NEWSLETTER
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ largesse now extends to decent utility players, as they’ve extended Tommy Edman on a lavish five-year deal that would’ve seemed unthinkable just a few months ago.
Heck, it’s kinda unthinkable now. From Jeff Passan:
Edman, 29, has posted an above-average wRC+ in a full season just once in his big league career, and derives most of his value from being able to play every defensive position at a slightly-above-average level. He’s real got value, but maybe not five-year, $74 million value unless you believe the bat is going to take a very real step forward in the years ahead.
Or, well, if you have more money than God and nothing else to do with it.
Edman was traded to the Dodgers at the deadline as part of a complicated (and kinda befuddling for the other two teams) trade with the White Sox and Cardinals. Edman was recovering from offseason wrist surgery at the time of the deal, and had yet to make his season debut. He hit .237/.294/.417/98 wRC+ with the Dodgers over 37 games following the trade. Edman raked in the postseason (.328/.354/.508/138 wRC+), but it was just 16 games. The Dodgers are very smart and almost never wrong – they clearly targeted Edman in trade in the first place for a reason – but this deal just looks bizarre on paper.
My best guess, as I said, is that the Dodgers feel like Edman is going to take an age-30 step forward with the bat, and they also must feel like he can play plus defense at the higher-spectrum defensive positions for many years to come. And even if he hangs around league average at the plate, with good baserunning and good defense all over, he can still put up some 3+ WAR seasons.
Still, he was already under control for cheap for 2025, so the Dodgers are effectively extending him a year in advance to a four-year, $64.5 million deal. Would he have gotten that in free agency if he had another decent year? I guess we’ll never know.
Yeah, it’s the more money than God thing. If you’re going to spend a bajillion dollars each year anyway, might as well spend whatever it takes to lock down a really good utility man. Overpay by a lot? Who cares. You just want the player. Money means nothing to you.
