Breaking: Dodgers Extend Tommy Edman’s Contract by Five Years
Most people take the Thanksgiving holiday to spend time with family, reflect on the year, watch beloved pirate captains float through New York in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, eat some turkey, or generally not be productive.
Not the 2025 Dodgers, who have taken the “Let’s be pigs” mantra of 2021 described in Andy McCullough’s biography of Clayton Kershaw: The Last of His Kind: Clayton Kershaw and the Burden of Greatness to its logical and absurd next level.
In the span of 72 hours, the team signed Blake Snell to the shock of the league and has now signed the 2024 National League Championship Series Most Valuable Player to a five-year extension through the 2029 season, with a club option for the 2030 season.
The team has already announced the move.
Jeff Passan of ESPN broke the news on Friday evening, along with contract details. The Dodgers will pay Edman a $17 million signing bonus, and about a third of the contract will be deferred. Per Fabian Adraya of The Athletics, $25 million will be deferred to be paid out over the span of 10 years after the contract is up.
One would be forgiven if they forgot that Edman was already under contract for the 2025 season for $9.5 million. He signed a two-year contract in January 2024 to cover his final two years of salary arbitration.
Edman won a Gold Glove at second base in 2021 and a Fielding Bible award as a multi-position player in 2022. With the Dodgers in 2024, Edman played a mix of center field, shortstop, and second base on one occasion (September 20th vs. Colorado Rockies). In 37 games after being activated from the injured list, he had a slash line of .237/.294/.417 with 6 HRs and 20 RBIs.
That slash line is a bit deceiving as a switch hitter, as Edman was torrid as a right-handed bat. During 2024 with the Dodgers, Edman hit .412/.418/.882 in 36 plate appearances as a right-handed hitter and .181/.256/.267 in 117 left-handed plate appearances. Edman has been far more potent as a right-handed bat during his career, with his OPS about 140 points higher as a righty.
Edman was serviceable in the National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres before becoming the Bane of Queens by hitting .407/.393/.630 in the NLCS against the New York Mets, earning MVP honors. In the World Series, Edman was the fifth Dodger to both homer and steal a base in Game 2.
Per Ardaya, after acquiring Edman, partly for Miguel Vargas, Jeral Perez, and Alexander Albertus, the Dodgers concluded that a year and a half of club control was insufficient.
Accordingly, on November 23, MLB Trade Rumors reported that the Dodgers had “preliminary” extension talks with Edman, regardless of any public hot-stove ideas, outlandish or otherwise, of trading Edman for anyone, including a declining Nolan Arenado.
Considering that the Dodgers had pursued Edman for years, with apologies to Will Farrell’s comedy timing, the preliminary discussions escalated quickly.
Our own Estevão Maximo argued earlier this month that the Dodgers would be well served by signing Edman to an extension, even if the Dodgers signed former Milwaukee Brewer Willy Adames or re-signed homerun champion Teoscar Hernandez.
