Snell agrees to 5-year deal with Dodgers (source)

Blake Snell, the two-time Cy Young Award winner and one of the top free-agent pitchers on the market this offseason, has agreed to a five-year, $182 million deal with the World Series champion Dodgers, MLB.com's Mark Feinsand reported on Tuesday night, citing to a source.

The team did not confirm the news, but Snell posted a picture of himself wearing a Dodgers uniform on his Instagram account.

Snell was a free agent for the second straight offseason after opting out of the final year remaining on his two-year, $62 million deal with the Giants.

The left-hander reached free agency for the first time after posting an MLB-leading 2.25 ERA with 234 strikeouts over 180 innings as a member of the Padres in 2023. He was recognized as the National League’s top pitcher, earning his second career Cy Young Award and becoming the seventh hurler to win the award in both leagues.

Snell lingered on the free-agent market all winter and into Spring Training before signing with San Francisco shortly before Opening Day, finalizing his two-year contract on March 19.

Without a regular buildup to the season, Snell struggled early in his age-31 campaign, recording a 9.51 ERA over his first six starts and making two trips to the injured list, the first with a left adductor strain and the second with a left groin strain.

Snell, though, recaptured his Cy Young form upon returning from his second IL stint, putting together an incredible stretch that saw him post a 1.23 ERA with 114 strikeouts, 30 walks and a .123 opponents’ batting average in 80 1/3 innings over his final 14 starts. His season peaked on Aug. 2, when he struck out 11 in a no-hitter against the Reds that was also the first complete game of his career.

Inconsistency has been a problem during Snell’s career, in part because he walks so many batters (lifetime 4.1 BB/9). Durability is also a concern, with Snell having thrown more than 129 1/3 innings in a season only twice (in each of his Cy Young campaigns). However, when Snell is on his game, he has proven to be one of the toughest pitchers in baseball.

Selected by the Rays with the 52nd overall pick out of high school in the 2011 MLB Draft, Snell made his big league debut in 2016 with a 3.54 ERA over 19 starts. He slipped to a 4.04 ERA over 24 starts in 2017, but he followed that up with his first Cy Young Award-winning season in 2018, going 21-5 with an American League-leading 1.89 ERA and 221 strikeouts across 180 2/3 innings.

After five seasons with the Rays, Snell was traded to the Padres in December 2020, one of three high-profile trades for starting pitchers San Diego made that offseason. The Friars finalized a trade for Yu Darvish the same day they acquired Snell and went on to add Joe Musgrove less than a month later.

Snell posted a disappointing 4.20 ERA over 27 starts during his first year with the Padres, but he improved in 2022 (3.38 ERA) and put it all together to win his second Cy Young in 2023.

Over 211 starts spanning nine seasons in the Majors, Snell owns a 3.19 ERA with an 11.2 K/9, which stands as the all-time record among pitchers with at least 1,000 innings.