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 UPDATE (2/1 -11:30pm ET) With Reed Johnson reaching a one-year, $800,000 deal with the Dodgers, the data below has been updated.
In our continuing look at projected roster salaries for the 30 clubs in Major League Baseball (see Yankees, Braves, Red Sox, and Rangers), we continue with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Dodgers had 9 players that were salary arbitration eligible reach deals ahead of hearing, with all but two (Chad Billingsley and Jason Repko) filing for arbitration. Of those 7 players (Jonathan Broxton, Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, Hong-Chih Kuo, James Loney, Russell Martin, and George Sherrill), all but Kemp signed deals on Jan. 19th.
With the divorce of Frank and Jamie McCourt hanging over the Dodgers’ head, many have wondered how they would approach the off-season in terms of free spending. On that front, they have kept spending down (for the most part), while losing at least one major albatross contract off the books (Jason Schmidt, who garnered a whopping $ 15,217,401 last season, but as noted below, still impacts the Dodgers), while losing key pieces in Randy Wolf ($4,956,237), and second baseman Orlando Hudson to free agency ($3,364,877).
The biggest drag on salary this coming season for the Dodgers comes from Manny Ramirez who exercised his $20 million player option in his contract. To place that in perspective, Ramirez’ salary is double the next highest salary for the Dodgers this year (Hiroki Kuroda at $10 million).
Below are salaries for 17 players that the Dodgers have already set salaries for in 2010:
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Dodgers
|
|
Manny Ramirez
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$20,000,000
|
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Hiroki Kuroda
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$10,000,000
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Rafael Furcal
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$8,500,000
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Andre Ethier
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$6,000,000
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|
Casey Blake
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$6,000,000
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|
Russell Martin
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$5,050,000
|
|
George Sherrill
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$4,500,000
|
|
Vicente Padilla
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$4,025,000
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Jonathan Broxton
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$4,000,000
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Matt Kemp
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$4,000,000
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Chad Billingsley
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$3,850,000
|
|
James Loney
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$3,100,000
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Jamey Carroll
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$1,350,000
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Hong-Chih Kuo
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$950,000
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| Reed Johnson |
$800,000 |
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Brad Ausmus
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$850,000
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Ronnie Belliard
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$850,000
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|
Jason Repko
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$500,000
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TOTAL
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$84,325,000
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There are also these players that have under 3 years of service time, and are on year-to-year renewals. These players (with their 2009 salaries) represent players that had at least 1 year, but less than 3 years, of ML service time:
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Player
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2009 Salary
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Blake DeWitt
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$405,000
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Clayton Kershaw
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$404,000
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Cory Wade
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$402,500
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Eric Stults
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$402,000
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Chin-Lung Hu
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$401,000
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Ramon Troncoso
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$401,000
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James McDonald
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$400,750
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If these players were renewed at their exact salaries they earned in 2009, it would add $2,816,250 to the total for 2010, or a total of $87,141,250 (without deferments, bonuses, dead money). If, let’s say, all the pre-arb players received a 6.5 percent pay increase (possible, but Dodgers not under obligation to do so), the total would be $87,324,306.
And, when looking at this great accounting of the dead money for the Dodgers by Eric Stephen of True Blue LA, the Dodgers will see a drop in the amount allocated to the 25-man roster compared to last year’s $100,414,592 figure that ranked them the 9th highest in the league in 2009.
 Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is available for hire or freelance. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network.
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