James Paxton deal finally finalized, Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s clauses, May & Choi on the path back, more

Chad Moriyama 01/30/2024 Dodgers News Leave A Comment

James Paxton (Via)

Just a bit of a housecleaning post on recent news since there’s been some details announced and injury stuff that’s being slowly revealed.

Note: How long has James Paxton been a potential Dodger? That picture above was uploaded to the site back in 2018.

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Paxton’s deal was only recently made official despite basically being finalized for a while now.

Also, the details have emerged, though it doesn’t change my thoughts on whether it made sense or not.

Paxton gets a $3 million signing bonus, payable by Feb. 7 if the contract has been signed and approved by the commissioner’s office, and an $8 million salary.
He would receive a $1 million bonus if he is on the active opening day roster, and if Paxton does not earn that bonus he could trigger a $500,000 bonus if he is on the active roster by April 15.
Paxton can earn $1 million in performance bonuses for starts: $250,000 each for 16 and 18, and $500,000 for 20.

So it’s technically $11 million, but $12 million if he survives to Opening Day, plus up to a million in performance bonuses.

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Update

Paxton’s guaranteed money has now been reduced to $7 million, presumably due to health concerns.

The Dodgers and Paxton’s agent, Scott Boras, however, agreed to reduce the total guarantee from the originally reported $11 million to $7 million. The issue, while not serious enough to scuttle the deal, resulted in a reworking of the structure of the contract.
Both Boras and the Dodgers declined to comment, citing HIPAA considerations.

Hard to see that as anything but ominous given his history.

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Speaking of contract details, in case you missed it, Yoshinobu Yamamoto‘s opt-out conditions also emerged.

If Yamamoto has Tommy John surgery or is on the injured list for a right elbow injury for 134 consecutive service days from 2024-29, he would have the right to opt out after the 2031 and 2033 World Series, according to terms of the deal obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday.
If he avoids Tommy John surgery and doesn’t miss that much time with an elbow issue during that window, he can instead opt out after the 2029 and 2031 World Series.
In the first scenario, the Dodgers also would gain a $10 million conditional option for 2036 with no buyout.

None of this is an issue or changes the analysis on his deal either. It provides a bit of an insurance policy for the Dodgers, and any scenario where he’s good enough for six or eight years where he’d believe he could get a team to pay him more into his mid-30s is fine with me.

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Dustin May, rehabbing from surgeries to fix his flexor tendon and UCL (for the second time), has started a throwing program.

If everything goes well, he figures to be back after the All-Star break this year. And if everything goes well with the Dodgers, he would make a lot of sense in the pen.

Anybody say throwing program? Hyun-il Choi is still in the system and is now in the mid-90s, apparently.

Oh, and that Shohei Ohtani guy is basically living at Dodger Stadium now, I guess.

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An addition was made to the front office in the form of Raul Ibanez, who is now the Vice President Of Baseball Development And Special Projects for the team.

What does that mean? I have no idea.

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