Major League Baseball

Dodgers flex spending power in adding Blake Snell to championship roster

Updated Nov. 27, 2024 12:34 p.m. ET

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

Less than a month after winning the World Series with a decimated rotation, the Dodgers addressed the uncertainty surrounding their pitching staff and significantly upped the ceiling of the group by agreeing to terms on a five-year, $182 million deal with Blake Snell.

The two-time Cy Young Award winner broke the news himself, announcing his intentions Tuesday night by posting a photo of himself in a photoshopped Dodgers jersey on his Instagram page. The agreement reportedly includes a $52 million signing bonus, $62 million deferred — a preferred tactic of the Dodgers, allowing them to lower the luxury-tax hit — and no opt-outs, which is notable considering that's how Snell became available to them in the first place.

The Dodgers had been interested in Snell for years — no surprise, considering president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman drafted Snell in 2011 when he ran the Tampa Bay Rays — including last season, before the left-hander signed a two-year, $62 million deal with the Giants. Despite coming off a second Cy Young season, Snell's market didn't materialize the way many expected it to last offseason.

He didn't sign until the middle of March, and the start to his San Francisco tenure began inauspiciously after the late build-up. 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 had not done much to assuage teams' fears about his durability and reliability. Snell's Cy Young seasons in 2018 with Tampa Bay and 2023 with San Diego are the only two times in his nine-year career that he has thrown more than 130 innings, and his ERA fluctuated in the four years between those award-winning seasons, due in part to a high walk rate and erratic control. But he would soon showcase the upside that few pitchers in the sport, if any, can match.

He returned from injury in July and produced a 1.23 ERA with 114 strikeouts in 80.1 innings the rest of the way, throwing a no-hitter on Aug. 2 — the first complete game of his career — and going at least six innings while allowing one or no runs in eight of his final 14 starts. Despite the slow start, he still ranked in the 98th percentile in whiff rate, strikeout rate, hard-hit rate and expected batting average by year's end.

He has averaged 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings over his career, the most for a starter in MLB history, and he has struck out more than that in each of his past six seasons. In 2024, his 28.9% hard-hit rate, 34.7% strikeout rate and .174 batting average against all represented career-best marks.

Those skills are especially tantalizing for a contender looking for a final piece in October, when the ability to miss bats becomes more pronounced. Snell's 3.33 career postseason ERA doesn't hurt, either. In other words, he's an ideal fit for the reigning champion Dodgers, a team he overpowered in the World Series four years ago.

Corbin Burnes is a more reliable workhorse. Max Fried is a more consistent producer. But no one at the top of this year's robust free-agent pitching class offers the elite strikeout upside that Snell provides. While he uses his fastball nearly half the time, his curveball, changeup and slider have all registered a 43% whiff rate or better in each of the past three seasons.

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

The Dodgers should now in theory boast a significantly better pitching staff than they had during last year's championship run, though they couldn't have expected the need that would arise after devoting $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 they had left. Despite only one pitcher still standing from their Opening Day rotation, the Dodgers persevered to win a World Series over the New York Yankees.

This offseason, given the injuries to the group and the schedules of Ohtani and Yamamoto dictating the need for a six-man rotation, it was an area they felt they needed to bolster. Buehler and Flaherty are both free agents. Yamamoto missed nearly three months with a shoulder issue. Glasnow is coming off an elbow injury that forced him out for the playoff run. Ohtani, Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin are all coming off major elbow surgeries. Bobby Miller was ineffective in 2024 after a promising rookie season. Clayton Kershaw is expected to re-sign with the Dodgers in 2025, but he'll be coming off knee and foot surgeries.

With the depth of their roster, their farm system and their ownership's bank account, they can afford to take calculated risks that would scare off many clubs. They did it with Yamamoto, despite him never having thrown a big-league pitch. They did it with Glasnow, despite him never having thrown more than 120 innings in a season.

Snell brings risk, too, along with an unrivaled potential for reward. Last week, Ohtani joined Frank Robinson as the only players ever to win an MVP in both leagues. This week, Ohtani became teammates with one of seven pitchers ever to win the Cy Young in both leagues. Adding Ohtani and Snell to a rotation already headlined by Glasnow and Yamamoto could make it the best in baseball.

And it's just the start this offseason for the Dodgers, who are still considered the favorites to land Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki, remain among the contenders in the Juan Soto sweepstakes and could bring back All-Star Teoscar Hernández. While their corner outfield vacancies should be the next order of business, the addition of Snell quickly takes care of one of the champion's few glaring needs, much to the chagrin of the rest of the league.

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