Dodgers finalize $62.5 million, 6-year deal with Olivera

LOS ANGELES: Cuban infielder Hector Olivera has finalized a $62.5 million, six-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday, and predicted he could be playing in the major leagues within a month.
The deal was reached in late March, but Olivera had to first secure a visa. He arrived in Los Angeles on Tuesday and successfully completed a physical, with the Dodgers downplaying reports of a possible ligament tear in his right elbow.
“He came through the medical exam really well,” Andrew Friedman, president of baseball operations, said on a conference call. “We did a very thorough medical review.”
Olivera, who spent the last month at the Dodgers’ academy in the Dominican Republic, also played down the injury.
“I don’t know where that rumor came from,” Olivera said through a translator on a conference call. “There was a little bit of an inflammation in my arm. It was just fatigue in the muscle, but I don’t think there was any serious problem.”
Friedman said market conditions dictated the Dodgers shell out so much to land Olivera, who said he had five teams interested in him, including Atlanta, Miami and San Francisco.
Olivera was swayed by the Dodgers in part because fellow Cubans Yasiel Puig and Alex Guerrero are on the team.
“I’m going to be the new kid on the block and I want to have a lot of support from the people, especially my teammates,” he said. “I’m going to work hard and I’m going to play every day, that’s what I hope.”
Olivera will prepare at the Dodgers’ spring training base and Arizona and Friedman said the infielder will start playing with the Dodgers’ Triple-A minor-league affiliate Oklahoma City and will be accompanied by a team official to help him adjust to life in America.
Friedman said it’s premature to speculate on when Olivera might join the big-league club.
“It’s hard to miss spring training and come out and hit the ground running,” he said. “Everyone is different. Putting him into game action will be very telling. We’ll go off those cues.”
But Olivera predicted he could join the Dodgers in three to four weeks.
“I should be ready by then to play at the big-league level,” he said. “I just need the final touch and that’s what I’m going to do here in Arizona.”
Olivera gets a $28 million signing bonus, of which $12 million is payable within five days of approval by the commissioner’s office, $7.5 million by Aug. 1 and $8.5 million by Dec. 31.
Olivera receives salaries of $2 million this year, $4 million in 2016, $6 million in 2017, $6.5 million in 2018, $7.5 million in 2019 and $8.5 million in 2020.
Los Angeles has a $1 million conditional option for 2021 that can be exercised if Olivera has Tommy John surgery on his right elbow or has right elbow surgery attributable to an ulnar collateral ligament injury that causes him to be on the disabled list for more than 100 days during any one-year span. Olivera can become a free agent at the end of the agreement.
Olivera’s deal will cause a $4,173,333 increase in this year’s luxury tax for the Dodgers, who pay at a 40 percent rate at the payroll amount over $189 million. His agreement raises the Dodgers’ luxury tax payroll to about $292 million, which projects to a tax of roughly $41 million.