Dodgers Avoid Arbitration Entirely, Because Dodgers

Like the Dodgers were really going to go to arbitration, right?

In the days after coming to terms on one-year deals with A.J. Ellis and Chris Heisey, the Dodgers have now done the same with Kenley Jansen, Justin Turner, and Juan Nicasio.

Each get raises, because that’s how arbitration works, no matter how you think it actually works or should work. Jansen went from $4.3 million to $7.425 million, a well-deserved figure for one of baseball’s elite closers. Turner went from a $1 million non-roster invite to $2.5 million, also deserved, even if slightly higher than I would have expected. And Nicasio, acquired from Colorado in November, goes from $2.025 million to $2.3 million.

All five players are arbitration-eligible again next winter, along with Darwin Barney and Yasmani Grandal, assuming full seasons of service time. For now, that’s an additional $12.225 million that goes onto the payroll, which now sits at $232.485m in guaranteed contracts and $257.76 million overall for 2015. That is so, so much money. It’s obscene. It’s amazing. It’s fun.