Dodgers reliever is eligible for salary arbitration for the final time in 2025, before hitting free agency.
When the Dodgers acquired right-hander Michael Kopech from the White Sox at the trade deadline, they not only received his services for the remainder of the 2024 season but 2025 as well.
Kopech has five years, 41 days of major league service time, and is eligible for salary arbitration this year before hitting free agency at the end of the season. He’s one of six Dodgers players eligible for salary arbitration this year, with the exchange date set for Friday, January 10.
After he came to Los Angeles as part of a three-team trade that also brought Tommy Edman over from the Cardinals, Kopech was one of the best relievers in the back end of a bullpen that was heavily utilized down the stretch and into October. After Kopech was activated on July 30 through the end of the postseason, Kopech led the Dodgers bullpen in appearances (34), strikeouts (39), and saves (six), all while posting a 1.64 ERA in 33 innings.
He turned things around after posting a 4.74 ERA and 4.84 FIP in 43 games with the White Sox before getting traded. For the regular season in total, Kopech had a 3.46 ERA and 3.46 xERA with a 31.5-percent strikeout rate.
Here’s how that stacks up with other relief pitchers with at least five years of service time during the last few offseasons.
Kopech’s careeer to date is hard to pin down or assign to any particular category. After his brief major league debut in 2020, his other three major league seasons included one in middle relief then two years as a starting pitcher before moving back to the bullpen in 2024.
Saves get you paid in arbitration, as we can see by the career numbers of that same group above.
No singularly comparable pitcher stands out here. Maybe two-years-ago Dylan Floro, the occasional saver and former Dodger, but he walks and strikes out less than Kopech.
Tanner Scott at this point last year had more saves and struck out more hitters than Kopech. Perhaps he’s the upper bound and Floro the floor when setting a salary range for Kopech. It’s a wide range, from $4.2 million to $5.7 million.
It seems Kopech’s best strategy, should he go to an arbitration hearing, is to focus on his 2024 numbers, and especially his work since joining the Dodgers.
Cot’s Baseball Contracts projects a $5 million salary for Kopech in 2025, while MLB Trade Rumors has the right-hander at $5.2 million.
Because of his time as a starting pitcher, Kopech has more career innings than everyone from that group of comparable pitchers except Tyler Duffey, who three years ago got a 72.7-percent raise through arbitration when he reached five years of service time. Applying that raise to Kopech’s $3 million salary in 2024, that would put him at $5.18 million. I’ll guess the midpoint between Cot’s and MLB Trade Rumors, putting Kopech at $5.15 million in 2025.