Contrary to the wishes, hopes and dreams of Dodger fans that Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton might actually return to Southern California to play for his hometown Dodgers, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman intimated in his first press conference of the 2017 MLB Winter Meetings on Monday that the Dodgers were never really in on him; or more specifically, in on the $265 million and 10 years remaining on his initial 13-year / $325 million contract extension which he signed with the Marlins following the 2014 season.

It’s not that Friedman or Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi didn’t want the 2017 National League MVP or his MLB-best 59 home runs that he slugged last season – good heavens, who wouldn’t? It’s just that there was absolutely no way that one of baseball’s oldest, most storied and richest franchises could afford him … not the money, but the MLB luxury tax and penalties that would have come with him had they acquired him.

By not acquiring Stanton and, to a much lesser extent, Japanese superstar two-way player Shohei Ohtani, “it’s fair to say” that the Dodgers 2018 payroll will remain under $237 million, as Friedman told reporters. By doing so, the Dodgers avoided – or will avoid – a luxury tax of 95 percent and avoided being penalized 10 spots in their 2018 MLB draft position.

If you think the 2017 Winter Meetings are rough for the Dodgers, just wait until the 2018 Winter Meetings.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Including 2018 arbitration projections and money owed to players no longer on the roster, the Dodgers 2018 payroll will be around $208 million. In other words, if they hope to upgrade their 2018 bullpen after losing premiere set-up man Brandon Morrow to the Chicago Cubs on Monday, they are going to have to get very creative.

Although the Dodgers were never realistically in on Stanton (who landed with the New York Yankees), Friedman made no bones about the fact the Dodgers very much wanted Ohtani, whom they could have acquired and still remained under the luxury tax threshold.

“Obviously, we’re disappointed we didn’t end up with Shohei, but obviously we understand it was his decision and we wish him the best,” Friedman said. “I feel like the AL, we always knew it was looming with the DH situation. But we did our best to try to present scenarios and structures that made it less compelling.

“He is very uniquely talented to do both [pitching and hitting]. Even with that, there’s a real physical toll in terms of recovery and stress on the body”, added Friedman. “I understand the desire to do it in the AL. I think there are ways to be creative. I get where the AL makes more sense.”

As for Stanton, backing away from that potential deal was pretty much a no-brainer for the Dodgers president. And even though Friedman never actually mentioned Stanton by name, there was absolutely positively no mistaking who he was talking about when he told reporters this:

“Stepping back from that specific player, I just think where we are payroll-wise, moves of significant substantial commitments in 2018 require some creativity,” Friedman said. “We consciously did a lot of our heavy lifting last winter [by re-signing Kenley Jansen, Justin Turner and Rich Hill for a combined $192 million], realizing we are locking a lot of our core in place for the foreseeable future. We were happy about it then and we’re happy about it now. That got in front of a lot of things heading into this off-season. Look around our team and there are not a lot of obvious areas to address.”

That’s the good news. And now for the bad news … maybe.

When Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw signed his then MLB record-setting (for a starting pitcher) 7-year / $215 million contract extension following the 2014 season, it included an opt-out clause after the 2018 season. That being said, the now 29-year-old Dallas, Texas native and Dodgers 2006 first-round draft pick has often said that he wants to remain a Dodger for his entire career. And while there is no reason to doubt that the likely future Hall of Famer is sincere about this, the cold hard truth is that money talks. As such, it is difficult to believe that if a substantial offer were made to him after his age 30 / 2018 opt-out season that he would simply walk away from it. In other words, the Dodgers could very well be facing these same luxury tax concerns next winter should Kershaw elect to renegotiate his contract. Then again, he may just let the two years and $65 million remaining on his current contract that runs through the 2020 season ride. That being said, would you?

There is some very good news in all of this. Following the 2018 season, Adrian Gonzalez, Brandon McCarthy, Scott Kazmir, Logan Forsythe, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Howie Kendrick and (uggh) Erisbel Arruebarrena all come off of the Dodgers payroll. This represents a salary reduction of $65 million. Then again, if Kershaw does indeed opt out of his contract, a good chunk of this payroll relief would go towards keep the extremely popular left-hander in LA. And who knows, maybe – just maybe – there is a team out there who might actually be willing to take on one of these aging veterans (or Arruebarrena) and their existing contracts right now. But here again, would you?

Stay tuned…