Season reviews are now complete, with 73 players covered, and what better way to usher in 2026 than to look ahead to salary arbitration, with the exchange deadline coming next week.
The Dodgers have four players on the roster eligible for salary arbitration this year. That’s down from nine players at the beginning of the offseason, with some trimming occurring in November. Tony Gonsolin was designated for assignment and Evan Phillips was non-tendered, with both pitchers coming off Tommy John surgery
and a partial season shy of free agency. Michael Grove was sent outright off the 40-man roster, into free agency.
The Dodgers avoided arbitration by signing Ben Rortvedt to a $1.25 million deal, but then tried to sneak the third catcher through waivers and off the 40-man roster, but the Reds swooped in and claimed the out-of-options backstop. Alex Vesia’s club option was exercised, avoiding an arbitration hearing for him as well.
That leaves these four Dodgers players still eligible for arbitration:
- Reliever Brusdar Graterol
- Reliever Anthony Banda
- Reliever Brock Stewart
- Outfielder Alex Call
The salary exchange date for arbitration is Thursday, January 8, when the Major League Baseball Labor Relations Department will file salary figures for teams, and the MLB Players Association will file salary figures for the players. Negotiations can and will happen at any time, but several teams have treated the exchange date as a not-so-soft deadline of sorts, meaning that if the two sides cannot come to an agreement by the exchange date, negotiations will cease and they would proceed to a hearing, which per the collective bargaining agreement must be scheduled between January 26 and February 20 each year.
The Dodgers are in this “file and trial” group, to a point. In the 11 years of the Andrew Friedman-led front office, 79 of the 87 players (90.8 percent) eligible for arbitration have reached an agreement by the exchange date. Six of the eight players who exchanged salaries later reached agreement on contracts with consideration past just one year:
- 2020: Max Muncy 3-year deal covered all of his arbitration years
- 2020: Chris Taylor 2-year deal covered his final two arb years
- 2021: Walker Buehler 2-year deal covered his first two arb years
- 2021: Austin Barnes 2-year deal covered his final two arb years
- 2023: Tony Gonsolin 2-year deal covered his first two arb years
- 2025: Alex Vesia signed for one year plus a club option, which was later exercised
Arbitration hearings pit player vs. team, which can lead to some awkward situations, like Pedro Guerrero in 1983 telling reporters, “I hope the jerk that made the decision, the arbitrator, dies,” or the Dodgers arguing that catcher Mike Scioscia’s high on-base percentage was actually detrimental to the team by clogging the bases. New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, after losing a hearing to star first baseman Don Mattingly in 1987, told reporters, “Salaries are starting to come down now, but arbitration is still the cancer of baseball.”
Each side in an arbitration hearing argues for their salary filed back on the exchange date. A three-person panel then has to pick one salary or the other, with no in-between.
The Dodgers in 2020 went to arbitration with hearings with both outfielder Joc Pederson and reliever Pedro Báez. Pederson lost his case, earning $7.75 million after asking for $9 million. Báez won his hearing, earning $4 million instead of the $3.5 million offered by the Dodgers. Those are the only two arbitration hearings for the Dodgers in the last 18 years.
If I had to guess, the Dodgers won’t have a salary arbitration hearing this year either. Brusdar Graterol didn’t pitch at all in 2025 after shoulder surgery and will almost certainly sign for something near the $2.8 million he made last year. Brock Stewart ($880,000) and Anthony Banda ($1 million) made relatively small salaries last season, and Stewart is coming off shoulder surgery. Outfielder Alex Call is eligible for arbitration for the first time, after batting all of 322 times in 2025.
These all seem likely to reach agreement by the January 8 exchange date, but we’ll delve into each player in detail individually. Here are the projected salaries in 2026, using both MLB Trade Rumors and Cot’s Baseball Contracts.
