Wow. Dodgers just have an unlimited budget I guess.
$240 mil with opt outs ('27 and '28) for 4 years. So the Dodgers lock in 2 years for sure. Waiting to see the breakdown on how much he gets each year, but the average is an insane $60 mil per year - under the luxury tax system it works out to $126 mil a year in actual cost for them - by far the highest AAV ever in MLB. Soto had the record at $51 mil per year before, then Ohtani at $46.08 per year. Then 5 more in the $40's. The average will come down though as $30 mil is deferred it seems, but even if that $30 mil was never to be paid he'd still have an AAV of $52.5 mil so a new record regardless (it appears to be $57.1 mil per year for CBT purposes so a net cost of $119.91 mil per year for the Dodgers).
Expect an ugly lockout next year over this. Players love it obviously but owners have to be up in arms over this. I expect a new luxury tax level to be added for the Dodgers - the current top level was added for the Mets but clearly it isn't anywhere near strong enough.
Fallout - Bo now clearly who the Jays will chase hard, but it might be too late with the Phillies also after him. Jays could chase Bellinger but I doubt it. I don't see anyone I'd rank as possible trade bait who is a big improvement on what we have already so it is Bo or bust. Maaaybe the D-Backs rethink Ketel Marte if the Jays come in hard (they said he is now off the table), the Cardinals still have Brendan Donovan (a lesser version of Bo but a LOT cheaper and better on defense and already set at 2B and known to be on the trade market). It will be interesting to see what happens next.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20260115221523783