Details of Blake Snell's contract: 'Worked for both of us'
Today at 07:05 PM
$66 million of total $182 million contract will be paid from 2034-46. Andrew Friedman on deferrals: "It's been a useful tool for us."
LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers on Saturday finalized their five-year, $182 million contract for Blake Snell, the two-time Cy Young Award winner who marked the first big deal of Major League Baseball's offseason. The left-hander was introduced in a press conference at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday.
Snell's deal includes a $52 million signing bonus that will be paid on January 20, per Associated Press. The remaining money will be split evenly over the five years of the contract, $26 million annually, with $13.2 million deferred from each season. That means Snell will be paid $64.8 million in 2025 alone.
There's also a conditional $10 million club option for 2030, per Ronald Blum of Associated Press, "that could be exercised if Snell has a qualifying injury as specified in the contract and he spends 90 or more consecutive days on the injured list due to the qualifying injury and he has not been traded."
Also per Blum, if Snell is traded, the pitcher would receive a $5 million assignment bonus from the acquiring team.
The $66 million in total deferred money will be paid in equal installments, $5.5 million every July 1 from 2035-46, per Ronald Blum of Associated Press.
"It played out the way people around me felt comfortable with. I felt comfortable with it, they felt comfortable with it," Snell said Tuesday of the deferred money. "We talked, and found something that worked for both of us."
"It's always challenging. You're looking to any lever you possibly can to get to a point where there's overlap," Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. "There are times when a deal lines up in a straightforward way. There are times when it's less straightforward, so including deferrals helps as a lever to find that overlap. It's been a useful tool for us."
With the deferrals, Snell's $36.4 million average annual value is reduced by net present value for competitive balance tax purposes. Jon Becker of FanGraphs estimated that CBT number to be $31,357,257.
Snell is the second-highest-paid Dodger, behind Shohei Ohtani.
Snell's average annual value is the seventh-highest ever by any player at the moment, per Cot's Baseball Contracts, at least before Juan Soto finds a spot near the top of this list in the coming weeks:
- Ohtani $70 million (10 years)
- Max Scherzer $43.3 million (3 years)
- Justin Verlander $43.3 million (3 years)
- Zach Wheeler $42 million (3 years)
- Aaron Judge $40 million (9 years)
- Jacob deGrom $37 million (5 years)
- Snell $36.4 million (5 years)
Coupled with Tommy Edman's five-year, $74 million contract also signed over the weekend, the Dodgers payroll is roughly estimated to be just over $303.5 million for competitive balance tax purposes. More on that later.
