to take the QO.  Part of the reason is that the Dodgers have no viable internal replacements who will be ready for 2019.

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Austin Barnes took over as the every day starter in the postseason and basically gave the Dodgers two easy outs at the end of their lineup.  Barnes hit below .100 and every ball he put in play seemed to be a weak ground ball or a pop fly.  Barnes as anything other than a backup would be unacceptable.

In the minors the Dodgers have three stellar catching prospects in Will Smith, Keibert Ruiz, and Diego Cartaya.  Cartaya was an international free agent singing and is only sixteen years old, so he is a handful of years away.  Keibert Ruiz is one of the best catching prospects in baseball, but he is at least one more season away from being ready for the big leagues.

Then there is Will Smith who is the closest to being big league ready.  Smith hit nineteen home runs in only 73 games for the Double-A Tulsa Drillers but he struggled in his brief stint at AAA.  In Triple-A OKC, Will Smith hit just .138 with one home run.  It’s possible that the Dodgers could give Smith a shot to win the job in spring training, but if he’s not ready then the Dodgers would have issues at catcher.

The free agent market only has one other legit starting catcher in Wilson Ramons, but Ramos is not good defensively and will want multiple years.  With their abundance of minor league catching talent, the Dodgers just need a one to two year fill the gap catcher.  This is why it would be perfect if Grandal decided to accept the qualifying offer.

While the trade market does have JT Realmuto, the price is going to be substantial in terms of prospects and Andrew Friedman has not shown a willingness to deal away multiple top prospects.  With Keibert Ruiz and Will Smith a season away from being ready, it would be great for the Dodgers if Grandal decided to take the qualifying offer and return to LA for one more season.