Minnesota Twins extend second baseman Brian Dozier

The Minnesota Twins lock-up young second baseman Brian Dozier with a four-year, $20 million extension.

In a world of rising salaries through arbitration, Major League Baseball teams are making a strong push to lock up young players on cost-friendly deals before their young stars hit their arbitration years. The Minnesota Twins became the latest team to do so on Tuesday, when the team announced a four-year, $20 million extension for second baseman Brian Dozier according to Mike Bernadino of the Pioneer Press.

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Dozier, who is entering his third season in the Major Leagues, was due to reach salary arbitration for the first time after the 2015 season. By agreeing to the deal, the Twins buy out all of his three arbitration years and his first season of free agency, locking him up through the 2018 season when Dozier will be 32-years-old. Originally slated to earn the major league minimum for 2015, a modest increase on the $540,000 he made in 2014, the Twins will now pay Dozier $2 million in 2015, $3 million in 2016, $6 million in 2017, and $9 million in 2018. Essentially, the Twins trade long-term security to Dozier in exchange for immediate savings on the arbitration side.

That’s a smart move for a club with payroll restrictions, and locking up Dozier can likely save them significantly over the first two years of the deal. In two seasons with the Twins, Dozier has put up 41 home runs, showing a power component that is not common among second baseman. That’s helped him put up 2.6 and 4.8 wins above replacement in the first two years of his career respectively. FanGraphs, which applies a dollar figure to WAR, has noted that Dozier was worth $12.8 million in 2013 and a monster $26.2 million in 2014. That shows the value the Twins were able to build into the deal for a player locked into his prime seasons for the entirety of the contract.

Of course, every deal has a chance of going sour. For all of his power, Dozier struggles with consistent contact, striking out over 120 times in each of the last two seasons, with K-rates of 19.3% and 18.2% respectively. He also declined defensively in 2014, watching his UZR/150 slip from -0.7 to -4.4 and his defensive runs saved drop from 9 in 2013 to 0 in 2014. Of course, he makes up for that with his power and his ability to reach base, posting strong walk rates in both of his first two seasons.

Still, for a Twins team locking up significant money in an albatross deal with Joe Mauer, the signing of Brian Dozier gives them some flexibility over the first three seasons of the deal, and if he continues to pound the baseball, the fourth year will also be a benefit in comparison to similar deals. With the team making strides, and with more young talent on the way, this ranks right up there as a smart baseball decision.

(h/t Mike Bernadino, Pioneer Press)

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