Dodgers Quick Hits: Contracts, Martin Maldonado, Yusei Kikuchi

The Dodgers deadline to non-tender or tender contracts to their arbitration eligible players was straightforward as every player was tendered a contract.

On Friday the Dodgers tendered a contract to all ten of their arbitration eligible players which were Alex Wood, Tony Cingrani, Joc Pederson, Enrique Hernandez, Chris Taylor, Corey Seager, Pedro Baez, Josh Fields, and Yimi Garcia. The Dodgers also agreed to a one year deal with Tony Cingrani for 2.65 million which is a bit of a surprise since the money is guaranteed.

While none of the tenders is too surprising, it is a bit surprising that the Dodgers kept Yimi Garcia since he didn’t pitch well in the big leagues or Triple-A last season.  Tony Cingrani received a slight raise which is a little surprising since he was plagued by injuries in 2018.  The biggest arbitration salaries will be Alex Wood and Yasiel Puig who are projected to earn around nine and eleven million dollars.

Other news…

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• The Dodgers’ possible starting catcher options shrunk again on Friday as the Indians traded Yan Gomes to the Washington Nationals.  The Nationals have now acquired Kurt Suzuki and Yan Gomes this off-season which is pretty solid considering how weak the market is for starting catchers.  Jeff Mathis is another free agent option who has already signed.
• There are also rumors that the Dodgers are keeping in touch with Martin Maldonado.  Maldonado is another free agent option who isn’t known to hit well but topped out at fourteen home runs in 2017.  While he has a cannon arm behind the plate, there is not much that Maldonado would bring that makes him a big upgrade over Austin Barnes.  The best option remains starting Austin Barnes.
• The Dodgers and Indians still remain in talks about one of the Indians’ starters coming too LA.  Trevor Bauer and Corey Kluber are the two who could be dealt to LA as the Indians look to reallocate some of their funds into other positions of need.  Yadier Alvarez and Yasiel Puig are two names that have been linked to trade rumors.  Bauer has two years of team control left and Kluber has three seasons locked in.

• Another Japanese pitching star is on his way to the big leagues and the Dodgers are one of the teams in on Yusei Kikuchi.  Judging off the teams interested, it seems like Kikuchi would like to stay on the west coast regardless of the league.  The posting date is December 5th and once that clock begins teams have thirty days to try and sign him.