Dodgers Team News

Dodgers Roster News: LA Tenders Contracts to 9 Players

It was a tough day yesterday for the Dodgers organization as they made the tough decision to non-tender former MVP Cody Bellinger. Along with Belli, LA made Edwin Rios and Luke Williams free agents.

However, The Dodgers did decide to tender nine of their arbitration-eligible players as well, OC Register’s Bill Plunkett wrote.



“They did tender contracts to the rest of their arbitration-eligible players – pitchers Julio Urias, Walker Buehler, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, Evan Phillips, Caleb Ferguson and Yency Almonte, catcher Will Smith and outfielder Trayce Thompson.”

At least some good news came from yesterday, even though it was evident that the Dodgers would tender these players’ contracts.

Each one of those players was a crucial part of the Dodgers dominating the 2022 regular season.
Julio Urias had arguably his best career as a major leaguer and finished third in this year’s NL Cy Young voting. Walker Buehler didn’t have the season he envisioned, ultimately losing him for the season with Tommy John, but he is set to be the central piece in the Dodgers rotation for years to come. Tony Gonsolin had a career year, earning his first All-Star bid and having his best ERA at 2.14 in 2022.

And a no-brianer was tendering Will Smith. In 2022, Smith established himself as one of the best catchers in the league and the best in the NL. He slashed .260/.343/.465 with a .808 OPS while hitting clean-up for the best regular season team in the league.

Almonte and Phillips had tremendous years, as Phillips, in particular, turned himself into the best “fireman” in the majors. Even though Almonte struggled with injuries the past season, he was spectacular while out there and producing for LA.

May, Ferguson, and Thompson were all kept and deserved the right to be tendered.

LA is far from being done this off-season; they’ll continue to improve their roster as winter goes on.

Ricardo Sandoval

Born and Raised in the East side of Los Angeles. Ricardo is a staff writer at Dodgers Nation and on the LA Sports Report network of sites. He's also a lifelong Dodgers and Lakers fan. Ricardo is an alumnus of CSUN (Go Matadors).

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