Dodgers Rumors: LA met with former division-rival Cy Young winner in free agency

In March, two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell signed a one-year deal with the Giants with a player option for 2025 less than 10 days before the official start of the season. Superagent Scott Boras had completely bungled the markets for five of his most high-profile clients — Snell, Jordan Montgomery, Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman, and JD Martinez — which forced all of them to take deals with just one guaranteed year, and in the latest possible hour.

Montgomery was so unhappy with Boras' mismanagement that he dropped him in favor of Wasserman agent Joel Wolfe, who also represents Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The other four stuck with Boras, apparently hoping he'd learn from his mistakes.

According to Ken Rosenthal, he might have. Rosenthal reported that there's been some movement already this offseason with Snell, as well as Corbin Burnes, who's also a Boras client. Both (along with Max Fried, represented by CAA) have allegedly already had some discussions with the Dodgers (subscription required).

Snell, Burnes, and Fried form a trifecta as the three most coveted pitchers on the free agent market (we're not counting Roki Sasaki, whose situation is unique, to say the least), and it only makes sense that the Dodgers, with their seemingly infinite funds, would at least approach all three.

Dodgers have reportedly already had discussions with former Padres, Giants ace Blake Snell

Rosenthal notes that the Dodgers were interested in Snell last offseason, before he signed with the Giants, and were at least vaguely interested in taking him on at the trade deadline. He also has ties to Dodgers PoBO Andrew Friedman, who was with the Rays' front office when they drafted Snell.

There's no world in which the Dodgers get all three of Snell, Burnes, and Fried (and maybe Sasaki), but LA is doing their due diligence by casting a wide net. They need at least two more starters if they're going to fill out a six-man rotation (maybe one, if Tony Gonsolin goes back to the rotation), and that could mean one of Snell, Burnes, or Fried, and another from a lower tier (Yusei Kikuchi? Jack Flaherty again?).

The Dodgers aren't alone in speaking with any of these pitchers, of course. Rosenthal reports that Snell has also been approached by the Red Sox, and the Orioles will be looking for a reunion with Burnes. For the Dodgers, it's not so much a question of money as it is organizing priorities and figuring out which one to really throw everything at. Snell had his struggles this season, but it'd be hard to really go wrong with him in the rotation.