Offseason decisions loom for Dodgers
Ryu, Hill, Freese, Martin are pending free agents; Jansen to mull opt-out clause
LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers' front office has some decisions to make, but the Dodgers also have unfinished business with the front office.
The five-year contract of Andrew Friedman, president of baseball operations, is up. CEO Stan Kasten has said he’s confident Friedman isn’t going anywhere, but it remains an issue, especially since the club never replaced general manager Farhan Zaidi after he left to run the Giants.
As for the players, the biggest pending free agent is ERA champ and Cy Young Award candidate Hyun-Jin Ryu, who loves Los Angeles and playing for the Dodgers, but will probably receive more lucrative offers from other clubs. He’s represented by Scott Boras, so it will be interesting to see if he’ll take a discount to stay, or even if the Dodgers will make a big offer. The Dodgers made him a qualifying offer last winter and he accepted.
Rich Hill is 39, and he was emotional after Wednesday night’s 10-inning, 7-3 loss to the Nationals in Game 5 of the National League Division Series, saying he wanted to return. His durability was tested again this season with injuries to his knee and forearm.
“I would love to, yeah,” Hill said. “I would love to get the opportunity to come back here and wear the Dodger uniform again. That was really cool. It was a great honor. Hopefully something will play out and I can come back into this locker room and be part of this club. It’s just going to be a lot of fun watching these guys. Good young players and a really good pitching staff coming back, too.”
David Freese has hinted that he’ll retire because his body is broken. Russell Martin is 36 and the club is committed to Will Smith behind the plate for the foreseeable future.
The Dodgers are expected to exercise a $1 million buyout of infielder Jedd Gyorko’s $13 million contract. Closer Kenley Jansen has an opt-out, but coming off his worst season it’s a longshot he’ll exercise it and walk away from $38 million over the final two years.