Friday marked the deadline for teams and arbitration-eligible players to come to agreements on contracts for the 2020 MLB season. Usually for the Los Angeles Dodgers, that doesn’t mean all that much.
The Dodgers have not had an arbitration hearing since 2007 when they were unable to come to an agreement with left-handed reliever Joe Beimel. L.A. carried forward with the hearing, which them emerged successful from.
That is an impressive feat considering the team usually has between five and 10 arbitration-eligible players of its roster in any given season. L.A. had nine such players to negotiate with this winter after tendering contracts, and while they were able to agree to deals with a handful of them, including a record-breaking deal for Cody Bellinger, they weren’t able to do so with others.