After a career season that could very well result in NL Cy Young Award honors, Los Angeles Dodgers ace Zack Greinke opted out of his contract Wednesday, thus making him a free agent.
According to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times, the 32-year-old veteran decided to forego the final three years of his contract in an effort to land a megadeal similar to those signed by Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals and Chicago Cubs ace Jon Lester.
The move makes perfect financial sense from Greinke’s perspective, as the three-time All Star went 19-3 with an NL-best 1.66 ERA, 0.84 WHIP and 200 strikeouts in a campaign that arguably saw him outperform teammate and three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw.
Greinke did precisely what was expected Wednesday, and while Bob Nightengale of USA Today believes the dominant righty will re-sign with the Dodgers, he concedes that the rival San Francisco Giants have a chance to swoop in.
Even though a return to L.A. seems to be the likeliest result on the surface, Greinke didn’t exactly inspire confidence when asked about remaining with the Dodgers following the team’s elimination from the playoffs.
“That would be nice,” Greinke said, per Shaikin. “I guess that is my whole response.”
The Dodgers have struggled in terms of making a legitimate run toward the World Series, but as the New York Mets proved this past season, having elite starting pitching can give a team a major leg up on the competition.
Los Angeles had that with the one-two punch of Kershaw and Greinke, and there is little doubt that losing Greinke would be extremely difficult to recover from.
It is a catch-22 situation since Greinke is unlikely to replicate what he did in 2015 and the Dodgers will almost certainly have to offer more than they would like, but that is the price teams must pay in order to retain elite arms.
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