2026 contract details make Dodgers' Blake Treinen mess far more ghastly

When Blake Treinen came into Game 5 of the World Series in the top of the ninth, Dodgers fans knew that it was well and truly over. The Dodgers were down by five runs and have far too anemic an offense to even hope to stage a rally, so Treinen's presence may as well have been a white flag. He hasn't appeared as late as the ninth since the NLCS opener, and he looked dangerously close to blowing that one, too.

In Game 3 of the World Series, he was responsible for giving up the Blue Jays' (final, ultimately futile) go-ahead run in the seventh. In Game 4, he was responsible for giving up two back-to-back RBI singles, which were added to Anthony Banda's line. He had a clean inning in Game 5, but it didn't matter.

Treinen now has a 6.75 ERA in the postseason, and that doesn't even count the runs on Banda's ledger he allowed to score. He had a 9.64 ERA in the last month of the regular season.

Dodgers fans want Treinen off the roster yesterday, but there's an awful wrinkle: the Dodgers owe him $13.5 million in 2026. It's not an option. It's salary.

They could always just release him, sure, but they'd still be on the hook for that money, and Dodgers fans would much prefer if he didn't see a cent more.

Dodgers still owe Blake Treinen $13.5 million for 2026

Tanner Scott, Blake Treinen, and Kirby Yates have come together to form the three-headed monster that exemplifies the Dodgers' bullpen failures this season. Together, they made around $34.32 million this season, and Scott and Treinen will make $26.09 million next year.

$13.5 million is a drop in the bucket for the Dodgers, but with the faith that Dave Roberts continues to misguidedly place in him, there's no reason to believe that he'll be going anywhere in the offseason. Maybe he'll even improve next year, but that won't erase the utter failure of this season that might help the Blue Jays fell the Dodgers.

And the thing is ... it seems unlikely that the Dodgers will do anything different in the offseason. If anything, they're going to overspend on relievers again and hope that the next batch turns out better than the ones this year did.

It's all they can do, really, because even the homegrown bullpen guys haven't been working out this season in a larger sample size. A deeper dive is absolutely necessary in the offseason, and the massive overpay to Treinen is going to hang over everything.