Cody Snavely
As the 2025 Major League Baseball season fast approaches, the next step of the 2025 offseason is the arbitration process, with today being the deadline for teams and players to come to a contract agreement or risk going to an arbitration hearing later this month.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, fresh off their 2024 World Series victory, have been busy this offseason in the free agent and trade market. Five players, Michael Kopech, Brusdar Graterol, Evan Phillips, Alex Vesia, and Anthony Banda, were eligible for arbitration.
The Dodgers have agreed with four of their five arbitration-eligible players, with Alex Vesia being the lone Dodger who has not yet agreed to a deal.
Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic reported that the Dodgers agreed to a contract with Michael Kopech (1-year, $5.2 million), Brusdar Graterol (1-year, $2.8 million), and Anthony Banda (1-year, $1 million). Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times reported that the Dodgers also agreed with Evan Phillips on a 1-year, $6.1 million contract.
The salaries are largely in line with what was projected from MLB Trade Rumors, with Kopech’s deal being spot on and the rest falling within a couple hundred thousand of each other.
However, in the final hour of the arbitration deadline, the Dodgers and left-handed pitcher Alex Vesia could not agree, according to Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic, with Vesia filing at $2.35 million, the Dodgers at $2.05 million. Vesia is the only arb-eligible player the Dodgers haven’t come to an agreement with.
However, the Dodgers and Vesia can avoid an arbitration hearing if they can agree on a contract figure before the hearings take place. If not, it will be the Dodgers’ first arbitration case in five seasons.
The last arbitration hearing for the Dodgers was in the 2020 offseason when the Dodgers went to arbitration with right-handed relief pitcher Pedro Baez and outfielder Joc Pederson. Before that, you’d have to go all the way back to 2007, when the Dodgers took reliever Joe Beimel to arbitration and won.
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