MLB’s Opening Day is today; Dodgers spend more money, this time on Will Smith

The Windup Newsletter ⚾ | This is The Athletic’s daily MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup directly in your inbox.

The Athletic has live coverage of around the league on MLB Opening Day.

Dodgers catcher Will Smith set a record with his new extension, the Yankees were part of a three-way trade, we have a Cleveland Guardians preview and Ken tells you about the process of putting together a very in-depth analysis of the Dodgers’ offseason. I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal — welcome to the Opening Day edition of The Windup!

Ken’s Notebook: Kicking off the season with a fun story

The story I co-wrote with Fabian Ardaya about the Los Angeles Dodgers’ $1.4 billion offseason is one of my all-time favorites. It was a blast retracing each move, not just from the Dodgers’ perspective, but also from those of other clubs. It also was a lot of fun talking to country music star Brad Paisley and television actor Brian Baumgartner, who both played bit roles in the drama.

Fabian and I began working on the story months ago. The idea was to publish it Opening Day. But something happened in the interim: The Dodgers’ firing of Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, whom Ohtani’s attorneys accused of engaging in “massive theft” from the $700 million superstar to pay off gambling debts.

Our story was pretty much written when news of Mizuhara’s dismissal broke on March 20, complete with conflicting accounts from the interpreter on what actually happened. I won’t speak for Fabian, but with just over a week until our publication date, I went into a mild panic. Selfishly, I was concerned that the story, which includes details of the Dodgers’ pursuit of Ohtani, might no longer work.

We decided to monitor how events played out and then choose how to proceed. After Ohtani spoke Monday, accusing Mizuhara of both stealing from him and lying to him, we decided to push forward while noting the stunning turn of events.

The story is full of entertaining details about Ohtani’s and Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s free agencies, and the wild party at Paisley’s barn in Nashville that helped accelerate the Dodgers’ efforts to trade for Tyler Glasnow and sign him to an extension. We needed to make one final adjustment on Wednesday, incorporating the team’s signing of catcher Will Smith to a 10-year, $140 million extension (more on that in a minute). Because of course the Dodgers wanted to spend some more!

Anyway, we hope people enjoy reading the story as much as we enjoyed working on it. No matter how one views Ohtani’s current situation, the fact remains: A team might never put together another offseason like the one the Dodgers just did. The twists and turns just kept coming, from beginning to end.

More on Opening Day: Twenty-six teams are in action today (the Braves/Phillies and Brewers/Mets were rained out). Follow along with our live blog.

Will Smith is in it for the long haul in L.A.

There’s been a Will Smith in Hollywood since 1990, and now it looks like that streak will continue for at least another 10 years — as Ken just mentioned, the Dodgers announced they extended their catcher yesterday. It’s the longest contract ever given to a catcher, surpassing Buster Posey’s nine-year deal.

It’s also the third-largest contract ever given to a catcher, behind Posey ($167 million) and Joe Mauer (eight years, $184 million). As part of the $140 million, Smith will receive a signing bonus of $30 million, to be paid out over the next two years.

The deal also — to nobody’s surprise, it’s the Dodgers — involves a not-insignificant amount of deferred money. Smith will receive $5 million per year from 2034-2043, which means he will be 48 when the Dodgers finish paying him. The Dodgers now owe $915.5 million in deferred money from 2028 to 2043 (including $68 million per year to Shohei Ohtani in the 10 years after his contract expires). The story linked above explains their reasoning in greater detail, but the short version is it saves them money on the competitive balance tax. Those dollars don’t count toward their 2024 payroll.

Economics class aside, this move allows the Dodgers to rest easy for a good long while when it comes to the catcher position. Smith is one of the better-hitting catchers in the league, and will now, health allowing, be a rock-steady batterymate for Dodgers rotations current and future.

*Rutschman debuted in 2022

Yankees trade for Berti, address 3B need

Leave it to Opening Day’s Eve to put the “action” in “transaction.” As 26-man rosters were being finalized, quite a few players found themselves headed for a different team than the one they’d just spent spring training with.

Among them: Jon Berti, who was traded from the Marlins to the Yankees in a three-way deal that sent catcher Ben Rortvedt to the Tampa Bay Rays, outfield prospect John Cruz to the Marlins and was finished off with the Rays sending outfield prospect Shane Sasaki across the state to join the Fish.

The trade became necessary when third baseman DJ LeMahieu fouled a ball off his right foot, causing a bone bruise. The Yankees are already down one Gerrit Cole, and while Aaron Judge’s abdominal injury only kept him out of action for about a week, the loss of LeMahieu must have made Yankees fans (and the front office) sleep like they drank a cold brew at 10 p.m.

What to do when you can’t sleep?

Not a real text, this isn’t how trades really work. I wasted five minutes making this.

Berti is not a bad pickup for the Yankees. He hit .294 (albeit with just a .748 OPS) last year, and in 2022, he led the league with 41 stolen bases. That — along with his ability to play all over the infield and outfield — should make the Yankees better. Not only did they finish 21st in baseball with 100 stolen bases last year, but they needed a super-utility player, which Berti will likely be when LeMahieu returns.

Guardians still need more offense

ZiPS projected record: 85-77
2023 record: 76-86

Sorry for leaving the Guardians to the last minute; they were originally scheduled for last week but perhaps you heard — the union was in full revolt and Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter did a no-no. So here we go! Our final team preview, and just in time for Opening Day.

In the last eight full MLB seasons since the league made some tweaks to the ball, only four teams have hit fewer home runs than the 124 the Cleveland Guardians hit in 2023. The next-worst team last year was the Nationals, at 151. Only three teams (Tigers, White Sox and A’s) scored fewer runs.

So what did the Guardians do to address the dearth of offensive firepower in their first post-Terry-Francona offseason?

Uhhh, they added Estevan Florial and Austin Hedges.

José Ramírez is still one of the best in the game, and Josh Naylor had 20 home runs as recently as 2022, but there’s not much after that to inspire fear in opposing pitchers unless they fear a lot of contact and good at-bats. Maybe a shift in philosophy changes that, but this isn’t a squad of bangers. So why does ZiPS project them for a tie atop the AL Central?

It’s the pitching.

The rotation — Shane Bieber, a healthy Triston McKenzie, Tanner Bibee, Logan Allen and a returning Carlos Carrasco filling in for an injured Gavin Williams — is solid. The bullpen features maybe the best closer in baseball, and enough additional arms to feel reasonably good about it … once they’re all healthy. Xzavion Curry and Ben Lively are behind due to a virus, while Sam Hentges (finger), Trevor Stephan (elbow surgery) and James Karinchak (shoulder fatigue) have varying ETAs to the active roster.

It’s hard enough to win every game 2-1 when your whole staff is healthy. Now? The AL Central is a fairly soft division, but I still can’t see the Guardians contending unless they find a way to hit a little more.

Also, you should read this excellent bit of work by Zack Meisel on new manager Stephen Vogt.

Key departures: MGR Terry Francona, OF Kole Calhoun, RHP Enyel De Los Santos, C Cam Gallagher, RHP Lucas Giolito, RHP Reynaldo López, RHP Cody Morris, RHP Zach Plesac, RHP Cal Quantrill

Key arrivals: MGR Stephen Vogt, RHP Scott Barlow, RHP Carlos Carrasco, OF Estevan Florial, C Austin Hedges, RHP Ben Lively

Prospect corner: Despite a tough year on the farm due to graduations and injuries, the Guardians still have a pretty strong top five, Keith Law says, including No. 1 Brayan Rocchio, who made the team’s Opening Day roster.

Handshakes and High Fives

MLB owners voted to approve David Rubenstein as the new owner of the Baltimore Orioles. Britt Ghiroli interviewed the new owner in an exclusive to The Athletic.

Meanwhile, Sam Blum sat down with Angels’ GM Perry Minasian and asked some hard questions.

More predictions: our staff makes some (occasionally shockingly specific) predictions for the 2024 season, and the editors throw us under the bus by reviewing our 2023 forecasts. Meanwhile, Eno Sarris gives us 10 more predictions, and Jim Bowden predicts the award winners. Not enough? How about grades, odds and analysis of all 30 teams?

OK, one more: how about the top 100 position players, filtered into tiers?

It’s C. Trent Rosecrans on Elly De La Cruz, of course it’s going in the links section.

Much has been made of new Cubs manager Craig Counsell’s ties to Milwaukee and the Brewers. But as Patrick Mooney points out, Counsell wasn’t exactly a stranger to Chicago, either.

Sign up for our other newsletters:

The Bounce 🏀 | The Pulse | Full Time ⚽ | Prime Tire 🏁 | Until Saturday 🏈| Scoop City🏈

(Top photo of Mookie Betts on Opening Day 2023: Harry How / Getty Images)