Dodgers flex spending power in adding Blake Snell to championship roster

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