4 Dodgers facing uncertain futures heading into 2022 season

This offseason has induced plenty of stress on the Los Angeles Dodgers and their fans. With so many impending free agents, they were only able to do so much before the lockout. The abbreviated timeline really hurt them with Corey Seager and Max Scherzer.

Don’t forget about Clayton Kershaw and Kenley Jansen, either. We have no idea if either of those guys will return for 2022 and we’d bet one of them is surely gone (Jansen). If that wasn’t bad enough, apparently the Dodgers weren’t expecting to lose Seager in the fashion they did and Scherzer, before clarifying what he meant, seemingly took a shot at the Dodgers over his usage down the stretch in 2021.

Unfortunately, there’s a long road ahead for LA. They still have to sort out a lot of issues after the lockout and things don’t get any easier next offseason when they’ll be faced with a number of other tough decisions on a different group of players.

On top of having multiple guys hitting free agency, there are also a few team options the front office will have to exercise or decline, and none of them are cheap. So what does the future hold in Los Angeles? Is this current core of Dodgers baseball nearly finished as we know it?

These 3 Dodgers are facing uncertain futures heading into 2022.

4. David Price

The main reason Price is on this list is because his MLB future in general is uncertain after 2022. He’s contributed next to nothing for the Dodgers ever since coming over in the Mookie Betts trade, and he missed out on the team’s World Series run in 2020 when he opted out due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic.

Price has pitched in just 39 games, totaling 73.2 innings, and we wouldn’t be surprised if the Dodgers sent him packing after the lockout in some sort of salary dump deal to get rid of his $16 million against the luxury tax. He was ineffective as a starter and reliever in 2021 after having pitched just 181 innings since the start of 2019. There’s no use for him and it’s evident he won’t be with the 2020 champs after this season.

We’re not saying the Red Sox “won” the Betts trade, but they were able to get an MLB-caliber outfielder (Alex Verdugo) out of it in addition to a couple of top prospects (Connor Wong and Jeter Downs) and were still able to make the ALCS in 2021 without having to pay Betts $365 million. The Dodgers got a World Series out of it, so that’s all that matters, but two years of Price at $16 million per and now Betts on the payroll through 2032 are certainly burdens of sorts.