Rosenthal: Blake Snell, Dodgers not messing around with five-year, $182 million deal

Blake Snell doesn’t mess around. Scott Boras doesn’t mess around. The Los Angeles Dodgers don’t mess around.

As Thanksgiving approaches, it’s comforting to know that the Los Angeles Angels aren’t the only team signing free agents. The five-year, $182 million deal Snell inked with the Dodgers on Tuesday night stands as the first real big move of the offseason. The deal is pending a physical, and when it’s official, its impact will reverberate throughout the sport.

Let’s start with the World Series champion Dodgers, because everything in baseball these days, it seems, starts with the Dodgers. Their 2025 rotation includes a combination of Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin, as well as a free agent they will almost certainly sign, Clayton Kershaw, and another free agent they consider be the one. front runner, Roki Sasaki.

None of these pitchers are anywhere near a workhorse. But between Snell, the pitchers returning from injuries and possibly Kershaw and Sasaki, the Dodgers are bringing in almost a whole new set of starters while subtracting only Walker Buehler and Jack Flaherty. The way the Dodgers are burning through pitchers, they could still get caught in October.

Ohtani, May and Gonsolin are coming off major elbow surgeries. Kershaw is coming off surgery on his left toe and left knee and a season in which he made just seven starts. Yamamoto missed nearly three months with a strained right rotator cuff. Glasnow did not pitch after August 11 due to elbow tendinitis. And Sasaki, if the Dodgers sign him, will be treated with care; he’s only 23, and his career high in innings in Japan is 129 1/3.

The addition of a pitcher like Snell, then, was practically a necessity. And while the Dodgers will remain in the mix for free agent outfielder Juan Soto, if only to raise the price of the other bidders, signing him was a long shot from the start. Teoscar Hernández’s return looms as a more realistic possibility. After that, the Dodgers can bring back Kiké Hernández, upgrade the bullpen and call it a day.

Snell has never pitched more than 180 2/3 innings in a season. But by agreeing to the terms so quickly, he’ll at least give himself a better chance to succeed than he did last offseason, when he didn’t finalize his deal with the San Francisco Giants until March 19. This time, according to a source briefed on his discussions, Snell’s intention was “to sign as early as possible.”

Smart move. Snell’s shortened spring training disrupted him early in the 2024 season, and he made two trips to the injured list. But after he got hot again in the second half and produced a 1.23 ERA in his final 14 starts, he opted out of his two-year, $62 million contract with the Giants. Now, in effect, he will end up with the kind of deal he wanted all along.

Add Snell’s $32 million salary last season to his Dodgers guarantee, and he’s looking at $214 million over six years, even if some of the new money is deferred. His average salary of $36.4 million with the Dodgers would be the fifth highest for a non-Shohei Ohtani pitcher, just ahead of Gerrit Coles. And while Snell spoke with the Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles and other clubs, he is a native of the Seattle area. He preferred to stay on the West Coast.

So Snell wins, and to this point in the offseason, so does his agent, Boras. Boras’ Four last winter consisted of Snell and three other free agents who signed on or after Feb. 25 and accepted shorter contracts with high average salaries. Two of the four, Snell and third baseman Matt Chapman, have since negotiated better deals. Chapman agreed to a six-year, $151 million extension with the Giants in early September, bringing his total payout in the two deals to seven years, $171 million.

A third member of Boras’ Four, Cody Bellinger, exercised his $27.5 million player option with the Chicago Cubs and will either stay with the team with a $25 million player option or receive a $5 million buyout in 2026. Fourth left-hander Jordan Montgomery left Boras for Wasserman and exercised his player option with the Arizona Diamondbacks for $22.5 million.

Boras attributed the delays in his signings last offseason to market conditions; a number of teams were concerned about possible declines in their local television revenues. These concerns persist for many clubs, but most of the big teams are ready to spend and spend big money. Boras’ free-agent class is also bigger and better than a year ago. It’s up to him to take players off the board, keep the line moving.

On Monday, Boras agreed to terms with the Angels on a three-year, $63 million contract for free-agent left-hander Yusei Kikuchi. On Tuesday, he landed a deal for Snell that exceeded the four-year, $110 million projection Athletics Tim Britton in both length and average annual value. Still to come after Boras: Soto, Corbin Burnes, Alex Bregman and Pete Alonso, as well as Sean Manaea and Ha-Seong Kim.

No more messing around. The Winter Meetings seem to be a Boras Fest, starting with Soto. The Dodgers delivered the first major strike on the market Tuesday night. It won’t be the last, not with the Red Sox, New York Mets, New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays, among others, keen to go.

(Top photo of Blake Snell, left, and his agent Scott Boras: Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press)