Dodgers’ 2024 Offseason: The Rich Continue to Get Much Richer
Just months removed from winning their second World Series in five years, the Dodgers have shown no signs of letting up with massive free-agent signings and key trades to reload the roster.
By Austin Gage
The Los Angeles Dodgers may have won the 2024 World Series, but that did not slow them down in terms of roster overhaul as they executed a dramatic offseason for the second year in a row.
One year after signing the generational free agent pitcher/designated hitter Shohei Ohtani, pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto and outfielder Teoscar Hernandez to contracts that totalled over $1 billion in overall money in addition to trading for former Tampa Bay Rays’ ace pitcher Tyler Glasnow, the Dodgers went all out once again.
“Going into this offseason, it was ‘let’s do everything we can on the front end. Let’s be as aggressive as we can be and be in a position where we don’t have to go to market in July’. Obviously things can happen and you never know, but that’s our game plan and its to have a really talented team as we head into Spring Training,” said Los Angeles President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman.
And aggressive was certainly the right word.
As the 2024 season wrapped with the Boys in Blue raising the Commissioner’s Trophy in their five-game victory over the New York Yankees, six key players became free agents who played a big role in the championship campaign: pitchers Walker Buehler, Jack Flaherty, Joe Kelly, and Blake Treinen along with utility man Kiké Hernández and Teoscar Hernandez, the latter who was playing on a one-year contract since being brought in the year before.
Buehler, who recorded the final out against New York, would join the Boston Red Sox, while Flaherty, Kelly, and Kiké Hernández remain free agents as of January 28th. Treinen re-signed with the Dodgers on a two-year, $22 million deal as did Teoscar Hernandez on a three-year, $66 million deal. Both are poised to remain key contributors next season, and Hernandez cashes in with a multi-year deal after hitting a career-high 33 home runs in an All-Star season, the second of his career.
Paired with taking care of most of the in-house business, Friedman and the Dodgers also turned their attention to roster additions from external sources.
The first splash signing of the offseason occurred on November 30th, as they signed superstar pitcher and two-time Cy Young Award pitcher Blake Snell away from rival San Francisco Giants on a massive five-year, $182 million contract.
Just the seventh player ever to win the Cy Young Award in both the American League and National League, Snell brings another dynamic arm to a rotation that suddenly looks as stacked as ever. The strikeout specialist, who will play for the third NL West team of his career when the upcoming season begins, holds a career ERA of 3.19 and a win-loss record of 76-58. Dodgers’ fans will remember his name from his divisional matchups over the past few seasons with the Giants and San Diego Padres, and he also was a part of the Rays’ team in 2020 that came up short against Los Angeles in the World Series.
If one superstar pitcher wasn’t enough, the Dodgers had another trick up their sleeve just a few months later. Just one year after adding Japanese superstars Ohtani and Yamamoto, the team signed Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki to a $6.5 million signing bonus in addition to six years of club control. Because Sasaki, 23, is younger than 25 years old, he is considered an amateur international free agent, and the terms of his contract must be much lower than those international players who wait until reaching that age mark. For example, Yamamoto was able to cash in with Los Angeles last offseason for a 12-year, $325 million contract because he was 25 years old at the time of signing.
Sasaki, who played in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league for the Chiba Lotte Marines, was regarded as the highest prize of the 2024 free agency cycle. In his NPB career, Sasaki pitched to a sparkling 29-15 record with a 2.10 ERA to go along with 505 punch-outs. The 23-year-old is not considered a finished project, but many project him to become one of, if not the greatest, pitchers to come out of Japan.
“Roki has gone on to set records. He has made an indelible mark on the international stage. And we couldn’t be more excited about this partnership with him,” Friedman said.
Serving as a cherry on top, the Dodgers signed All-Star relief pitcher Tanner Scott the very next day to a four-year, $72 million deal. Scott, who closed games and served as a middle reliever at times for the Padres and the Miami Marlins last season, finished his 2024 campaign with an excellent 1.75 ERA and 22 saves in 24 chances. While it is unclear at the moment if Scott will close games for Los Angeles with Treinen still in the fold, he adds yet another dynamic and valuable arm to a team that is loaded with them.
Although the club would trade away second baseman Gavin Lux to the Cincinnati Reds, the 2024-2025 offseason was a major success for the Dodgers. Adding two All-Stars to contribute immediately and inking a potential generational international prospect is as strong as an offseason as we’ve seen, one that may only have been topped by the Dodgers’ last season.
Many key free agents still remain teamless as of January 28th, so the shape of the current MLB is far from finished. For Los Angeles, February 20th marks their first Spring Training game in Arizona. From there, they will begin their chase for back-to-back World Series titles in Japan on March 18th as they take on the Chicago Cubs in the Tokyo Dome in the regular season opener.
