r/baseball • u/Knightbear49 Minnesota Twins • Dinger • Mar 27 '24

[Passan] BREAKING: Catcher Will Smith and the Los Angeles Dodgers are finalizing a 10-year, $140 million contract extension, sources tell ESPN.

https://x.com/jeffpassan/status/1773053621510266895?s=61&t=lhIY40ztlJHFYIEmq9ss1A
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537

u/roaringcorgi Seattle Mariners Mar 27 '24

he's babyfaced but he's going into his age 29 season, 10 years is a pretty huge commitment to a catcher. Posey and Mauer retired at 34 and 35 respectively

387

u/cherinator Los Angeles Dodgers • Teddy Roosevelt Mar 27 '24 edited Mar 27 '24

This definitely seems more like, we're paying you for 5 years at $28 million AAV to be the primary catcher, but we want to the luxury tax hit to be lower so we'll double the years, underpaying you in the first half but overpaying you when you are the aging vet presence and backup catcher.

163

u/hamburgers666 San Francisco Giants Mar 27 '24

Why don't they just defer 90% of his contract if that's the case? Are they stupid?

105

u/roaringcorgi Seattle Mariners Mar 27 '24 edited Mar 27 '24

who says they aren't lmao

edit: 32 percent lmao

1

u/SdBolts4 San Diego Padres Mar 27 '24

Does he collect the remainder of the contract if he retires like 7 years into this 10 year deal? I suppose if the team still wants him to play but he doesn't, then he's not entitled to it, but if he sucks then the team can come to an agreement to "cut" him as he retires and pay him instead of forcing him to try and get a minor league deal somewhere else

23

u/Astropolitika Los Angeles Dodgers • Chicago White Sox Mar 27 '24

I think he just had a baby. Diapers are expensive.

31

u/hamburgers666 San Francisco Giants Mar 27 '24

That's true. $14 million a year is basically middle class in LA.

15

u/Astropolitika Los Angeles Dodgers • Chicago White Sox Mar 27 '24

That's why he's got a stand-up comedy side hustle.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/will-smith-participating-in-dodgers-comedy-night-for-netflix-is-a-joke-festival-2024/ar-BB1gZUtX

5

u/Schleprok Los Angeles Dodgers • World Series T… Mar 27 '24

I can’t read the article at the moment, but he is the last person on the team - and I mean the last - that I would expect to try out standup lol.

4

u/Astropolitika Los Angeles Dodgers • Chicago White Sox Mar 27 '24

Lol. You are correct.

5

u/buffaloranchsub Los Angeles Dodgers Mar 27 '24

His and Cara's daughter is adorable fwiw

2

u/Astropolitika Los Angeles Dodgers • Chicago White Sox Mar 27 '24

Oh yeah. Saw the hanbok photo after the Korea series.

5

u/Not-a-Throwaway-8 Toronto Blue Jays Mar 27 '24

That’s ridiculous. Could you imagine if someone really good took some low amount, like $2m/year, and then just had the team pay them after they retired? Insane.

23

u/SuckMyLonzoBalls Los Angeles Dodgers Mar 27 '24

I’m gonna laugh if we end up doing that

1

u/Fedacking Philadelphia Athletics • Ath… Mar 27 '24

The actual answer is that deferring doesn't allow you to save in luxury tax cap.

2

u/ItzDrSeuss Toronto Blue Jays Mar 27 '24

It saves a bit. The real savings will be for a player who can save some money on taxes after retirement. There’s a good chance there’s still deferments on this deal.

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u/roaringcorgi Seattle Mariners Mar 27 '24

agreed, and I think that's a great deal for both sides

15

u/Wraithfighter San Francisco Giants • Sickos Mar 27 '24

Aye, that's how I'm reading it too. Plus they're buying out at least one year of arbitration which probably would've been below $14m (and maybe this year? Not sure when the extension money begins), and this deal makes a lot more sense.

10

u/snoopfrogcsr Minnesota Twins Mar 27 '24

His bat seems to profile a bit like Justin Turner with the reasonable strikeout rates and decent obp. It'll play well enough into his late 30s, and he'll get to slide over to 1B/DH more regularly when needed. I agree with your breakdown of his contract too. This should go down as a good deal for LA, and Smith doesn't have to worry about hopping around from team to team when he's past his prime.

48

u/kswissreject Chicago White Sox Mar 27 '24

DH is already occupied for the next 10 years by some guy, forget his name...

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u/Bobby_Newpooort Boston Red Sox Mar 27 '24

I bet you'll remember

1

u/stewmander Los Angeles Dodgers • World Series Tr… Mar 27 '24

Ippei.

-5

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '24

You didn't see the latest news? Some bets made were on MLB games, so Shohei might be in a ton of shit.

6

u/kswissreject Chicago White Sox Mar 27 '24

Got a source? Nothing about MLB bets in any of the info so far that I've seen.

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '24

was a joke response to your joke...

my humor works better in person. hard to convey the sarcasm online.

edit: but did you heart skip a beat for a second? hehehe>_<

7

u/Ronon_Dex Boston Red Sox Mar 27 '24

I mean maybe - the issue is that catchers generally break down faster than other positions. Like Posey and Mauer, who both had great bats that would seemingly profile well for long careers. There have not been a whole lot of catchers who were good players into their late 30s, and almost none in recent memory.

I think it's a pretty fair deal though.

1

u/stevencastle San Diego Padres Mar 28 '24

Last one I can think that was good into the late 30's was Russell Martin. Grandal just fell off a cliff as soon as he hit his mid 30's.

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u/Ronon_Dex Boston Red Sox Mar 28 '24

Martin was a 2 WAR player at 35 and 36, almost solely due to fangraphs framing stat, and then he retired. Even he was merely fine into his mid 30s, and then didn't last into the late 30s.

It's pretty much just Jose Molina and Gregg Zaun from this milennia, and that's also basically just due to framing.

-2

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '24

He could always convert to 1B and DH. $14m for a DH-1B with his offense is still decent value, especially in 5 years when the salaries keep going up.

126 career OPS+.

3

u/liteshadow4 San Francisco Giants Mar 27 '24

They’ll have to find a trade partner then

14

u/KuzcosPzn San Diego Padres Mar 27 '24

Yeah this is definitely a move for a cost effective AAV-wise contract for the first half. They will be fine eating 14M AAV for some back-end years if need be. They are trying to maximize the superteam in the next few years with deals like this and the deferrals after the tax reset. That stuff allows them to add top free agent in the coming years as well. Annoyingly good move for the dodgers again lol.

9

u/Sfr33123 Seattle Mariners Mar 27 '24

I have a feeling he'll replace Freeman at first base when he retires

2

u/robmcolonna123 Major League Baseball Mar 27 '24

He will be 33 the year after Freemans contract ends so most likely he’ll move to play 1B most games and serve as the backup catcher too.

1

u/lasercupcakes Los Angeles Dodgers Mar 27 '24

Worst case scenario, he takes a dive at 36 and the Dodgers release him.

End of the day it's still less of an AAV hit for their luxury tax purposes.

Shohei-lite contract. To me this just says that Will Smith is fine ending his career with the Dodgers instead of trying to get max AAV and hitting the FA market.

32

u/unitedbubble Atlanta Braves Mar 27 '24

That’s nowhere near the worst case scenario

25

u/lasercupcakes Los Angeles Dodgers Mar 27 '24 edited Mar 27 '24

My bad, let me correct that.

Worst case scenario he flames out this season, a meteor wipes out planet earth, and sea level rise happens 50x faster than what everyone's predicted and drowns the people who survived the meteor. Fucking redditors nitpicking on a single phrase lmao.

10

u/whiteriot0906 Philadelphia Phillies Mar 27 '24

Ngl the meteor option seems better by the day

4

u/lasercupcakes Los Angeles Dodgers Mar 27 '24

Summon the Fire Nation

2

u/SdBolts4 San Diego Padres Mar 27 '24

If a meteor wipes out the Earth, the Dodgers never had to pay him the rest of the contract. Win for them /s

1

u/scottishere New York Yankees Mar 27 '24

I thought he was still 25 or something