Just a few weeks after winning the World Series, the Dodgers hit the table again by signing left-handed starter Blake Snell.
The MLB offseason 2024-25 has arrived and we offer you the qualifications and the analysis of every major signing and trade this winter.
Whether it is an agreement free agent a nine-figure deal that changes the course of your team’s future or a blockbuster trade that shakes up baseball, we’ll take a look at what it all means for next season and beyond.
Follow updates on every move from the experts at ESPN and MLB, Bradford Doolittle y David Schoenfield. This story will continue to be updated, so check back for the most up-to-date analysis from the start of the offseason to the start of spring training.
Related links: How deferred money works in MLB | MLB: What needs do the Dodgers have in the offseason? | MLB: The teams to take into account in free agency
The agreement: 5 years, $182 million
Ratings: A-
Blake Snell lanza con los San Francisco Giants. Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
In his prime, Blake Snell, two-time winner of the Cy Younghe’s as good as any starting pitcher on the planet, and he has stretches where he’s so dominant that he invokes names like Sandy Koufax, Steve Carlton y Randy Johnsonthose great power lefties of the past. Just look at his final 14 starts of 2024 with the San Francisco Giants (after returning from injury following a slow start): 5-0, 1.23 ERA, .123 AVG, 114 SO in 80⅓ IP. Or his last 22 starts of 2023 with the San Diego Padres: 13-3, 1.18 ERA, .154 AVG, 180 SO in 130 IP. Or his last 14 starts of 2022: 7-5, 2.19 ERA, .209 AVG, 105 SO in 78 IP. Of those 50 starts, he allowed one run or no runs in 38 of them.
However, there have also been frustrating bouts of inconsistency, wildness, and minor injuries: the only two seasons in which he surpassed 130 innings were his two Cy Young seasons in 2018 and 2023. He has also surpassed 2.2 bWAR in those Cy Young years alone. . Due to a combination of high pitch counts and attrition later in games (his career OPS the first time he goes through the batting order is .580, but jumps to .700 the third time he faces the lineup), He has completed at least eight innings only once in his career: the no-hitter he threw last season.
Adding it all up, this is still the right decision for the Los Angeles Dodgers, even considering the overall risk of signing 30-year-old free agent starters (Snell is entering his age-32 season). There’s always a big risk with free agent pitchers of any age (especially with this kind of money), but the Dodgers needed a starter to replace free agents Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler. For an organization that can print its playoff tickets in spring training (the Dodgers have made 12 consecutive trips to the postseason), Snell’s usual strong performance in the second half projects as a big plus given the Dodgers’ inability to present healthy rotations in October in the last two years. And although Snell has made 30 starts only twice, the injuries have been more of the minor variety, with no Tommy John surgeries or other long-term, debilitating problems in his past.
The stuff speaks for itself: 96 mph four-seam fastball, knee-buckling curveball (hitters hit .111 with it in 2024 with a ridiculous 50% miss rate), jaw-dropping slider (used primarily against the few lefties who dare to stay in the lineup to face him) and a plus changeup (a home run with it last season). His career 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings lead all active starting pitchers. After walking a career-worst 13.3% of the batters he faced in 2023 (5.0 walks per nine innings), he dropped those numbers to 10.5% and 3.8 in 2024. In fact, the material He’s so good that, if he stays healthy, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Snell have his best seasons ahead of him, just as Carlton and Johnson dominated well into their 30s.
So, yes, the Dodgers are coming off a championship title. World Series and adding Snell and Shohei Ohtani to the rotation. At the beginning of the century, the president of the Boston Red Sox, Larry Lucchinosadly referred to the New York Yankees’ rivals as the “Evil Empire.” Without a doubt, the Dodgers’ rivals in the National League West Division in San Diego, San Francisco and Arizona, as well as fans across the country, might be thinking of the Dodgers in those terms right now. And that’s with Juan Soto still on the market. — Schoenfield
