The Dodgers were unable to reach a contract with with reliever Alex Vesia on Thursday, and instead exchanged salary figures with the left-hander, potentially setting the stage for an arbitration hearing.
Earlier Thursday, the Dodgers reached one-year contracts for 2025 with relievers Michael Kopech ($5.2 million), Evan Phillips ($6.1 million), Brusdar Graterol ($2.8 million), and Anthony Banda ($1 million). That leaves Vesia as the team’s only unsigned arbitration-eligible player.
Vesia has four years, 78 days of major league service time, and is eligible for salary arbitration for the second time. He earned $1 million last year.
MLB Trade Rumors predicted Vesia to make $1.9 million this season, while Cot’s Baseball Contracts porjected $1.75 million. I was on the relatively high side, guessing a $2.15 million salary for Vesia.
My guess was just below the midpoint between the salaries exchanged by Vesia and the Dodgers on Friday. Per both Fabian Ardaya at The Athletic and Jack Harris at the Los Angeles Times, Vesia filed at $2.35 million while the Dodgers countered at $2.05 million.
If the two sides can’t agree to a contract, they will head to an arbitration hearing during which a three-person panel will pick one salary or the other. The Dodgers haven’t had an arbitration hearing since 2020, when they did so with both Joc Pederson and Pedro Báez. Those are the only two arbitration hearings involving the Dodgers dating back to 2008.
Nothing prevents teams and players from continuing to negotiate leading up to a hearing, but in practice several teams employ a “file and trial” strategy, ceasing talks on a one-year deal past the exchange deadline.
In the 11 offseasons under an Andrew Friedman-led front office, 85 players entered January eligible for salary arbitration and were still on the team by the exchange date. Seventy-seven players (90.6 percent) reached agreement by the exchange deadline, and five others later worked out multi-year contracts to avoid a hearing.
Vesia had arguably his best season in 2024, setting career bests with a 1.76 ERA, 87 strikeouts, 66⅓ innings, and 67 games, the latter leading the Dodgers.
Vesia has been mostly excellent since joining the Dodgers by trade in 2021, posting ERAs at or below 2.25, xERAs between 2.79 and 2.81, and strikeout rates of at least 33 percent in three of his four seasons with Los Angeles.
An oblique injury kept Vesia off the Dodgers roster during the National League Championship Series, but he returned for the World Series. The left-hander pitched in seven of the 10 postseason games for which he was active this season, totaling 5⅔ scoreless innings with six strikeouts.
Vesia saved a career-best five games during the regular season, and earned his first postseason save by getting the final out of Game 2 against the Yankees.
MLB salary arbitration hearings this year will be scheduled between January 27 and February 14 in St. Petersburg, Florida.