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Dodgers end 2015 by signing a duo of pitchers
Saturday’s Say Hey, Baseball includes the Dodgers beefing up their rotation, the newest Nationals rumors and the Giants’ even-year magic.
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
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The last few moves of 2015 belonged to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who said goodbye to the year by finally signing one pitcher and reportedly signing another one. Lefty Scott Kazmir is definitely a Dodger, as he’s signed a three-year, $48 million contract with them. Kazmir had his pick of offers -- as recently as two weeks ago, six teams were interested in signing him. In the peaks and valleys of Kazmir’s career -- the valleys include pitching in Puerto Rico and independent ball in 2012 -- this offseason seems like quite the peak.
But the excitement didn’t stop there. Japanese right-hander Kenta Maeda may be a Dodger, as well. The terms of contract aren’t known yet, but it’s apparently complicated and could delay an official confirmation from the team. Given recent events, it’s hard to fault them for wanting to ensure all the letters are crossed and dotted appropriately. Maeda was posted by his Japanese team, the Hiroshima Carp, on Dec. 9 and has 30 days to reach an agreement with an MLB team. Whatever complicated deal is finally reached, it will include an extra $20 million fee paid to the Carp. The Dodgers have a long history of signing Japanese pitchers, so the Maeda signing isn’t exactly a surprise.
These deals are a long time coming for Los Angeles. If their offseason mission was to try and yet fail to sign pitchers, up until now they’ve been accomplishing it. They failed to re-sign Zack Greinke after he opted out of his contract, they missed out on Johnny Cueto, backed away from Hisashi Iwakuma due to injury issues and ended their Aroldis Chapman quest once reports of domestic violence surfaced. But now, the Dodgers finally have more pitchers to join Clayton Kershaw and friends in the starting rotation, and in Maeda they have a righty to slightly balance out the other four left-handers.
- A change of approach might behoove Oakland’s Billy Butler if he wants to avoid a repeat of his less-than-inspiring 2015 season, which he’d probably like to do.
- Signs point toward the Rangers retiring Pudge Rodriguez’s number in the future, and Delino DeShields deserves all the credit.
- The Mets had one heck of a 2015.
- Giants fans know it’s 2016, and they’re already making plans.
- If you’re looking for evidence that the Atlanta Braves might be tanking, they just signed RHP Kyle Kendrick to a minor league deal.
- The Rockies reportedly had a chance to trade Jose Reyes at the 2015 deadline. So, that’s at least one team that ended 2015 filled with regret.
- According to Jon Heyman, who is almost never wrong, the Nationals are interested in signing pretty much everyone.
- Jeremy Guthrie had words with Denver Post columnist Mark Kiszla, and one of them can’t let go of 2012.
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SB Nation presents: All that’s happened with the Dodgers during Vin Scully’s tenure
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