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The Los Angeles Dodgers, winners of the 2024 World Series, watched the rest of the baseball world slumber and stumble all over themselves trying to impress Juan Soto during three largely action-free weeks to begin the offseason.
They decided to use their free time to cobble together $180 million for an additional ace.
Said ace, Blake Snell, rocked the baseball world on the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving by posting an Instagram photoshop of himself in a Dodgers jersey, captioned only by "LA" and an eyeball emoji.
Was it a hack? A troll? Or just an incredibly surreptitious way to control the narrative, in much the same way Shohei Ohtani did last winter by taking to the very same medium?
MLB insider Mark Feinsand quickly confirmed that Snell and the Dodgers had a pact, while Jeff Passan of ESPN was the first to check in with the dollar figure: five years, $182 million, representing one hell of a windfall after Snell was forced to settle for a late deal last winter and opted out after a singular season in San Francisco.
Left-hander Blake Snell and the Los Angeles Dodgers are in agreement on a five-year, $182 million contract, pending physical, sources tell me and @jorgecastillo. The World Series champions get the two-time Cy Young winner in the first nine-figure deal of the winter.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 27, 2024
Blake Snell contract details: Dodgers sign Snell to five-year deal for $182 million
Snell, most recently of both the Padres and Giants, now becomes the rare athlete to pull a betrayal of both of his previous teams by signing on with the World Champs. If you hear a squeaking sound, that's the rest of the baseball landscape sobbing.
Fair to count the Dodgers out on Soto now? Why would you count the Dodgers out on anyone these days? Unsatisfied by cobbling together a top of the lineup featuring a trio of MVPs and a World Series-winning rotation likely to be supplemented by Shohei Ohtani and Tyler Glasnow next season, they've opted to add one of the game's premier left-handers fresh off a 5-3, 3.12 ERA season in 20 starts. 145 Ks in 104 innings pitched. Almost inarguably the best pure stuff of anyone on the free agent market.
And he's a Dodger. Who isn't these days? As for the rest of the league, nothing has changed. The Dodgers were the team to beat in 2025 this morning. They still are now.