Yasiel Puig’s deal with the Dodgers allowed for him to opt-out of the guaranteed money he has coming to him for 2017 and 2018. It doesn’t allow him to become a free agent -- the Dodgers still have control over him for the next two years -- but he does have the choice: make $6.5 million in 2017 and $7.5 million in 2018 or to opt-out of that and have his salary set by arbitration.
Coming off of two disappointing and injury-plagued years, Puig has decided to stay with the deals as-written and eschew arbitration, Ken Rosenthal reports.
This may be seem somewhat curious as players do not typically see their salaries reduced in arbitration, thus allowing one to argue that Puig had nothing to lose by going to arbitration. Thing is, it’s not entirely unheard of for a player to see his salary drop. And, if Puig has another rough season in 2017, the Dodgers could non-tender him for 2018, making him a free agent coming off of a bad year, in which case he could see his 2018 salary drop indeed.
As we noted last week, the Dodgers still see Puig as an important part of their future. Unless they trade him, they now know exactly how much they’ll be paying him for that future.
