The deal has yet to be confirmed by the Diamondbacks but the Los Angeles Dodgers, where Greinke has spent the past three years, announced he was leaving the team.
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“We made a very strong offer to retain Zack but clearly he found a deal that fit better for him and his family”, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said in a statement. The $34.4 million average will be the sport’s highest, topping Price’s $31 million.
The major league ERA leader and runner-up for the NL Cy Young Award boosted the Dodgers to their third straight division title this season.
LOS ANGELES_Did the Los Angeles Dodgers outsmart themselves by not signing Zack Greinke?
Out of the playoffs since 2011, the Diamondbacks finished 79-83 last season, 13 games behind the West champion Dodgers and also trailing the Giants, who have won three of the last six World Series.
Greinke’s departure frees Friedman from concerns that roster flexibility will one day be limited because of an underperforming 38-year-old pitcher making $30-plus million.
“It’s an fantastic deal”, former Major League Baseball pitcher Curt Schilling said on ESPN. The Dodgers and Giants were reportedly the two finalists locked in a bidding war for Greinke, who was assumed to be deciding between the two teams in the coming days. As much as the D-backs did not want to say it, the 2015 season was a time for discovery, a year for La Russa and Stewart to separate the wheat from the chaff, a year to cut financial losses while saving for the future during manager Chip Hale’s first season.
Greinke had 200 strikeouts past year with a four-pitch mix that induces soft contact, if there is much contact at all. Wood pitched reasonably well for the Dodgers – he was 5-6 with a 4.35 ERA in 12 starts – but not well enough to earn a start in the postseason.
But now the D-backs now have an ace to match up with the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw and the Giants’ Madison Bumgarner.
Since 1919, only five pitchers have had a better ERA than Greinke had a year ago, with Greg Maddux doing it twice. The Dodgers also receive a compensation-round pick and will have three picks among the top 50 next June.
Back in 2009, Greinke won the Cy Young as a member of the Royals.
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Bonds is joining the staff of new Marlins manager Don Mattingly as hitting coach. Matt Cain was slowed by further elbow issues after undergoing surgery late in the 2014 season, while right-hander Tim Hudson retired and Mike Leake and Ryan Vogelsong are free agents.
