The Los Angeles Dodgers, the defending World Series champions, continued their busy offseason on Friday by announcing an agreement with South Korean infielder Hyeseong Kim on a three-year pact worth $22 million guaranteed.
Kim, 25, is a speed-and-defense merchant with above-average bat-to-ball skills (albeit also with well-below-average power indicators that could ultimately limit his offensive ceiling). However Kim’s MLB career plays out, he’s the latest on a long list of transactions executed by the Dodgers over the past few months. Executives Andrew Friedman and Brandon Gomes have warded off championship complacency by adding two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell and outfielder Michael Conforto, and by retaining slugger Teoscar Hernández and closer Blake Treinen.
That doesn’t mean the Dodgers can put a stamp on their offseason just yet, however. Los Angeles still has a few pieces of business left to conduct over the coming weeks. With that in mind, let’s highlight four items remaining on the Dodgers’ to-do list.
1. Land Sasaki, too
The Dodgers have long been considered the favorites to land Japanese ace Roki Sasaki, the best pitcher in the world not already under employment by an MLB team. They’re reportedly one of a handful of teams to receive an in-person meeting with Sasaki, suggesting that they’re at least on the short list of teams under consideration.
Sasaki, 23, has amassed a career 2.02 ERA and 5.76 strikeout-to-walk ratio in the Nippon Professional Baseball league thanks to a devastating fastball-splitter combo. His 26.8% strikeout-minus-walk percentage puts him well ahead of the marks posted by current Dodgers (and his Team Japan teammates) Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani, among other star NPB pitchers to transfer to MLB over the last two decades.
Sasaki’s youth and lack of professional experience means that he’s classified by MLB as an amateur free agent. That designation limits his earning upside, all but ensuring that he’s going to be one of the biggest bargains in MLB over the coming six years. Sasaki, in turn, has delayed his signing until after bonus pools reset on Jan. 15 as a means of maximizing the meager amount he is allowed to receive upfront.
Should the Dodgers land Sasaki, you can go ahead and use a pen to write his name into their starting rotation — for the upcoming season and the foreseeable future.
2. Don’t forget about Kershaw
Sasaki could be the face of many Dodgers rotations to come, but that doesn’t mean Los Angeles should be ready to move on from the past — manifested, in this particular instance, in the person of longtime ace Clayton Kershaw.
Kershaw, 36, was limited by physical ailments to seven regular-season appearances in 2024. None of those outings came after Aug. 30 as he dealt with a bone spur in his big toe that required surgery. He also had to undergo an operation to repair the meniscus in his left knee. Nevertheless, he’s already declared his intent to pitch in 2025.
“Mentally, I feel great,” Kershaw said in October. “I had shoulder surgery last offseason, and my shoulder and elbow, everything, my arm, feels great. Obviously, I had some tough luck with my foot this year. But I want to make use of this surgery. I don’t want to have surgery and shut it down. So I’m gonna come back next year and give it a go and see how it goes.”
Kershaw declined his player option to begin the offseason, but there’s no indication that he intends to leave the Dodgers. Rather, he declared himself a “Dodger for life” at the World Series parade, suggesting that it’s a matter of when and not if he puts pen to paper and continues his career-spanning tenure with Los Angeles.
3. Shore up bullpen
With the exception of Treinen, the Dodgers have otherwise left their bullpen untouched this winter. It’s unclear how much of that has to do with the Dodgers being content to field this exact relief corps heading into the new season, and how much has to do with the free-agent reliever market developing at a glacial pace.
It’s perhaps illustrative that the Dodgers were, at one point this winter, linked to top free-agent lefty Tanner Scott on the rumor mill. Whether or not they remain involved with Scott is anyone’s guess.
Still, the Dodgers also have some in-built flexibility if they do want to add Scott or another arm. Three of their projected Opening Day roster relievers — Alex Vesia, Edgardo Henriquez, and Michael Grove — have minor-league options remaining.
4. Resolve the reserve infielder situation
One downstream effect of the Dodgers’ Kim signing has to do with their bench situation. At present, he’s projected to be one of three spare infielders on the roster, alongside Chris Taylor and Miguel Rojas.
While the Dodgers have publicly said there are no trades in the work involving Taylor or Rojas, it stands to reason that they’ll use the next month to survey the land.
Of the two, Taylor would seem like the player the Dodgers would prefer to move. He’s coming off a sub-replacement level season that saw him hit for a 73 OPS+. Rojas, conversely, enjoyed the best full-season offensive showing of his career by hitting for a 113 OPS+. Alas, Taylor is also owed more money than Rojas ($17 million versus $5 million), suggesting that the Dodgers might have to add a sweetener to trade him.
The alternative is that the Dodgers just keep both into the spring as a way of guarding against injury. Then, if they still find themselves with more players than spots, they can make a call, either on a trade or, perhaps, by designating Taylor for assignment.
While most teams might wince at generating $17 million in dead money; not these Dodgers, not when they have their eyes set on becoming the first repeat World Series champions in more than two decades.
