3 Dodgers who could be next in line for extensions after Will Smith deal

Extending Will Smith ensures that the Los Angeles Dodgers keep another important piece of their core with the team for the long haul. Smith, one of the best catchers in baseball, was supposed to hit free agency after the 2025 campaign but just inked a ten-year extension to remain with the Dodgers for the next decade through his age 39 season.

The Dodgers now have Smith, Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Mookie Betts, and Tyler Glasnow under control for at least the next five seasons, and have Freddie Freeman under club control through the 2027 campaign. The Dodgers are elite now, and their star players are not going anywhere anytime soon.

The Dodgers don't have any pressing extensions to take care of but can look to extend these three players to ensure an even deeper part of their core is locked in for the long-term future.

3) Evan Phillips, RP

The Dodgers roster isn't only littered with star talent, but it's filled with several recognizable names fans have come to know and love. The bullpen happens to be a different story. It's stout, but without the household names you see in the lineup and the rotation.

The best pitcher in the Dodgers bullpen is Evan Phillips, a reliever who came out of nowhere and has been one of the best bullpen arms in baseball since the Dodgers acquired him off of waivers.

In his two seasons plus with the Dodgers, Phillips has posted a sparkling 1.72 ERA in 134 appearances and 135.2 innings of work. He worked his way up from a low-leverage reliever to the Dodgers undisputed closer. It's a cool story, and Phillips has proven to be a player that they should reward with an extension of some sort.

He's under team control through the 2026 campaign so it won't be such a high priority, but if the Dodgers can add a couple of years onto that team control both sides would benefit. Phillips would get security while the Dodgers would solidify the back end of their bullpen.

2) James Outman, OF

The Dodgers have proven that yes, they can do serious damage in free agency and via trades, but they can also build from within. James Outman was selected in the seventh round of the 2018 MLB Draft and showed in his rookie season that he belongs as part of the Dodgers' long-term future.

The 26-year-old wound up being an everyday player for the Dodgers in his rookie season and had a year to remember. He slashed .248/.353/.437 with 23 home runs and 70 RBI in 151 games, tacking on 16 doubles and 16 stolen bases. Outman finished third in the NL Rookie of the Year balloting, only behind Corbin Carroll and Kodai Senga. No shame there.

Not only was Outman solid offensively, but he was elite defensively. He ranked in the 94th percentile in Outs Above Average according to Baseball Savant, which is incredibly valuable for a full-time center fielder. Outman is a five-tool player, which is hard to come by.

Extending players before they hit arbitration has become increasingly common in recent years, so the Dodgers can simply hop onto that bandwagon by extending Outman, a player who is not set to even hit arbitration until after the 2026 season. Doing so would allow the Dodgers to potentially get him for cheap if they believe he's going to continue to progress and develop into a legitimate star player.

1) Bobby Miller, SP

The Dodgers had starting pitching woes last season stemming mainly from an absurd amount of injuries. They look much more formidable this season, but, again, have tons of injuries already and players who are prone to injury (Tyler Glasnow) in their rotation.

One player who stepped up majorly for them last season and will presumably do so again is Bobby Miller who showed flashes of being a potential frontline starter of the future for the Dodgers.

Miller debuted in May of last season and the Dodgers simply couldn't take him out of their rotation. He looked like he belonged from day one and wound up posting a 3.76 ERA in 22 starts and 124.1 innings pitched. The Dodgers won 15 of the 22 games he started and he allowed three runs or fewer in all but six of his starts.

Due to his solid performance (and injuries), Miller wound up starting Game 2 of last season's NLDS. It didn't go as planned, but the Dodgers showed how much they believed in the right-hander by throwing him into a huge spot. They can do so again by keeping the 24-year-old locked in for a very long time. It's unlikely to happen, but similarly to Outman, the Dodgers can potentially ink a pitcher who could very well be an All-Star in the not-too-distant future to a deal that could appear to be extremely team-friendly down the line.