LOS ANGELES — The first big move of baseball’s offseason is being made by the World Series champions.
Looking to shore up a starting rotation that dissolved with injuries each of the past two seasons, the Dodgers have reached agreement on a five-year, $182 million contract with two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell. The deal, which includes a signing bonus and some deferred money but no opt-out clauses, is pending a physical.
Snell announced the agreement by posting a photo of himself in a Dodgers uniform on his Instagram account on Tuesday night.
The 31-year-old left-hander was one of the top starting pitchers on the free agent market this winter, along with Corbin Burnes and Max Fried. The Dodgers explored all three and are still considered the favorites to sign Japanese right-hander Roki Sasaki when he is posted.
Snell joins a starting rotation that currently includes Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto – neither of whom will be asked to pitch on less than five days of rest – and a lot of question marks. Tyler Glasnow’s 2024 season ended early with an elbow injury and his status for 2025 is uncertain. Tony Gonsolin will be returning from Tommy John surgery. Dustin May did not pitch in 2024 while recovering from his own elbow surgery and a torn esophagus. Emmet Sheehan is expected back at some point in 2025 after his Tommy John surgery.
Walker Buehler and Jack Flaherty are free agents.
The 2018 American League Cy Young Award winner with the Tampa Bay Rays, Snell won the National League Cy Young in 2023 after going 14-9 with a 2.25 ERA for the San Diego Padres. He became a free agent last winter but stayed on the market well into March looking for a long-term deal that never materialized despite his Cy Young history.
The Dodgers were involved with Snell at one point before he signed a two-year, $62 million contract with the San Francisco Giants that included an opt-out clause. He exercised that opt-out after going 5-3 with a 3.12 ERA in an injury-interrupted season (20 starts) with the Giants. He had 145 strikeouts and just 44 walks in 104 innings.
In 14 starts from early July to late September, Snell had a 1.23 ERA with 114 strikeouts and 30 walks in 80⅓ innings. One of Snell’s victories during that stretch was a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds on Aug. 2. It was also the first complete game of his nine-year career.
Snell took the league by storm with the Rays in 2018, leading MLB with 21 wins and pacing the AL with a 1.89 ERA. He was solid over the ensuing four years, continually missing bats at an elite level, but his ERA jumped to 3.85 during that stretch.
Overall, he is 76-58 with a 3.19 ERA over his nine MLB seasons.
The only pitcher in the majors over the last two seasons with at least 250 innings and a lower ERA than Snell is Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, who just won the 2024 American League Cy Young Award last week.
