Mission Accomplished: Dodgers Settle Remaining Arbitration Cases

The Dodgers finished their most important task this offseason: locking up all arbitration-eligible players.  First it was Matt Kemp and Chad Billingsley.  Now, the six others fell in line with them.  LA came to terms with James Loney, Jonathan Broxton, George Sherrill, Andre Ethier, Russell Martin, and Hong-Chih Kuo; both Broxton and Ethier agreed to two-year deals that lock up next year’s arbitration.  The specifics are as follows:

Ethier: Guaranteed $15.25 million, according to Ken Gurnick.  $6 million of that will be paid this season (per Dylan Hernandez).

Broxton: $11 million, according to Jon Heyman.  $4 million will be paid this season (per Dylan Hernandez).

Martin: $5.05 million, according to Dylan Hernandez.

Kuo: $950K, according to Ken Gurnick.

Sherrill: $4.5 million, according to Jon Heyman.

Loney: $3.1 million, according to Jon Heyman.

With the payroll locked up at around $91 million (thanks to True Blue LA), the Dodgers now have a full grasp of what they can and cannot do.  They know who’s in their price range, and after watching Ben Sheets throw for teams today, they can now actively pursue the pitching left on the market.  That includes Sheets, Erik Bedard, Joel Pineiro, Jon Garland, Vicente Padilla, and Braden Looper.  At this point, any of those names would satisfy me, except for Looper, who gave up the most home runs of any pitcher last year.