After Andrew Friedman was hired by the Los Angeles Dodgers as president of baseball operations, his first big trade was to send Matt Kemp and Tim Federowicz to the San Diego Padres in exchange for Yasmani Grandal, Zack Eflin and Joe Wieland.
Eflin was immediately flipped to the Philadelphia Phillies in a trade for Jimmy Rollins, and in January 2016 the Dodgers acquired Erick Mejia from the Seattle Mariners for Wieland. Suffice to say, Grandal has been the linchpin of the deal for Los Angeles.
In addition to providing them with a power bat at the catcher’s position, Grandal was under team control for three years via salary arbitration. That’s now changed, however, as he was among the Dodgers’ seven players to become a free agent the morning after the World Series concluded.
To no surprise, he was extended the qualifying offer by the Dodgers ahead of Friday’s deadline, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post:
Hear #Dodgers are definitely extending a qualifying offer to Yasmani Grandal. Still debating on Hyun-jin Ryu as deadline nears.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) November 2, 2018
Should Grandal accept the one-year pact, it would mark a rare occurrence in MLB history and have him return to the Dodgers at a $17.9 million salary. He would be an outright free agent after the 2019 season; players can not be tendered a qualifying offer more than once in their career.
Should Grandal reject the contract, he could still sign with the Dodgers under different terms, or join another club. In the event the Dodgers do not sign him, they would receive compensation in the form of a draft pick (details would hinge on the value of Grandal’s new contract and team he signed with).
While appearing in 510 games for the Dodgers over the past four seasons, Grandal hit .238/.337/.453 with 76 doubles, 89 home runs and 245 RBI. Although considered one of the game’s top hitting catchers, he struggled in each of the last two postseasons and lost the starting job to Austin Barnes.
Grandal has 10 days to either accept or reject the qualifying offer.
