MLB trade and rumors. The Dodgers announced that they signed the catcher Will Smith with a ten-year extension that runs until 2033.
It is reportedly a guarantee of $140 million without opt-out options for the Apex Baseball customer, although with postponements.
Smith will receive a signing bonus of $30 million, a salary of $13.55 million in 2024, salaries of $13 million from 2025 to 2027, $9.5 million from 2028 to 2032 and $9.95 million of dollars in 2033. The deferrals will be paid at a rate of 5 million dollars annually from 2034 to 2043 and the agreement will have a competitive balance.
It’s an early birthday gift for Smith, who turns 29 tomorrow and has been one of the best receivers in the game in recent years.
From its debut in 2019 until the end of 2023, it connected 91 home runs and walked 10.9% of his plate appearances. His batting line .261/.357/.483 Looking ahead to the 2024 season it translates into a wRC+ of 128. Among qualified receivers in that period, only Mitch Garver and Adleyrutschman they had a higher wRC+. Each of those two was in 130but in just half the number of plate appearances.
His glove work has also received good marks, including 26 defensive runs saved so far in his career. Statcast considers him to have been about league average in terms of blocking and controlling the run game.
He’s less enthusiastic about his framing, but FanGraphs considers him on par in that department, while Baseball Prospectus considers him well above average.
Their 15.8 wins above replacement from FanGraphs since the beginning of 2019 they are second among receivers.
The Dodgers have committed to Smith for a longer term than either of those deals and later in his career. But in doing so, it appears they were able to reach an agreement in terms of the average annual value and the impact of the competitive balance tax, which is based on AAV.
The nine years and $131.45 million of new money lead to an AAV of $14.61 million before taking into account deferrals, reducing the current value of the deal to $12.2 million. Mauer earned a guarantee of $184 million and an AAV of $23 million in 2010.
Posey earned $166.5 million and a $20.8 million AAV in 2023. Martin’s five-year contract came with an $82 million guarantee and $16.4 million AAV in 2014.
That’s not to say that Smith is as good as those players, just to point out that the guarantee is not as unprecedented as the duration. While the ten-year span is a new record for recipients, there are 12 deals with AAVs greater than $14.61MM.
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2024-03-30 17:20:21
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