Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
The arb for $17m was also too high, but at least the Dodgers could rationalize that:

1) Bellinger had only been bad for 2 years, and one was a 60-gamer

2) Bellinger got hurt at the end of 2019 and maybe still needed to recover a bit more

3) If he did return to form, they'd have one more year (2023) to observe him before deciding what to do in free agency


The farther it gets from Bellinger's effective 2019 season, the less his value becomes. That's why it's insane that he would get $18m in arbitration, when clearly he isn't worth that. This policy simply forces homegrown players to be non-tendered when the team would otherwise like to keep them at what they're really worth.

You're correct that Boras probably isn't going to let him take a pay cut -- not unless that's the very last option. That's why I think Bellinger is done in LA. Maybe they'll find a team dumb enough to give him a decent size, multi-year contract, but they saw the Dodgers fail to fix him in 3 seasons. He's more of a reclamation project at this point.

For all the talk of reclamation projects, though, the Dodgers haven't fared much better than anyone else at that. What they have been good at doing is taking players who never succeeded (Justin Turner, Chris Taylor, Max Muncy, and most recently Tyler Anderson), and making them useful.

And as much as Judge might mash for the next year, two, or three, I hope the Dodgers don't sign him. That contract has fail written all over it.
Bellinger rumored to have the Cubs interest? Really? The Cubs just got rid of Jason Heyward & they would take on another just like him in Bellinger?