by Before Game 1 of the World Series against the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman made his intentions clear.
The architect of MLB’s most towering juggernaut wore a light blue button-down shirt, the sleeves rolled up to the wrists. A 5 o’clock shadow dotted his insomniac face. In his left hand, a silver coffee glass amplified the aesthetic of a man determined to make his mark.
When asked by a media member to share his thoughts on “people saying these two teams are here just because they spend the most money,” Friedman predictably did not , no excuses. He mentioned the “unique challenges that every market faces” and insisted that dynamics are not something he thinks about often.
Instead, Friedman laid out the franchise’s blueprint.
“My ultimate goal, sort of, is that when we’re done, we can look back and say this was the golden age of Dodgers baseball, and that’s an incredibly high bar to say that.” , Friedman said. said. “That’s where my focus is.”
A week later, Friedman’s Dodgers were World Series champions for the first time in a full season since 1988. At some point, in the joy that followed, it surely occurred to him that No MLB team has won back-to-back World Series since the Yankees. in 1999-2000.
Less than a month after hoisting that gold trophy, Friedman signaled that his Dodgers were determined to end that streak.
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Late Tuesday night, the defending champions reportedly agreed to a five-year, $182 million deal with left-handed starter Blake Snell, a two-time Cy Young Award winner who spent the 2024 season pitching for the rival San Francisco Giants . According to reports from The Athletic and the LA Times, Snell’s contract includes deferred money and a $52 million signing bonus. The Dodgers have yet to officially confirm the deal, but the goatee pitcher posted a photo of himself in a Los Angeles uniform on Instagram.
At his best, Snell is one of the best pitchers in the world. As of 2021, he has the third-highest strikeout rate in MLB, behind Braves pitcher Spencer Strider and new (and former) teammate Tyler Glasnow. Snell’s .195 batting average is also the second-best mark in the league during that span (also behind Glasnow). Only Strider mentioned more swing-and-miss. That said, Snell’s walk rate — the second worst since 2021 — is an unavoidable mark and limits his ability to work deep in starts, but the overall toll is undeniable. There are few pitchers you’d rather have over six innings.
For Snell, who turns 32 next week, this contract was a long time coming. Drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays out of a Seattle high school in 2011, Snell made his debut in 2016 and immediately established himself as one of the game’s most dominant, albeit walk-prone, starting pitchers. In 2018, he won his first Cy Young Award, earning him a $50 million contract extension through 2023. After the 2020 season, Tampa Bay dealt him to the San Diego Padres, and in 2023, Snell won his second Cy Young Award entering. free agency for the first time.
It was a season that should have earned him a big contract on the open market. But this never came to fruition.
All winter and into spring, Snell waited for a number he liked. Spring training is here. His contemporaries flocked to the warm comforts of Arizona and Florida to prepare for the marathon of the season. Snell, without a contract and nowhere to go, remained north, at home in Seattle. Another month has passed. The asking price of Snell and his agent, Scott Boras, has surely come down. Boras, who represented three other major free agents whose negotiations stretched into the spring, received an avalanche of criticism.
Then, on March 19, just a day before the Dodgers and Padres opened the regular season in South Korea, Snell signed a two-year pact with the San Francisco Giants. The contract paid the left-hander $31 million per season and included an opt-out option after 2024. That gave Snell a big change and offered him the opportunity to retest the market a year later. It certainly wasn’t the lengthy, career-defining contract that Snell and Boras were looking for.
Then things got worse, with Snell’s delayed 2024 start impacting his health and effectiveness. The southpaw made just six starts before July, bouncing on and off the injured list while pitching to an astronomical 9.51 ERA. He seemed destined to decline his opt-out clause and return to San Francisco for the second year of his contract.
Instead, he turned it on. From his return on July 9 until the end of the season, Snell sparkled. In 13 starts, the southpaw achieved a 1.33 ERA with 105 strikeouts in 74 ⅓ innings. On July 27, he struck out 15 Colorado Rockies in six innings. In his next start, Snell threw a no-hitter, the first of his career, against the Cincinnati Reds. This remarkable turnaround motivated him to exercise his opt-out right at the end of the season and test the free market again.
This time he didn’t wait. Snell will sit at his Thanksgiving table on Thursday with a lot more turkey under his belt.
For Snell, Los Angeles is an obvious choice. The money is right. The team is exceptional. The weather is magnificent. The coaching staff has a reputation for helping players excel. Who wouldn’t want to play for the Dodgers? Maybe Chavez Ravine is for everyone.
And any team could have used Snell. He is capable of starting the first or second game of a playoff series for every franchise in baseball. The Dodgers, who suffered a rash of pitching injuries during their triumphant World Series campaign, know all too well the value of a quality starting pitcher.
In Los Angeles, Snell joins a team filled with superstars. Glasnow, Snell’s former teammate in Tampa, was an All-Star in 2024 and was set to start Game 1 in October until an elbow ailment in August sent him to the IL. He should be healthy by spring training. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, whose $325 million contract last offseason represented the largest contract ever for a pitcher, struggled with injuries as a rookie but bounced back in October with an ERA of 1.72 in his last three playoff starts. Then there’s two-way dynamo Shohei Ohtani, who didn’t pitch in 2024 while recovering from elbow surgery. The NL MVP, who has a 3.01 career ERA with 608 strikeouts in 481 ⅔ innings, is expected to be fully active on Opening Day.
Other Dodgers starting pitching options include:
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Future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw, who is technically a free agent but has expressed his intention to re-sign with the Dodgers for another season.
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Tony Gonsolin, who missed all of 2024 while recovering from elbow surgery, but posted the second-lowest ERA in baseball from 2020 to 2022 behind only Jacob deGrom (minimum 200 innings pitched).
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Bobby Miller, a 25-year-old former first-round pick and top prospect who looked ready to play for the Dodgers after dazzling in 2023. He struggled mightily in 2024 but remains a promising starting option for the future.
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Dustin May, who also missed 2024 due to injuries but looked like a contender in 2023, had a 2.63 ERA in his first nine starts. He is expected to be healthy for Opening Day.
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Ben Casparius, Los Angeles starter for Game 4 of the World Series. The 25-year-old has worked in shorter stints during the club’s playoff run, but remains an attractive option for multiple runs.
It’s a comical embarrassment of riches, sure, but it’s also a mysterious box of unknowns. Every pitcher on this list poses huge questions, whether it be health or effectiveness. Pitching is volatile, and the only way to combat that volatility, as the 2024 Dodgers have shown, is to employ enough starters to overcome inevitable attrition. Snell is just another piece of this plan.
This is an obvious and effective strategy for the Dodgers, made possible by (1) their developmental excellence and (2) their spending in free agency, something more teams should do.
By signing Snell, the Dodgers, a fully functioning financial giant, are flexing their muscle. Snell, upon joining the Dodgers, enjoyed a decade of dominance.
The two rich people got even richer.
