The deal is reported to be for six years and worth $206 million.
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Greinke opted out of the final three years and $77 million of his contract with the Dodgers in October.
The sources spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because there hadn’t been an official announcement.
Fox Sports was the first to report the deal.
Price’s contract, which had an average annual value of $31 million, set the baseline for Greinke’s deal. That averages out to $34.42 million a year, which would be the most per year in Major League Baseball history. Instead, the Diamondbacks reeled in an even bigger prize. Arizona’s last playoff series win came in 2007.
Greinke’s ultimate landing place was a surprise, but the Dodgers’ reluctance to offer him a six-year contract wasn’t. On the year he put up a 3.44 ERA and 3.53 ERA in 32 starts between the Reds and Royals, with 176 strikeouts and 46 walks in 212 innings.
“We made a very strong offer to retain Zack but clearly he got a deal that fit better for him and his family”, the Dodgers’ President of Baseball operations Andrew Friedman said in a statement. As for Arizona, this in a team that was poised for and ultimately achieved a break through in 2015, notching 79 wins and finishing third in the top-heavy division after winning 64 games in 2014. They essentially sold one of their top pitching prospects, Touki Toussaint, to Atlanta in June when the Braves agreed to take on Bronson Arroyo’s salary. The team did not say what kind of cancer the former A’s general manager has. His ERA was the lowest in Major League Baseball since Greg Maddux’s 1.63 mark in 1995. He also had a scoreless streak of 45 2/3 innings.
With Greinke choosing to sign with the Diamondbacks, they have an ace that can matchup evenly with both Kershaw and Bumgarner, as well as the depth in their starting rotation that can matchup with the Dodgers and Giants. The Mets said Alderson had a medical procedure three weeks ago and surgery was performed at Memorial Sloan Kettering in NY.
All that, plus he has dominated the NL West. Greinke was 7-2 against the division previous year and 29-7 in his three seasons with the Dodgers. Arizona will lose its first-round draft pick, No. 13 overall. The Dodgers, who have no budgetary constraints, would have passed based exclusively on principle, and now likely turn to second-tier free agents such as Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija, Mike Leake and Scott Kazmir, same as the Giants.
Greinke’s departure leaves the Dodgers with an unstable rotation beyond Kershaw.
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Right-hander Kenta Maeda was recently posted by his Japanese team after winning his country’s equivalent of the Cy Young Award. The Giants, who’d built those titles on pitching, desired a 1B to Madison Bumgarner’s 1A, face a possible career downturn of Matt Cain and the free agency (and career downturn) of Tim Lincecum.
