Los Angeles Dodgers: Three trades to make to setup Bryce Harper
By Jason Reed
Trade #2: Freeing up salary
If the Los Angeles Dodgers are going to go out and sign Bryce Harper then the team needs to make sure to make the proper adjustments to the salary cap. The goal at the end of the day is to win while staying under the luxury tax threshold and it would take some adjusting for LA to make that happen.
However, the Dodgers front office has been extremely smart with contracts and the team is going to have a lot of money freed up after this season. Matt Kemp, Rich Hill and Hyun-Jin Ryu will all be free agents, which frees up $54.57 million in cap space. Harper is going to make $30-40 million a year.
The front office still wants to stay under, though. In trading for Kluber, the Dodgers would be getting a very similar (if not smaller) cap hit in return, all based upon what Puig and Wood get in arbitration.
The Dodgers will still be hovering around the $175 million mark with the luxury tax threshold being $206 million. They could do some savvy contract stuff and backload Harper’s contract and only pay him $30 million this year, however, that leaves little wiggle room for arbitration agreements as well as getting other assets as well.
With that in mind, the Dodgers can turn to the Seattle Mariners, who are undergoing a complete rebuild, and offer them Matt Kemp’s $18 million cap hit for one year and can throw in some prospect as well.
The prospects are a good addition for the Mariners but wouldn’t hurt the Dodgers. Edwin Rios is a big-league ready corner infielder that is being blocked at both third and first base. Andrew Sopko is the team’s 29th-ranked prospect that had a strong showing with some upside.
That is a fairly good return for taking just one year of a contract for a decent bullpen arm in Ronnie Elias. Now, the Dodgers would have $18 million more for flexibilities sake.