Ellis signed; Dodgers non-tender 2 righties
LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers non-tendered right-handed pitchers Juan Nicasio and Lisalverto Bonilla on Wednesday night after reaching an agreement with catcher A.J. Ellis on a one-year, $4.5 million contract earlier in the day.
The Dodgers tendered contracts to six players eligible for salary arbitration before Wednesday night's deadline.
They were: right-handers Kenley Jansen ($7.425 million last season) and Chris Hatcher ($523,000), third baseman Justin Turner ($2.5 million), catcher Yasmani Grandal ($693,000), left-hander Luis Avilan ($530,000) and outfielder Scott Van Slyke ($522,500).
All six now have the right to have their salaries determined through the arbitration process if they cannot negotiate an agreement with the club. Nicasio and Bonilla are free agents.
The 29-year-old Nicasio, who earned $2.3 million in 2015, went 1-3 with a 3.86 ERA in his one season of relief with Los Angeles, averaging 10 strikeouts per nine innings. Struggling against left-handed hitters, he became a hard-throwing right-handed specialist, and he was so ineffective in September that he was left off the postseason roster.
The 25-year-old Bonilla was claimed off waivers from Texas last month and was a rookie not eligible for arbitration, but he was on the 40-man Major League roster. He pitched in the Major Leagues briefly in 2014, but he missed most of '15 with Tommy John surgery.
Ellis earned $4.25 million this season, when he was bumped to backup after the acquisition of Grandal in the Matt Kemp trade.
Grandal was a first-half All-Star when Ellis struggled offensively in limited playing time, but their roles reversed in the second half, when Ellis regained his hitting stroke and Grandal was bothered by a sore left shoulder that required offseason surgery.
Ellis hit .238 in 63 games, slugging seven homers in his last 37 games.
The Dodgers have joined most clubs in leveraging the threat of a non-tender to extract a more favorable contract from a player on the bubble. At last year's deadline, they reached such an agreement with infielder Darwin Barney.
On Tuesday, the club signed arbitration-eligible pitcher Joe Wieland to a $590,000 contract.