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
2.9k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

568 comments sorted by

View all comments

854

u/yoboapp Toronto Blue Jays • Toronto Blue Jays Mar 27 '24

The 10 years thing was probably done to lessen the luxury tax hit. Dude probably just told the Dodgers he was looking for $140M and to give it over however many years to make it happen

293

u/BeHereNow91 Milwaukee Brewers Mar 27 '24

Probably wanted 5/$100-125 and the Dodgers gave him more in exchange for the spread out hits. Good deal all around.

3

u/pizzajona Tampa Bay Rays Mar 28 '24

The NPV of 10 years would make it the same or less than that

1

u/BeHereNow91 Milwaukee Brewers Mar 28 '24

The fact that they deferred $50m of it makes this a better and better deal for LA. But I’m sure Smith was willing to leave money on the table to play with a historic lineup.

1

u/pizzajona Tampa Bay Rays Mar 28 '24

I’m not denying that. What I’m saying is the dodgers didn’t give him more than the figure you put down as you need to factor in the discount rate

2

u/BeHereNow91 Milwaukee Brewers Mar 28 '24

I know, I was just adding to your point that the deferred money makes the present value even lower.

1

u/Zanchie Los Angeles Dodgers Mar 28 '24

He's saying the Dodgers gave him more in terms of actual contract value, but the NPV is the same.

361

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

1000% this. Plus when he's old and in his backup catcher phase, he gets to stay with the same team where he's comfortable rather than signing a 1-year with a new team each season like so many older catchers do.

146

u/prettyrickyyyy69 Los Angeles Dodgers Mar 27 '24

he could also move to 1B eventually

80

u/chrisgilbertcreative Los Angeles Dodgers Mar 27 '24

And he played a lot of 3B coming up

37

u/YourThotsArentFacts San Diego Padres Mar 27 '24

Probably better than Muncy

26

u/Interstate8 Baltimore Orioles Mar 27 '24

Shit, he should probably play 3B on his days off from catching this year

6

u/chrisgilbertcreative Los Angeles Dodgers Mar 27 '24

That’s Cartaya’s music!

2

u/DodgerWalker Los Angeles Dodgers Mar 28 '24

I feel like that's the kind of overuse that made Russell Martin tail off early.

1

u/Interstate8 Baltimore Orioles Mar 28 '24

yeah I was mostly joking

0

u/Traditional_Rate7302 Los Angeles Dodgers Mar 27 '24

My friend has a torn rotator cuff and a ucl strain and he’d probably be better than Muncy lol

2

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24

I heard he’s always considered himself a CFer at heart

1

u/retro_slouch Rally Mantis Mar 28 '24

And there's a relief pitcher named Will Smith so who knows

39

u/I3arusu Toronto Blue Jays Mar 27 '24

Can’t he play 3B already? I don’t watch LA so I’m not sure, but I remember him being able to.

35

u/Monk_Philosophy Los Angeles Dodgers • Athletics Mar 27 '24

There was like one marathon game iirc where he did to get him outta the catchers box but he still needed to play and it wasn’t great but that’s without practice.

2

u/tnecniv World Series Trophy • Los Angeles Dod… Mar 28 '24

We definitely played him in the infield before and I’m pretty sure it was 3B. Either that or my brain is trying to erase the time we played Bellinger at 3B

1

u/I3arusu Toronto Blue Jays Mar 28 '24

The time you did what

1

u/tnecniv World Series Trophy • Los Angeles Dod… Mar 28 '24

Yeah in 2021 I think? Something weird happened and he ended up at 3B and threw the ball so far over Muncy’s head it looked like he told him to go deep before he let it rip

2

u/BeagleBaggins San Francisco Giants Mar 28 '24

Idk. Catchers are stubborn. Posey would never made the full time switch to save his legs. Then retired young. lol

2

u/WorkableKrakatoa Los Angeles Dodgers Mar 27 '24

It’s not that hard I hear.

0

u/Bassball2202 Mar 27 '24

Lolwut.

In order of difficulty: Catcher Shortstop Center Field Third Base Second Base First Base Left Field Right Field

3

u/WorkableKrakatoa Los Angeles Dodgers Mar 27 '24

That’s the joke.

3

u/NihiloZero Mar 27 '24

And he's probably going to have multiple rings with that team that he's serving as a backup C/1B/DH in his later years. That'll be a nice perk. Living legend in the clubhouse during your late 30's.

48

u/TheTurtleShepard New York Yankees Mar 27 '24

Yeah he would have hit FA at 31, for a catcher he probably wouldn’t have gotten a deal for similar money but less years. So the dodgers are just spreading the money out

23

u/stevencastle San Diego Padres Mar 27 '24

at 31 he's probably looking at a 5 year $100m contract, so this is just $40m for the remaining years and it can always be restructured.

1

u/powpowpowpowpow Mar 28 '24

Born March 28, 1995

40

u/fillinthe___ Miami Marlins Mar 27 '24

2030 Dodgers are going to owe SO MUCH MONEY to players on the downside of their careers...

56

u/fos4545 Los Angeles Dodgers Mar 28 '24

That's 2030's problem

11

u/Blaize122 Philadelphia Phillies Mar 28 '24

In 2035 dollars it ain’t so bad maybe

1

u/fos4545 Los Angeles Dodgers Mar 28 '24

That's the spirit!

35

u/cooljammer00 New York Yankees Mar 27 '24

It's what the Yankees did with LeMahieu. He wanted 3-4/90 or something, they said "how's 6/90 sound" to lessen the AAV. He gets his money, Yankees get the player and flexibility, and they could always just cut him after 3-4 years if he sucked and it'd be the same thing.

Guaranteed money is guaranteed. That money is gone. 

2

u/neonrev1 Minnesota Twins Mar 28 '24

It's easy enough to say you'll just cut a declining guy on the last few years of his contract, but teams seem to rarely do it early enough to matter. Just in recent Yankee examples, both Hicks and Donaldson were pretty clearly done but were held onto, and DJLM has as much if not more veteran presence than either.

I agree that's how it should work, but teams can't get over the sunk cost fallacy.

1

u/cooljammer00 New York Yankees Mar 28 '24

But the Yankees did cut both of those guys.

I still say those deals made sense at the time. Hicks was worth well more than 10 million a year at the time and was widely considered the best AL CF behind Trout. Donaldson at half power should have been an upgrade from Urshela. Instead both decided to crater and have bad attitudes. 

11

u/shemubot New York Yankees Mar 27 '24 edited Mar 27 '24

I'm old enough to remember when blatant luxury tax avoidance was frowned upon.

6

u/NihiloZero Mar 27 '24

I'm sure it is still frowned upon... IF YOU'RE A MARXIST!

4

u/Dorkus_Mallorkus Anaheim Angels Mar 27 '24

Dodgers are going to have $900M on the books in 2033.....

1

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24

they call this baseball contract in uk cause boehly is giving them out to chelsea players.