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After signing both Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto last offseason, the Los Angeles Dodgers made the first major splash of this offseason Tuesday night by signing starting pitcher Blake Snell in free agency.
According to Ken Rosenthal and Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic, Snell and the Dodgers agreed to a five-year, $182 million contract.
The Dodgers now have arguably the best and deepest projected starting rotation in baseball for the 2025 season:
- Blake Snell
- Tyler Glasnow
- Yoshinobu Yamamoto
- Shohei Ohtani
- Tony Gonsolin OR Bobby Miller OR Dustin May OR Landon Knack
Ohtani served as only a designated hitter last season as he recovered from an elbow injury, but he is expected to be available to also act as a starting pitcher next season.
As for the fifth spot in the rotation, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported that the Dodgers will “presumably” re-sign veteran pitcher and future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw. Heyman also noted that the Dodgers are “favored” to sign the top Japanese free agent in pitcher Roki Sasaki.
Prior to those potential moves, Spotrac lists the Dodgers as having a tax payroll of $284.1 million, which is the highest in Major League Baseball. Spotrac also projects their payroll will rise to $307.9 million by Opening Day.
After spending the first five seasons of his career with the Tampa Bay Rays, Snell has made the rounds through the National League West in more recent years, playing three seasons with the San Diego Padres and last season with the San Francisco Giants.
Over his first eight seasons, the hard-throwing southpaw joined some exclusive company, winning the American League Cy Young Award with the Rays in 2018 and the National League Cy Young Award with the Padres in 2023.
Snell is one of only seven pitchers in MLB history to win the Cy Young in both leagues, joining legendary names such as Gaylord Perry, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Roy Halladay and Max Scherzer.
Despite posting a 2.25 ERA and winning the NL Cy Young in 2023, Snell didn’t sign with a team in free agency last offseason until March 18, and he had to settle for a two-year, $62 million deal with the Giants.
Snell, who will turn 32 on Dec. 4, proved that he deserved more by going 5-3 with a 3.12 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and 145 strikeouts over 104 innings in 20 starts with San Francisco last season.
Given how successful he does despite missing nearly all of spring training, Snell opted out of the final year of his contract in hopes of landing a much bigger deal in free agency this offseason.
That decision quickly paid dividends, as he landed a monster deal with a Dodgers team that is coming off winning the World Series.
Despite entering last season with a deep and talented rotation, the Dodgers were down to only Yamamoto and current free agents Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler by the time they reached the playoffs.
Glasnow, Kershaw, Gonsolin and May were all lost for the season by that point, while Ohtani wasn’t cleared to pitch at all last season.
Now, it can be argued that the Dodgers have four ace-caliber pitchers in their rotation, along with plenty of viable options for the fifth spot.
While it seems like an embarrassment of riches for L.A., last season proved that even the deepest of rotations can be decimated by injury, which likely explains why president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman is loading up even more for the 2025 campaign.
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