How Much Deferred Money Have The Dodgers Given Out in Contracts?

The Los Angeles Dodgers have found another way to revolutionize and modernize the game of baseball, and it has nothing to do with on-field play.

L.A. is known for their huge spending on deserving talent recently, but many fans wonder how the Dodgers are able to consistently do this, and effectively pay players while not wrecking the financials of the organization.

The way the Dodgers have done this, as one might hear from upset fans of the 29 other teams in MLB, is deferred money.

Essentially, a large portion of the salary isn’t paid out until a later date, while the player instead gets a smaller annual salary before the time comes for their larger lump sum payment.

While the Dodgers are far from the first team to do it, they’ve made it a big talking point in recent years with their extreme use of deferrals.

Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times reported that this has become the new norm for Los Angeles as “nine times in the last five years, the Dodgers agreed to deals with significant amounts of deferred money”

In just this offseason, L.A. saw quite a large chunk of deferred money given out.

Here’s all the deferred contracts the Dodgers currently have, with total and deferred numbers for each one:

Shohei Ohtani: $700 million contract, $680 million deferred

Mookie Betts: $365 million contract, $115 million deferred

Blake Snell: $182 million contract, $60 million deferred

Freddie Freeman: $162 million contract, $57 million deferred

Will Smith: $140 million contract, $50 million deferred

Teoscar Hernández (two contract totals): $89.5 million, $31.5 million deferred

Tommy Edman: $74 million contract, $25 million deferred

Tanner Scott: $72 million contract, $21 million deferred

While the Dodgers have accrued $1.039 billion in deferred money in the last half-decade, only the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox attained more than just $50 million in deferred deals.

Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman went in depth about the use of deferrals earlier this offseason.

“I mean, it’s just a lever,” Friedman said. “We’ve talked about this. We’ve done deals recently that don’t have it. We’ve done deals that do.

“In a negotiation, I think it’s always challenging and so you’re looking to any lever you possibly can to help get to a point where there is overlap. There are times where that deal lines up in a more straightforward way. There’s times where it’s less straightforward. Including deferrals helps as a lever to find that overlap. It’s been a useful tool for us. … We just like to get deals done.”

As the Dodgers continue to spend not just for this current offseason, but for the future, general manager Brandon Gomes spoke on the expected scrutiny from the baseball world.

“I think everybody’s making deferred-money jokes now.”

Although the baseball world will be joking about the payroll, the Dodgers roster is positioned for L.A. to have the last laugh once again in 2025.

Photo Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

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