Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports that the agreement between Arizona and Greinke is for six years and 6 million. Greinke had opted out of a six-year, $147 million contract with the Dodgers after his third season to become a free agent.
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Greinke had one of the best seasons of his career in 2015, posting a 19-3 record and leading the National League in ERA with a 1.66 ERA mark.
BOSTON – American League Cy Young runner-up David Price said Friday that he is looking forward to all his new city has to offer after signing a seven-year, $217 million deal with the Boston Red Sox.
So here comes the curveball of the offseason, and it’s worth asking as the weekend begins what will be left for the winter meetings, which begin Monday in Nashville?
It was a shocking move to everyone, because many thought he would re-sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers or join the San Francisco Giants. They had a 15-win improvement in 2015: They had 64 wins in 2014 and 79 wins past year.
The Diamondbacks have been hinting all offseason that they were going to make a push for pitching and subsequently a push to challenge the Dodgers and Giants in the National League West.
Cueto turns 30 in February, and over the last five seasons has a 2.71 ERA, a 145 ERA+ and 3.41 FIP, averaging 27 starts, 178 innings and 149 strikeouts per season, most notably limited to just 11 starts in 2013 with a lat injury.
Because the Dodgers made Greinke a qualifying offer, the D-Backs will forfeit their first round pick (13th overall) to sign the right-hander.
The Yankees were never involved in the Greinke sweepstakes as far as we know. Now, once Zack Greinke chooses between his former Dodger teammates and his rival Giants we can …
In so doing, they break up the Cy Young Award-winning duo in Los Angeles.
That would suggest that there should be some drop-off in Greinke’s performance in the second half of this contract, though he can still be an effective starting pitcher for those seasons. With Greinke and Kershaw on the mound in 2015, L.A. went 43-22 but played. Peavy is a six-inning pitcher at best.
“Adding one starter is something that’s critically important, but adding two would depend on other factors”, Friedman said on Tuesday.
Injury-prone Brett Anderson made a career-high 31 starts this year, but his innings count more than quadrupled from the previous season, raising concerns about his durability for the upcoming season. It appeared that he narrowed his choices to the Giants and Dodgers until the Diamondbacks convined him to come toi Arizona.
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So maybe, when we get to Nashville, Cueto will sign with the Phillies and Jason Heyward with the Brewers and we’ll find more reason to be surprised.
