Turns out, a 36-year-old Zack Greinke is account $31 actor ... but the 37-year-old adaptation is not.
That's what the Dodgers announced by alms Greinke, now 32, a five-year arrangement account about $155 million, per Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. In absolute guarantee, the Dodgers fell $51.5 actor abbreviate of the six-year, $206.5 actor accord Greinke ultimately accustomed from the Arizona Diamondbacks, as aboriginal appear by our Ken Rosenthal.
Clearly, the Dodgers capital Greinke back. They offered him an amazing bulk of money. But by acceptance the analysis battling Diamondbacks to outbid them by such a advanced allowance — admitting Arizona's cartoon 20,000 beneath admirers per home bold this year — the Dodgers access a beginning annular of questions about the year-old Andrew Friedman/Farhan Zaidi administration.
The aforementioned aggregation that committed $62.5 actor to Cuban infielder Hector Olivera in May — alone to amusement his $28 actor signing benefit as a sunk amount in trading him two months after — now has fatigued a harder band on a accommodation that will not decidedly appulse its amount for addition six years.
Thus, the Dodgers are assertive to access at next week's winter affairs in Nashville, Tennessee, as the a lot of scrutinized aggregation in the sport.
It's arbitrary to say Friedman and Zaidi accept alternate to the small-market methodologies they accomplished in Tampa Bay and Oakland. The Dodgers' amount this year was the better in North American pro sports history — $316.6 million, according to spotrac.com — even if above accepted administrator Ned Colletti was amenable for a lot of of it. Right now, the Dodgers accept the better 2016 amount charge of any major-league franchise.
But with Greinke, the Dodgers chose the amiss moment to exercise restraint. Large-market franchises aren't declared to lose superstars in the way that the Dodgers absent Greinke. Now they're aback in the marketplace, searching for anyone absolutely like the amateur who just left: an aristocratic bullpen who excels in ample markets and during the postseason.
The Dodgers' banking frustrations — to the admeasurement that they accept any — accept resulted from characterless and/or injury-prone players getting paid like stars. Greinke, though, is a superstar whose achievement and paychecks accept been adequate with one another. Judging by ERA+, Greinke has been the majors' second-best bullpen over the accomplished three seasons — abaft his now above teammate, Clayton Kershaw.
By that measure, at least, the Dodgers are destined to alter Greinke with an inferior bullpen — even if it's by a attenuated margin. Johnny Cueto, who ranked third abaft Kershaw and Greinke in ERA+, is a chargeless abettor and a part of the accessible additions. But now the assembly for Cueto and added free-agent starters are in position to yield advantage of the Dodgers' credible desperation.
Without Greinke the Dodgers accept alone two pitchers, Kershaw and Brett Anderson, who started in October's playoff alternation adjoin the New York Mets, and 2016 will represent Anderson's bid for a additional after advantageous division — something he's never done in the above leagues.
And it's not as if Greinke's abandonment is the alone affair afore Friedman and Zaidi at this acute choice of their tenures in LA. They charge a starting additional baseman. They charge a bureaucracy reliever, possibly two. They charge an acknowledgment on what to do with Yasiel Puig, whom they apparently should accept traded several months or one year ago.
Friday, the Dodgers' bind became added vexing, for a acumen no one saw coming: They didn't action abundant money.
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