The date was February 10, 2007; a Saturday morning in the City of Angels. Dodgers left-handed middle reliever Joe Beimel was coming off a 2006 season in which he had posted a 2-1 record and very impressive 2.97 ERA over the 70.0 innings he pitched for the Dodgers in his 62 appearances. The (then) 30-year-old St. Marys, Pennsylvania native and former 18th-round draft pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1998 was seeking a $1.25 million contract from the Dodgers, who had countered with a $912,500 offer.

The Dodgers won.

Beimel would go on to finish the 2007 season with a 4-2 record and 3.88 ERA. He also became the first middle reliever in Dodgers history to win a fan vote to have a bobblehead made in his likeness in 2008.

After an all-out campaign by Dodger fans, former Dodgers reliever won a fan vote to have his own bobblehead. (Photo courtesy of Baseball Collectibles)

Since that fateful day nearly 11 years ago, no other Dodger player has taken their arbitration case to a hearing. Not one.

On Friday, January 12, 2018, the deadline for players to either agree to contracts offered by their respective teams or request an arbitration hearing, five Dodger players entered the day still having not signed their 2018 contracts – this one day after Dodgers (apparent) back-up catcher Yasmani Grandal and oft-criticized right-handed reliever Pedro Baez had agreed to contracts of $7.9 million and $1.5 million respectively. But as the sun set over Dodger Stadium at the arbitration deadline, all five had.

• Alex Wood – $6.0 million
• Joc Pederson – $2.6 million
• Tony Cingrani – $2.3 million
• Josh Fields – $2.2 million
• Enrique Hernandez – $1.6 million

Although each of the seven one-year contracts open the door for debate, both positive and negative, it’s somewhat comforting to know that none of them are even in the same universe with the arbitration-avoiding contracts signed by Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson and Chicago Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant, who received MLB record-setting one-year contracts of $23 million and $10 million respectively on Friday morning. Donaldson’s one-year / $23 million contract topped the $21,625,000 one-year contract extension given to Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper last May that will take him into free agency following the 2018 season, and Bryant’s  one-year / $10 million contract is the most ever given to a major leaguer in his first year of arbitration eligibility.

Dodgers outfielder Joc Pederson was the last of the five arbitration-eligible players to sign on Friday afternoon. He will receive $2.6 million in 2018. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

The most obvious question regarding the Dodgers Seven is: why on earth would Guggenheim Baseball Management Group pay Grandal nearly $8 million to be a back-up catcher to Austin Barnes, who started all but two of the Dodgers 15 postseason games in 2017? And while this question has yet to be asked of Dodgers ownership or of Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman or general manager Farhan Zaidi, the simple answer is that per the MLB Players Association collective bargaining agreement with MLB, a player cannot go backwards in salary. Keep in mind that the Dodgers acquired Grandal and his (then) $693,000 contract in 2015 from the San Diego Padres in the (first) Matt Kemp trade. They then paid him $2.8 million in 2016 and $5.5 million last season. Barnes, on the other hand, received the MLB minimum of $512,000 in 2016 and MLB minimum of $540,000 in 2017. The 28-year-old Fullerton, California native and 11th-round draft pick by the Miami Marlins in 2011 will not be arbitration-eligible until 2020.

That being said, it’s hard to imagine that the Dodgers will not give Grandal every opportunity to win back the Dodgers starting catcher job this spring … or trade him.

Stay tuned…