According to various sites, including The Athletic and the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Dodgers have reached an agreement with two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell to pay him $182 million.
The five-year contract, which allegedly includes a $52 million signing bonus and almost $60 million in deferred compensation, comes after the Dodgers won the World Series in October despite having only three healthy starting pitchers heading into the offseason.
With 2023 additions Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow out for extended periods of time due to injury, and 2024 NL MVP Shohei Ohtani not throwing a single pitch while recovering from Tommy John surgery, Snell’s arrival represents a significant boost to a pitching staff that relied too heavily on its bullpen in 2024.
The 31-year-old, who uploaded a faked image of himself in a Dodgers jersey on Instagram on Tuesday night, has a 76-58 record with a 3.19 ERA in nine seasons and 211 MLB starts. His strikeout rate of 11.2 per nine innings is the highest recorded in big league history.
Snell is also one of just seven pitchers to have won the Cy Young Award in both the American and National Leagues, winning it in 2018 with the Tampa Bay Rays and again in 2023 with the San Diego Padres. The Dodgers reportedly made a move for Snell following his success in San Diego, but the Seattle native finally signed with the San Francisco Giants in mid-March 2024.
Snell had a rocky start to the season, missing the whole of spring training, but he found a hot run, going 5-0 with an ERA of 1.23 in his last 14 appearances, including a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds in early August. According to the Associated Press, the contract is awaiting a physical and is another significant financial splurge for the Dodgers, who spent $1.2 billion last offseason on Ohtani, Yamamoto, Glasnow, and Teoscar Hernández combined.
Los Angeles has awarded five contracts for $100 million or more since the start of the 2023-24 offseason, more than the rest of the MLB combined, and is the favorite to win the 2025 World Series. No organization has won consecutive Commissioner’s Trophies since the New York Yankees won three in a row from 1998 to 2000.
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