Dodgers Pursued Free Agent Who Signed With Giants, Dodging a Bullet: Report

Maren Angus-Coombs | May 31, 2024

John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports

The Los Angeles Dodgers reportedly had extra money to spend on one specific free agent over the offseason. After locking in big names like Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Teoscar Hernandez, and James Paxton, the Dodgers made a late push for Blake Snell.

According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, the report said the Dodgers "made a late play for Blake Snell before he opted for the rival Giants."

Even after signing Yoshinobu Yamamoto and then trading for Tyler Glasnow and extending him, the Dodgers still made a late push to sign Blake Snell according to @JonHeyman. You can never have enough top-end starting pitching.

— Doug McKain (@DMAC_LA) May 31, 2024

With the Dodges being one of the biggest rivals of San Francisco, it's possible that Los Angeles' reported interest pushed their rival to go all in on Snell. It also appears that the Dodgers dodged a bullet.

The two-time Cy Young winner is really struggling in the first year of a two-year, $62 million contract. Through his first five starts, he has been a total bust. Snell is 0-3 with sky-high 10.42 earned run average across 19 innings. He has struck out 24 batters and walked 11.

So, what's the problem?

It appears that Snell is learning the hard way what happens when you miss big league spring training while waiting on a new contract.

"The one thing I would say, yeah, like big league spring training, you need it," Snell told reporters. "It's tough to do it. I thought I did everything I could to be ready. Even just after two weeks noticing how much better I'm throwing the ball just being here every day. Yeah, you can't... There's nothing like, you have to go to spring training. For teams, I hope teams see that. I don't know how Montgomery's doing, but I bet it's tough for him. It's not easy. I didn't face a big league hitter until I pitched my first game in the big leagues this year. It's tough. You just have nothing to go off of. You're kind of like let's see what we got. Faced 18-year olds. It's all excuses but, it's the truth."

Snell's next start is scheduled for Tuesday against the New York Yankees. He is 4-6 with an ERA of 4.31 and 92 strikeouts in 18 appearances against the Yankees in his career.