Blake Snell joining Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto in LA’s 2025 pitching rotation

On Wednesday, Blake Snell and the LA Dodgers agreed to a five-year, $182 million contract, pending a physical. Snell was one of the top arms available on the market and the Dodgers who boast an array of starting pitchers were not expected to acquire him.

However, Andrew Friedman surprised many by bringing in another highly sought-after free agent as the Dodgers continue to dominate the offseason as they did last year, when they signed Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. With the addition of Snell, the Dodgers have bolstered their rotation with another Cy Young-caliber arm. The 31-year-old will join Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Ohtani and other ace pitchers in the rotation.

Rich Eisen voiced concern over how the Dodgers were outspending everyone while talking on “The Rich Eisen Show”. Highlighting the issues with the team’s spending spree, the 55-year-old said:

“I think Major League Baseball has a Los Angeles Dodgers problem,” Eisen said (0:00 onwards). “Two ways, actually. First, the way they are now following up their World Series championship year with a rotation that appears to include Tyler Glasnow, Yamamoto, and Shohei Ohtani.

“While Ohtani won’t need to pitch immediately, that rotation also features a two-time Cy Young Award winner who took the Kevin Durant route—having some issues beating them, so he joined them. Of course, it helps if they’re offering a five-year, $182 million deal. Then there’s Blake Snell, who might also say yes to the Dodgers,” he continued.

“The second issue for Major League Baseball is that this team’s lineup could feature Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman at the top, and they’ve already spent a fortune on players like Yamamoto last year. Now they’re like, ‘Let’s go get Blake Snell for $182 million.’ That becomes a problem when you add Snell’s arm to a team that’s already lights out and can outspend everyone,” Eisen concluded.

Blake Snell’s contract like Shohei Ohtani’s, will be deferred

The Dodgers front office is working out of the ordinary and signing players to contracts of different nature. They did it with Ohtani last year when they deferred 97% of his contract value (10 years, $700 million) to the next decade and now Snell is the latest entrant to the Dodgers’ creative contract approach.

Snell’s five-year, $182 million contract has no opt-outs in place unlike his last two-year, $62 million contract with the San Francisco Giants last offseason. According to LA Times Jack Harris, almost $60 million of his contract is deferred. Moreover, if the Dodgers trade Snell they’ll owe him $5 million.

Snell’s deal includes a $52 million signing bonus and the average annual salary will be between $32-33 million, per USA Today’s Bob Nightengale.

This creativity in the contract should allow the Dodgers to continue spending this offseason and bring home several key figures like Clayton Kershaw, Teoscar Hernandez and possibly Jack Flaherty.