LOS ANGELES _ Somewhat lost in the Dodgers' hectic start to the offseason were the qualifying offers the club extended to two important pieces last week. Hyun-Jin Ryu and Yasmani Grandal have made significant contributions to the Dodgers in recent years and both had to decide whether to play for $17.9 million next season or test the free-agent market for a long-term deal. They came to different decisions.
While Ryu accepted the offer before Monday's deadline, Grandal rejected it and became a free agent, leaving a hole behind the plate for the Dodgers.
Ryu became the sixth player ever to accept the qualifying offer out of the 80 to receive it since it was implemented seven years ago. He is betting on himself to replicate the success he enjoyed when healthy in 2018 and parlay it into a lucrative long-term contract in free agency next winter after his age-32 season.
Two years after undergoing major shoulder surgery, Ryu pitched to a 1.97 ERA in 15 regular-season starts last season. He suffered a groin tear in early May that sidelined him until mid-August, but he returned to post a 1.88 ERA in nine outings down the stretch and was selected over Clayton Kershaw to start Game 1 of the NL Division Series against the Atlanta Braves. Ryu held the Braves scoreless over seven innings, but didn't pitch out of the fifth inning in his three final outings.
Grandal, meanwhile, lost his starting job amid a miserable postseason for the second straight October, but he enters the free-agent fray as the top catcher on the market after another productive year. He was, by most measures, the second-best offensive catcher in baseball in 2018, behind the Miami Marlins' J.T. Realmuto. He compiled the second-highest FanGraphs WAR among catchers and hit the most home runs while appearing in a career-high 140 games.
His production in recent years closely resembles what catchers Russell Martin and Brian McCann posted before garnering steep five-year deals. Martin received $82 million from the Toronto Blue Jays in November 2014 while McCann got $85 million from the New York Yankees a year earlier.
But more teams were more willing to invest heavily in free agency then and Grandal's drastic streakiness and woeful playoff history complicates his resume. In 92 career postseason plate appearances, Grandal has a .107 batting average and .464 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. In 2017, Austin Barnes seized the everyday catcher role from him with a breakout season before the playoffs began. This year, the Dodgers entered with Grandal as the starter as Barnes struggled, but Barnes was promoted during the NLCS and started eight of the Dodgers' final nine games.
Grandal is still eligible to sign with the Dodgers as a free agent.
