It s a cannonball dropped on the scales of power in the NL West, as the Dodgers lost one of their co-aces and the Giants, although they never publicly acknowledged their pursuit of Greinke, missed on their top free-agent target. Yes, the Diamondbacks. Not the San Francisco Giants or the Los Angeles Dodgers, who were the supposed front-runners for the right-hander. The Washington Nationals signed Max Scherzer to a seven year, $210 million, while the Chicago Cubs gave Jon Lester a six year, $155 million deal.
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The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because there hadn’t been an official announcement.
A source confirmed the agreement, which is valued between $32 million and $34 million, according to a tweet by Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports.
The $300-million payroll last season attracted all the headlines, but the Dodgers really do want to get younger.
The latest Major League Baseball news is that Zack Greinke is expected to get fewer years from the Arizona Diamondbacks than new Boston Red Sox pitcher David Price but a higher salary average. It hasn’t changed now that he’s about to head off for the winter meetings, one would presume. Let’s just hope Greinke saw the team’s new uniforms before signing the papers. Earlier, pitcher Johnny Cueto turned down a $120 million offer from the Diamondbacks. Due to Greinke declining a qualifying offer of one year, $15.8 million, the Diamondbacks will forfeit their first-round pick in the 2016 draft.
Greinke agreed in principal to a six year, 206 million dollar contract with the Snakes.
Greinke had a 1.66 ERA last season that was the lowest in the majors since Greg Maddux had a 1.63 ERA in 1995.
Greinke signed a 6-year, $147-million contract with the Dodgers prior to the 2013 season. Greinke averaged 17 wins, 201 innings, 185 strikeouts and a 2.30 ERA in his three years with the Dodgers. “We are now hard at work on our alternatives”. According to oddsmakers from online sports book Mybookie.ag, the Diamondbacks have gone from 40/1 to 25/1 to win next year’s World Series.
Mrs. SnakePit will not be happy: she still hasn’t forgiven the D-backs for signing Eric Byrnes and Miguel Montero to expensive contracts they failed to live up to, and this is by no means a risk-free investment.
Greinke will join Paul Goldschmidt – NL MVP runner-up – and A.J. Pollock as the lynchpins for Arizona’s future.
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The only other healthy pitcher who has a place in the rotation locked down is Alex Wood, who was acquired in a midseason trade with the Atlanta Braves.
