LOS ANGELES, CA: The Dodgers have announced that they and Tommy Edman, a super-utility player, have reached an agreement on a five-year, $74 million extension that will run from 2025 to 2029 and include a club option for the 2030 season. Jeff Passan of ESPN was the first to announce the deal.
According to Passan, the 2030 option has a $13 million value and a $3 million buyout. About a third of the money is deferred, and there is a $17 million signing bonus included in the deal. According to Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic, $25MM will be postponed and distributed over a ten-year period. This agreement adds four years and $64.5 million in fresh funding to Edman's existing contract, which was for 2025 at a rate of $9.5 million.
According to reports, the club and Edman's team were in the middle of "preliminary" talks last week about an extension, and those talks have already concluded. Just before this summer's trade deadline, Edman, 29, and White Sox right-hander Michael Kopech were sent to the Dodgers from the Cardinals in a three-team, eight-player deal that also sent Miguel Vargas to the White Sox and Tommy Pham and Erick Fedde to the Cardinals. Due to complications from wrist surgery he had during the 2023 offseason, Edman had not played in a major league game at the time of the agreement.
Although he didn't actually make his Dodgers debut until August 19, the switch-hitter impressed the team right away by hitting a fair pace and moving between shortstop and center field as needed in the closing days and postseason. The regular season was .237/.294/.417 (98 wRC+), and that was outstanding.328/.354/.508 throughout a wild postseason run that won him the MVP award for the NLCS. It seems like the Dodgers just needed to play 53 games between the regular season and the postseason to determine that Edman was a guy they wanted to keep on the team for the long haul.
Although the club option still gives the Dodgers an additional five years of control over Edman, who will play in the 2030 season at the age of 35, the deal actually guarantees Edman $64.5MM over four years in terms of new money, as the utility man was due $9.5MM entering his final year before free agency. Regarding the guaranteed years, this agreement may theoretically raise Edman's deal's average annual value for the 2025 season from $9.5MM to $14.8MM; however, it is uncertain where the final AAV calculation for the extension will fall after the stated deferrals are taken into consideration.
The Dodgers have shown why they were World Series Champions just a few months ago. They sure spend the money to back it up and their players have played to answer all the front office questions. The Dodgers have now given out another long term contract to a player who played a key piece in their success to capture their 8th World Championship in franchise history.
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