Although it’s true origin is unknown, it was one of those things that when Hall of Fame Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda said it, you immediately cringed and said “D’oh!”

  “I’d like to buy him for what he’s worth and sell him for what he thinks he’s worth.”

Although perhaps a bit harsh, we have reached ‘Tommy Time,’ so to speak.

Beginning on Monday, January 30, 2023, and running through Friday, February 17, 2023, MLB players who were not offered a free agent contract or declined their team’s offer (or MLB’s 2023 minimum salary of $720,000), must begin one of baseball’s most important and least favorable processes – salary arbitration.

For those unfamiliar with this necessary evil, it is when a player (through their agent) and team executives state their cases to an arbitration panel consisting of three independent and impartial arbiters, after which the arbiters rule in favor of either the player or the club for the exact amount that they submitted.

Needless to say and in the simplest of terms, there is one clear winner and one clear loser in the often contentious salary arbitration process, which can lead to ill feelings heading into the actual season by the losing side. But here again, it is very much a necessary evil.

On the (somewhat) positive side, teams and players can still work out a contract of any size and at any time prior to a hearing, even after having already submitted their respective salary figures, so there’s that. But here again (again), arbitration hearings begin in less than 24 hours.

The good news (great, in fact) is that the Dodgers have only one player with whom they are currently set to go to arbitration with. The bad news (horrible, in fact) is that it’s 28-year-old Dodgers right-hander Tony Gonsolin.

According to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, the Dodgers offered the Vacaville, CA native and their ninth-round draft pick in 2016 out of Saint Mary’s College of California in Moraga, CA (and 2022 All-Star) a $3 million contract, to which Gonsolin and his agents at Beverly Hills Sports Council countered with $3.4 million. No really, a difference of $400,000. A (relative) drop in the bucket when looking at today’s enormous (and ludicrous) baseball contracts.

But here again (again, again), the two sides can still agree on a deal right up until the last second before entering the arbitration room.

Will they?

Stay tuned.

Play Ball!

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