The Los Angeles Dodgers have a longstanding history of avoiding arbitration hearings with their eligible players, and this offseason is strongly heading in that direction. The club began the process with eight players who were arbitration-eligible.
One of which, Luis Avilan, was traded to the Chicago White Sox in a three-team deal. Both prior to and after the deadline to exchange salary figures, the Dodgers have agreed to terms with a slew of players.
Friday morning and early afternoon saw reported deals reached with Yasmani Grandal, Josh Fields and Kiké Hernandez. Now it appears Alex Wood has joined the list.
On the day of his 27th birthday, Wood and the Dodgers reportedly avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year, $6 million contract, according to Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball:
alex wood settles with dodgers at $6M
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) January 12, 2018
This was Wood’s second instance being eligible for arbitration. He agreed to a $2.8 million contract last winter.
In 152.1 innings across 25 starts (27 games), Wood posted a 2.72 ERA, 3.32 FIP and 1.06 WHIP with 151 strikeouts to 38 walks. He won a personal-best 16 games and was selected to his first career All-Star Game as well.
All-in-all, Wood accumulated 3.3 WAR (Baseball Reference) for his efforts and finished ninth in National League Cy Young voting.
Prior to the World Series, Wood appeared in just one postseason game for the Dodgers — a Game 4 start at Wrigley Field against the Chicago Cubs in the NL Championship Series.
He allowed three runs over 4.2 innings during the contest, striking out seven batters but ultimately being tabbed with the loss. He was featured more prominently in the Fall Classic, where he logged 7.2 innings in two appearances against the Houston Astros.
During the thrilling series, Wood pitched to a minuscule 1.17 ERA and 0.39 WHIP while yielding just one run and three baserunners. He recorded the final six outs of the Dodgers season, tallying two perfect innings in the deciding Game 7 contest.
