While Miami Marlins All-Star catcher J.T. Realmuto most certainly would have been a perfect fit for the Dodgers to replace either offensively-challenged catchers Austin Barnes or Russell Martin, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman was unwilling to pay Miami’s extremely steep asking price in current players and, more importantly, in top prospects for the 27-year-old Del City, Oklahoma native and Marlins 2010 third-round draft pick.

The good news is that the Dodgers retained all of their Top-5 prospects: Alex Verdugo, Dustin May, Keibert Ruiz, Will Smith and Gavin Lux. As eccentric longtime Hall of Fame baseball executive Bill Veeck said way back in 1948: “Sometimes the best trades are the ones you don’t make.”

Obviously we won’t know for some time whether or not Veeck’s words will ring true in this situation, but the Dodgers front office set a value on their current players and top prospects and undoubtedly knew days ago that the package that they were willing to offer for Realmuto would fall well short of the Marlins’ high demands. Now, the multi-million dollar question is, which direction will the team take to round out their spring training and, more importantly, their Opening Day roster?

The premise that the 2019 Competitive Balance Tax (CBT) threshold of $206 million is a hard cap for the Dodgers front office seems to eliminate 26-year-old All-Star free agent outfielder Bryce Harper from further consideration after the team signed free agent outfielder A.J. Pollock for an Average Annual Value of $12 million, and 30-year-old right-hander Joe Kelly for an AAV of $8.3 million. But no one from the Dodgers has confirmed (or denied) that speculation. Additionally, Dodgers President and CEO Stan Kasten has said several times in the past that the CBT would not stand in the way of the Dodgers adding payroll for the right player.

According to Cots Baseball Contracts, the Dodgers current roster is less than $10 million from the 2019 CBT threshold, not including incentives for Clayton Kershaw, Kenta Maeda, and Kelly that collectively can reach an additional $18 million. So all things being equal, the Dodgers are on track to be tax payers in 2019 … to the tune of $1.00 for every $5.00 spent above the CBT threshold, or 20 percent. In other words, it’s (probably) not a matter of if the Dodgers are going to have to pay a Competitive Balance Tax , it’s a matter of how much they will have to pay.

In the last two days there have been widespread rumors that Harper is now willing to consider a shorter-term contract than the 10-year / $300 million (plus) contract that he was initially seeking, reportedly as low as two years. He has also made it abundantly clear that he would prefer to play on the West Coast, with the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres said to be in serious negotiations with he and super agent Scott Boras; all the more reason for Dodgers make a deal.

What the heck, it’s only money … and it’s not our money.

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