Dodgers targeted Blake Snell to reinforce starting rotation

LOS ANGELES — There was a time last spring when Andrew Friedman let himself think the unthinkable. When everyone got healthy, he thought, the Dodgers might have more starting pitching than they would need.

“Naively, last February, I was like, ‘You know, we may be in a position to – the dream is to be in first place and be a seller,’” the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations reflected on Tuesday afternoon at Dodger Stadium. “My goal is to not buy in July (at the in-season trade deadline). I am setting that out there right now. My goal is to do everything we can right now to not buy in July. … It is a terrible time to acquire talent.

“Last February, I naively joked about how we may even be in position to be sellers and be in a good position. I will never make that mistake again.”

Injuries left the Dodgers with just three healthy starting pitchers by October. For that reason, the Dodgers put a target on the back of Blake Snell, the most accomplished of a trio of starting pitchers at the top of this winter’s free-agent market (along with Max Fried and Corbin Burnes). The two-time Cy Young Award winner, who agreed to a five-year, $182 million contract last week, was officially introduced as the newest member of the Dodgers on Tuesday.

“Starting in the winter, in our internal meetings, as we were talking about ways that we could put ourselves in the best position to win a World Series in 2025, all conversations kept coming back to Blake,” said Friedman, who was the Tampa Bay Rays’ GM when they made an 18-year-old Snell their first-round draft pick in 2011.

Snell went through his own learning curve since last spring.

Coming off his second Cy Young season in 2023 with the San Diego Padres, Snell sat on the free-agent market into March, the bidding for his services not having met his (or agent Scott Boras) expectations. He signed a two-year deal with the San Francisco Giants in March then exercised an opt-out clause to become a free agent again this winter.

This time around, the courtship was a short one. Snell became one of the first free agents to find a new home when he agreed on a five-year, $182 million contract with the Dodgers last week.

“It’s up to the teams,” Snell said Tuesday. “Last year, I would have wanted to sign quicker, but teams weren’t interested at that time. So it’s up to the teams. But for me, I was excited with what I did last year, signed that deal (with the Giants). And then coming into this free agency, I knew I put myself in a good position to sign earlier.

“With how aggressive Andrew was, and Brandon (Gomes), it made it pretty exciting pretty quickly. I’m just happy we were able to get something done. Really looking forward to being here for five years.”

The Dodgers are looking forward to having an even better version of Snell than the one who is just one of seven pitchers to win Cy Young awards in each league. Snell will turn 32 on Wednesday but Friedman said his best years could be ahead of him.

“With a guy that’s enjoyed that much success, usually in major league free agency, you’re buying the back side of a guy’s career, the accomplishments that they have (already) had,” Friedman said. “With Blake, one thing that’s really exciting for us is, for as much success as he’s had, we feel like there’s more in there and a lot of upside beyond what he’s done to this point, and the impact that can have on us and our quest to win a World Series this year, and as many years as we can see out.”

Snell’s late signing last spring affected his preparation for the 2024 season and he wound up pitching just 23⅔ innings before July, making two trips to the injured list with a groin muscle injury. Starting in July, though, he had a 1.23 ERA over his last 12 appearances (11 starts), striking out 114 in his last 80⅓ innings for the Giants, holding batters to a .123 average and throwing the first no-hitter of his career.

“I think the first half this year, I learned a lot,” Snell said. “I was trying to push through some things to see where I was, trying to get better, and failed. And from that point moving forward, it really helped me.

“Usually, when I get in the rhythm, I can really take that into the rest of the season. So just learning through those first two hiccups, and then as I started in the end of June, early July, somewhere in there, I was really confident from my rehab starts going into that, I was like, ‘Okay, kind of take this all away and started dominating.’”

The Dodgers are certainly familiar with how daunting it can be facing Snell. In 14 regular-season starts for the Rays, Padres and Giants against the Dodgers, the Dodgers have hit .173 against Snell, who has a 2.62 ERA. He has a 2.03 ERA in seven career starts at Dodger Stadium. He faced them twice in the 2020 World Series for the Rays and again in the 2022 National League Division Series for the Padres, allowing a total of four runs in 15⅓ innings.

Most memorably, Snell was dominating the Dodgers in Game 6 of the 2020 World Series, allowing just one hit while striking out nine in five scoreless innings. But Rays manager Kevin Cash pulled him in the sixth inning, unwilling to let him face the Dodgers’ lineup for a third time. The Dodgers rallied to win and take the Series.

“It was a moment in my life that I’m very appreciative of, and everything happened for a reason,” Snell said. “I don’t look into that game as much as everyone else. It was just a moment in time and I learned from it. I mean, I told Andrew if I wanted to stay out there longer, I should have done a better job before that game to make that decision easier on Kevin. So it’s ultimately up to me to be a better pitcher there in that moment.”