Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press
Dead money is an unavoidable reality in today’s MLB. Gaudy free-agent deals don’t pan out. International signees crash and burn. Stuff happens.
In a league where contracts are guaranteed, clubs often end up paying guys not to play for them.
For some teams, though, dead money is more like a payroll graveyard. Take, for example, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In 2019, Los Angeles will pay more than $40 million to guys who won’t pitch an inning or take an at-bat in a Dodgers uniform or even set foot in the home dugout at Chavez Ravine. That’s the most dead money in baseball, as FanGraphs’ Craig Edwards broke down.
Since 2016, Edwards noted, the Dodgers have shelled out almost $140 million in dead money. For perspective, that’s more than at least 18 teams will spend on their entire 25-man rosters in 2019, per Spotrac.
For even more perspective, the Tampa Bay Rays are set to spend $43 million and change on their 25-man contingent in ’19. That’s the Dodgers’ dead money and what any wealthy owner could find between his couch cushions.
Dead money, under this definition, applies to players who have been released, traded with salary compensation attached or kept in the organization but removed from the 40-man roster.
It doesn’t account for injured players unless they fall into one of the above categories. And it doesn’t account for guys with deferred payments, such as Bobby Bonilla. He played his last game in 2001 for the St. Louis Cardinals, but the New York Mets will pay him $1.193 million annually through 2035. Ouch.
In the Dodgers’ case, the biggest chunk of dead money will go to a man who not only won’t play for them this season, but has never played for them: right-hander Homer Bailey.
Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press
Los Angeles acquired Bailey and some prospects from the Cincinnati Reds this winter. In exchange, L.A. shipped outfielders Yasiel Puig and Matt Kemp and left-hander Alex Wood to the Reds.
“Obviously losing guys like Yasiel and Matt [is] never easy,” Dodgers executive Andrew Friedman told MLB.tv in December.
“We were also able to gain some [financial] flexibility while also adding some young talent back into our system,” he added.
To be real: The move was about dumping Kemp’s contract and staying under the luxury-tax threshold. But it means the Dodgers will foot Bailey’s $23 million bill in 2019. Los Angeles also owes Kemp $3.5 million in 2019, per the terms of the swap with Cincinnati.
Now, let’s examine Cuban flameouts Yaisel Sierra and Hector Olivera.
Sierra signed a six-year, $30 million contract in February 2016 but was removed from the 40-man roster in July of that same year. He hasn’t pitched in the Dodgers organization since 2017, but he’ll make $5 million this season.
Carlos Osorio/Associated Press
Olivera, meanwhile, inked a six-year, $62.5 million pact (including a $28 million signing bonus) with Los Angeles in March 2015. At the time, he was an intriguing 29-year-old who’d compiled a .912 OPS in 642 Cuban National Series contests before defecting.
From there, Olivera followed a troubled path that included a trade to the Atlanta Braves in July 2015, an 82-game suspension under MLB’s domestic violence policy in May 2016, a trade to the San Diego Padres in July 2016 and an outright release by the Friars that August.
Yet, L.A. will pay Olivera $4.67 million in 2019.
Other, smaller bits of dead money nudge the Dodgers over the ignoble $40 million level.
They aren’t the only franchise suffering from this financial affliction, of course. The Toronto Blue Jays come in second at over $30 million in dead money, per Edwards, largely due to the $19.45 million they’ll hand infielder Troy Tulowitzki to ply his trade with the New York Yankees.
Perhaps this is all a part of doing business in The Show. No one will shed a tear for a franchise with pockets as deep as Los Angeles.
But for those of us who are paid only when we do actual work, it sounds absurd. In what world does a person hammer millions and millions of dollars in checks to labor for a competing organization or, simply, do nothing?
In MLB, that’s where. It’s the place dead money goes to live.
Just ask the Dodgers.
All statistics and contract information courtesy of Baseball-Reference unless otherwise noted.
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