The deadline to either accept or reject a qualifying offer instead of hitting free agency was at 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday. Six of the seven players rejected the one-year, $17.9 million deal and instead hit the open market. Those players are Patrick Corbin, Yasmani Grandal, Bryce Harper, Dallas Keuchel, A.J. Pollock and Craig Kimbrel. Hyun-jin Ryu was the one player to accept it. Ryu is set to stick with the Dodgers instead of choosing free agency.
Ryu, 31, is coming off an outstanding season, albeit a partial one. In 15 regular-season starts, he pitched to a 1.97 ERA (198 ERA+), 1.01 WHIP and 89 strikeouts in 82 1/3 innings. He went seven scoreless innings in his first playoff start, too, Game 1 of the NLDS. His ensuing three starts in the playoffs, however, yielded an 8.25 ERA.
Taking the offer on Ryu's end makes some sense. He's only played with the Dodgers and he's been there since the start of 2013. There's obviously a level of comfort. There's also the unknown in free agency for a player entering his age-32 season. Injuries have plagued him. He missed all of 2015 and made just one start in 2016. He managed 24 in 2017 but was back down to 15 starts this season.
With all that injury history, the comfort level, a player getting closer to his mid-30s and how badly free agency went for lots of players last offseason, Ryu was likely pretty excited to be extended the qualifying offer.
The Dodgers rotation right now looks something like:
There are some concerns with injuries in there, which is why Kenta Maeda remains in the mix for lots of starts. Further, lefty Julio Urias looked pretty good late in the season and then in the playoffs in his return from shoulder surgery. That's the type of surgery that can drastically hamper a player's career, but his upside pre-injury was a frontline arm. Ross Stripling also was an All-Star last season after being a bit of a rotation savior in the face of injuries in the first half.
Simply: The Dodgers have a ton of rotation depth. Ryu coming back further solidifies that.
