Los Angeles Dodgers

Dodgers exercise option on Forsythe; Ethier is free agent

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 4:48 p.m. ET

LOS ANGELES (AP) The Dodgers exercised their $9 million option on second baseman Logan Forsythe instead of paying a $1 million buyout.

Forsythe batted .224 with six home runs during the season. He was better against left-handers, hitting .290 He missed five weeks early in the season with a broken right big toe after being hit by a pitch.

During the Dodgers' run to the World Series, Forsythe hit .297 with six RBIs in 14 games.

He was acquired from Tampa Bay last year for pitching prospect Jose De Leon.

The Dodgers declined outfielder Andre Ethier's $17.5 million club option, making the longest-tenured player on the team a free agent.

He was in the final year of an $85 million, five-year deal. The Dodgers will pay a $2.5 million buyout.

The team has younger left-handed hitting outfielders, including Joc Pederson and Andrew Toles.

The 35-year-old Ethier missed most of the last two seasons because of a broken right leg in 2016 and a herniated disk this season. Both times, he recovered to make the postseason roster.

After not throwing a baseball or swinging a bat until Aug. 1, Ethier returned on Sept. 1. He appeared in eight of the Dodgers' 15 postseason games. He set a franchise record playing in his 51st postseason game during the World Series and drove in the team's only run in Game 7 with a pinch-hit single in a 5-1 loss to Houston.

The two-time All-Star had spent his entire 12-year career with the Dodgers. He is a career .285 hitter and has 162 home runs.

In other moves, the Dodgers outrighted infielder-outfielder O'Koyea Dickson to Triple-A Oklahoma City. They reinstated pitchers Grant Dayton, Yimi Garcia, Scott Kazmir, Adam Liberatore, Josh Ravin and Toles from the 60-day disabled list.

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