The Dodgers make a power change in adding Blake Snell to the roster

A year after the Los Angeles Dodgers handed the largest contract in baseball history to Shohei Ohtani, made Yoshinobu Yamamoto the highest paid pitcher in the sport and gave Tyler Glasnow a nine-figure extension, the reigning champions are back with a big first game. MLB’s 2024-25 offseason.

Less than a month after winning the World Series with a depleted rotation, the Dodgers addressed the uncertainty surrounding their pitching staff and significantly raised the team’s ceiling by agreeing to a five-year, $182 million deal with Blake Snell.

The two-time Cy Young Award winner broke the news himself, announcing his intentions by posting a photo of himself wearing his iconic Dodger jersey. Instagram page. The deal reportedly includes a $52 million signing bonus, deferred cash — the Dodgers’ preferred tactic, which allows them to reduce the luxury tax — and no opt-outs, which is remarkable given how Snell was originally acquired from them. place.

The Dodgers have been interested in Snell for years — not surprising, considering that president of baseball Andrew Friedman drafted Snell in 2011 while he was running the Tampa Bay Rays — including last season, before the lefty signed a two-year, $62 million deal . and the Giants. Despite Cy Young’s sophomore season, Snell’s market did not turn out the way many expected it to end last season.

He didn’t sign until mid-March, and the start of his tenure in San Francisco got off to a rocky start after a late build. He dealt with groin and adductor injuries and was 0-3 with a 9.51 ERA in six starts before the end of June. At the time, he hadn’t done much to allay the teams’ fears about his durability and reliability. Snell’s Cy Young seasons in 2018 with Tampa Bay and 2023 with San Diego were the only two times in his nine-year career that he threw more than 130 innings, and his ERA fluctuated in the four years between those award-winning seasons, as a result. in part to a higher level of mobility and dynamic control. But he will soon demonstrate that few players in the game, if any, are the same.

He returned from injury in July and produced a 1.23 ERA with 114 innings in 80.1 innings overall, throwing a no-hitter on August 2 – the first complete game of his career – and going at least six innings while allowing one. or no runs in eight of his last 14. Despite the slow start, he still ranks in the 98th percentile in strikeout rate, strikeout rate, strikeout rate and expected batting average at the end of the year.

He averaged 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings in his career, the youngest in MLB history, and has more than that in his last six seasons. In 2024, his 28.9% slugging percentage, 34.7% strikeout rate and .174 batting average against all represented career marks.

Those skills are especially attractive to a contender looking for the final stretch in October, when the power of missing bats is most prominent. Snell’s 3.33 postseason ERA doesn’t hurt either. In other words, he’s a perfect fit for the reigning champion Dodgers, the team he won in the World Series four years ago.

Corbin Burnes is a very reliable horse. Max Fried is a consistent producer. But no one at the top of this year’s potential free agent class offers the exceptional strikeout that Snell provides. While he uses his fastball about half the time, his curveball, changeup and slider have all registered a swing rate of 43% or better over the past three seasons.

Snell opted out of his second season with the Giants and wasted no time getting a long-term offer that never came last winter, ensuring there won’t be a rushed, turbulent start to the year this time around. He will be joining his third different NL West club in the past three years.

The Dodgers now have to boast a much better pitching staff than they did at the time of last year’s championship, though they didn’t anticipate the demand that would arise after committing $325 million to Yamamoto and $136.5 million to Tyler Glasnow last December. Ten months later, Yamamoto, Walker Buehler and deadline addition Jack Flaherty were the only reliable starters left. Despite only one pitcher remaining from the Opening Day rotation, the Dodgers held on to win the World Series over the New York Yankees.

This offseason, given the team’s injuries and Ohtani and Yamamoto’s schedules that necessitated six player replacements, it was an area they felt they needed to strengthen. Buehler and Flaherty are both free agents. Yamamoto missed nearly three months with a shoulder problem. Glasnow is coming off an elbow injury that forced him out of the playoffs. Ohtani, Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin are all coming off major elbow surgery. Bobby Miller is out of contract in 2024 after a promising rookie season. Clayton Kershaw is expected to re-sign with the Dodgers in 2025, but he will be coming off knee and foot surgery.

With the depth of their roster, their farm system and their ownership bank account, they can take calculated risks that would scare most clubs. They did it with Yamamoto, despite the fact that he never threw a major league pitch. They did it with Glasnow, except he never threw more than 120 innings in a season.

Snell brings risk, too, and an unparalleled chance for reward. Last week, Ohtani joined Frank Robinson as the only players to have won MVP in both leagues. This week, Ohtani is tied with one of the seven pitchers to ever win the Cy Young in both leagues. Adding Ohtani and Snell to a rotation already headlined by Glasnow and Yamamoto would make it the best in baseball.

And it’s just the beginning of this bad season for the Dodgers, who are still considered favorites to land Japanese prospect Roki Sasaki, who remains among the contenders in the Juan Soto sweepstakes and could bring back All-Star Teoscar Hernández. While their outfield vacancies should be the next order of business, the addition of Snell immediately takes care of one of the few glaring needs of the champions, which upsets the rest of the league.

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the LA Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, raised in Texas, and returned to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

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