There’s no place in the Los Angeles Dodgers outfield for Andre Ethier, even after the trade of Matt Kemp. Los Angeles has reportedly been looking to move Ethier all offseason, and according to CBS’s Jon Heyman, they’re willing to eat half of the $56 million over three years left on his deal. Naturally, they’ve had no success.
The Dodgers have offered to pay down “about half” the $56 million remaining over three years on Andre Ethier’s contract in efforts to trade him, sources familiar with the talks say.
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Well, as luck would have it, the team has been trying all winter.
Their offer to pay down the contract to the point where Ethier is making only about $10 million a year, or perhaps a bit less than that, may seem more than reasonable. But it apparently hasn’t enticed teams to the point of a trade.
Ethier turns 33 in April, and was a disaster in 2014. Over 380 plate appearances, he hit .249/.322/.370 with just four homers. He was once again terrible against left-handers, and has hit just .235/.294/.348 in his career against southpaws, meaning that he really shouldn’t be playing every day at this point in time.
But would he even be worth a gamble at something like $8 million a year? Seth Smith is five months younger than Ethier, and has similar strong platoon splits. But he’s costing the Mariners just $13 million over the next two seasons, and all it took for them to acquire him from the Padres this winter was pitcher Brandon Maurer, who has a 5.58 ERA in the majors over 159 2/3 innings. Why would a team want to commit more money than that to Ethier?
The Dodgers might just have to bite the bullet and release Ethier, eating the rest of his contract in the process. Yasiel Puig and Carl Crawford aren’t going anywhere, and it’ll be hard to say no to Joc Pederson after he set the PCL on fire in 2014. Ethier isn’t even the Dodgers’ best bench outfielder, because Chris Heisey does the same thing as Ethier with better defense for less money, and Scott Van Slyke is the crucial right-handed power bat off the bench for the team.
Where could they even move him? Heyman mentions the Orioles and Blue Jays as possibilities, but I don’t see either as much of a fit. The Orioles committed $5 million to Alejandro de Aza as the left-handed half of their platoon in left field, and new right fielder Travis Snider is also a lefty with a platoon split. Toronto also doesn’t seem like much of a fit, especially after Michael Saunders’ expected return from knee surgery was pushed forward. The Jays would never dare platoon Jose Bautista in right, and both DH Dioner Navarro and center fielder Dalton Pompey are switch hitters.
It’s not going to be easy for Andrew Friedman and Farhad Zaidi. But if they can find a team willing to take on Ethier, even if the Dodgers need to eat something like 75% of his contract, I think they have to pull the trigger on a trade.
