Checkmate: Dodgers Eye Harper, Kershaw (?) & 2019 World Series

No Comments December 19, 2017 Dodgers By Vincent Morales

Around the Major League Baseball Hot Stove this season, lots of teams are playing checkers but the Dodgers are playing chess.

This off-season, while most club executives are moving pieces from square to square, dealing to improve their squads for next season, the Dodgers are thinking several moves ahead of everyone else.

They have sacrificed a knight, a bishop and a couple of pawns now to compete for another NL pennant.

But, their new deal also clears space for a free agency checkmate move aimed to re-sign Clayton Kershaw, ink Bryce Harper and capture the 2019 World Series.

Dodgers Trade 4 For 1

On Saturday, the Dodgers front office traded first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, pitchers Scott Kazmir and Brandon McCarthy, plus utilityman Charlie Culberson to the Braves for former Dodgers underachiever, Matt Kemp, not just swapping players but also their crippling salaries.

The Dodgers absorb Kemp’s bloated 2-year, $43 million deal (plus paying the Braves some extra cash considerations).

Meanwhile, they jettison about $51 million in expiring contracts (Gonzalez $22.4 M, Kazmir $17.7 M and McCarthy $11.5) plus, approximately, $2.5 million in anticipated arbitration money (Culberson).

Curious Or Clever Dodgers Trade?

At first blush, the trade was a curious one for Dodger fans because it accomplished almost nothing to help the Dodgers improve substantively on the field in 2018.

Sure, in theory, Los Angeles added a right-handed power bat into its outfield mix, perhaps to platoon with lefties, Andrew Toles, Joc Pedersen or Alex Verdugo and beef up and balance the middle of the batting order.

But, now there are reports that Kemp won’t even play for the Dodgers in ’18, that he will be designated for assignment just as the Braves did with AGon.

With or without Kemp, the core of this Dodgers team, that battled for 114 regular and post-season wins, remains intact.

The trade was stunning in other ways, not only because the Dodgers exchanged a lopsided four players for one but also because it chopped LA’s payroll to below $190 million, well under the $197 million luxury tax threshold for ’18.

Dodgers Trade Breaks Luxury Tax Shackles

For five straight years the Dodgers exceeded the luxury salary cap and this year paid $35 million in competitive balance tax.

Before this blockbuster trade the Dodgers were stuck in traffic on the Hollywood Freeway slowly, painfully edging their way to a sixth consecutive penalty year, facing a 50% tax rate on their overages and virtually eliminating themselves fiscally from pursuing any big name free agents at the end of next season.

In the end, however, this deal was genius and more reminiscent of an NBA expiring contract dump to make financial room under the cap and avoid the luxury tax.

Think: more Laker purple than Dodger Blue. Think: Timofey Mozgov and D’Angelo Russell for Brook Lopez’s expiring contract.

Lakers And Dodgers Look To Hook Free Agent Whales

This summer, the Lakers shed contracts to make salary room for a run at NBA free agent whales LeBron James and Paul George.

The crafty Friedman and his wingman, Farhan Zaidi are clearing the Dodgers’ books and resetting the luxury tax rate so they can re-sign Kershaw, who is likely to opt out of his giant contract next year, and perhaps open up the checkbook for an even more gigantic contract for Bryce Harper, a free agent at the end of the ’18 season.

Welcome To The New World Of Big Brain Baseball

It’s a new world in MLB. Front office minds have never been bigger or more important. Gone are the days of just eyeballing talent and skimming the basic stats.

Now it’s about drilling down into the deep wells of luxury cap numbers and analytics – thinking far ahead of your opponents’ next moves. This is big brain baseball. This is chess. Just call Andrew Friedman the Magnus Carlsen of MLB execs.

Image: GETTY IMAGES

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Vincent Morales

Vincent Morales graduated from the University of Southern California, School of Journalism and was the associate sports director at the student-run radio station where he was a play-by-play announcer and color commentator for hundreds of USC sporting events including two Rose Bowls and the inaugural conference basketball tournament.

Recently, Morales was the marketing manager and publicist for a world-renowned sports artist and was instrumental in securing and maintaining deals for the artist to work with Stephen Curry, Aaron Rodgers, Derek Jeter, Floyd Mayweather, Mayweather Promotions, the Topps Company, Steiner Sports, and Fanatics Authentic, among many others.

Morales is a lifelong resident of southern California.