Dodgers and Trea Turner Avoid Arbitration with Lucrative One-Year Deal

Trea Turner and the LA front office came to terms on a one-year deal to eliminate the possibility of an arbitration hearing.

The Dodgers agreed to terms with all of their salary arbitration players before the Tuesday March 22 deadline. MLB's extended lockout compressed the timetable for everything, including salary arbitration. Teams had to work quickly to complete deals in the midst of spring training.

Starting shortstop Trea Turner was one of the players LA had to ink. According to Mark Feinsand (who mistakenly wrote "Nationals" instead of "Dodgers"), Trea and the Dodgers agreed to a $21M salary for his final arbitration year.

Trea Turner and the Nationals have agreed to a $21 million contract to avoid arbitration, per source.

— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) March 22, 2022

For those that forgot, Turner was acquired in a trade with the Nationals at the deadline. After this season, Turner will become a free agent unless the Dodgers sign him to a contract extension. The shortstop has mentioned that he's open to negotiating, but hasn't received an official offer from the Dodgers. 

According to some experts, it was estimated that the speedy shortstop would make about $18.5M in arbitration - he walked home with almost $3M more. 

The prospect of extending Turner is an intriguing one. There are few five-tool shortstops like Turner. 

His power-speed combination is a very, very rare thing. As the Braves learned this offseason, it's significantly easier to extend a player on your roster than take the fight to free agency.

Currently, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman are the only position players signed long-term with the Dodgers.

Whether or not Turner joins them on that list is anyone's guess, but locking up another All-Star might not be the worst idea in the world for the Dodgers.

Either way, Turner won't have to live year-to-year very much longer.