This much is clear: the Giants would be close to tapped out if Greinke had agreed to join them.
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When the best pitcher on the free agent market agreed to a six-year contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday, the balance of power shifted from the California coast – both Southern and Northern – to the tip of the Sonoran desert. Greinke has done that four times in the past seven seasons.
The D-backs are not known for this kind of extravagant spending.
Greinke opted out of his contract with the Dodgers after the season while it still had three years and $71 million on it. Greinke and Clayton Kershaw combined to be one of the top pitching duos in baseball over the past few years and now the Dodgers will have to find a way to make up for his production. “The money is definitely important”, Diamondbacks general manager Dave Stewart said at the time.
But what about the team that got Greinke? They were 69-61 in games started by anyone else.
A source confirmed the agreement, which is valued between $32 million and $34 million, according to a tweet by Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports. It remains to be seen if money remains.
Instead, along came the Diamondbacks, Corbin’s continued return from Tommy John surgery, Paul Goldschmidt’s near-MVP talent, A.J. Pollock’s breakout 2015, and now an ace in Greinke, all now a challenge to the Dodgers and Giants. They are on the outside looking in.
The Diamondbacks’ aggressiveness isn’t surprising after they reportedly offered free agent Johnny Cueto a six-year, 0 million contract earlier in the week.
At what price though, and can any signing or combination of signings possibly make the same impact that signing Greinke would have. Among the players Bonds will tutor is $325 million slugger Giancarlo Stanton. That they bested the Dodgers and Giants for the 2015 Cy Young Award runner-up qualifies as one of the biggest free-agent upsets ever.
Greinke went 19-3, setting a career high for wins, and pitched 222 2-3 innings.
Greinke finished last season with a 1.66 ERA, which ranks second in the history of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Greinke’s ERA over his three years with the Dodgers: 2.30, bested only by Kershaw’s in that same period. Or, at least, some people thought that the other pitcher was a little better. In 2015, Lackey had a 2.77 ERA in 218 innings.
The Diamondbacks were second in the NL in runs scored this past season, behind only the altitude-assisted Rockies, and the oldest of their projected regulars for 2016 is catcher Welington Castillo, who turns 29 in April.
If this holds true, and they sign two of the remaining starters it means one of two things: The Giants are going with a six-man rotation next year, or Chris Heston and Matt Cain will have a drop-down, drag em’ out spring training to decide who is part of the five-man. He should benefit from a defense that “saved” 63 runs last season, according to baseball-reference.com, the best figure in the NL. And ultimately Greinke followed the money. Greinke has won the last two NL Gold Gloves, and he is a career.
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Greinke’s departure leaves the Dodgers with an unstable rotation beyond Kershaw. He exercised it and walked away from a whopping amount over the next three years.
