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Pitcher Jeff Samardzija signed a five-year deal with the San Francisco Giants on Saturday, according to Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area.

The Giants announced the deal later Saturday, while Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reported Samardzija received a limited no-trade clause. Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports reported the contract is worth $90 million.

Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle provided more financial details:

Samardzija went 11-13 last season with a 4.96 ERA for the Chicago White Sox, who finished in fourth place, 19 games behind the World Series champion Kansas City Royals, in the American League Central. Samardzija had plenty of support from the Chicago offense, as he ranked 36th in the majors with 4.19 runs per start.

San Francisco is Samardzija’s fourth team in the past two-plus seasons. 

Scott Merkin of MLB.com passed along White Sox pitcher Chris Sale’s take on Samardzija:

Whatever team gets him is going to get a steal. Really, he’s relatively young, and he’s got a strong arm with not a lot of innings on it. And he’s a competitor. Say what you want about him, he competes as hard as anybody. That’s his mentality, how he’s always been. I think the football comes out in him sometimes. You need that. If you don’t have that passion, don’t play the game, right? At the end of the day at least you know he (cares).

In 2014 with the Chicago Cubs, Samardzija was one of the better pitchers in the National League despite a 2-7 record. He had a 2.83 ERA and was selected to his first All-Star team.

But before the All-Star break that season, Samardzija was dealt to the Oakland Athletics, and in the second half he went 5-6 with a 3.14 ERA—a relatively low mark for an American League pitcher. In December 2014, he was traded to the White Sox. 

Samardzija’s one-year deal worth $9.8 million expired at the end of the 2015 season. 

The Giants are getting a passionate pitcher who rarely backs down from a challenge. And although that sometimes might get him into trouble—he was one of the main culprits in the White Sox-Royals brawl in April—his competitiveness could help spark San Francisco.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

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In spending hundreds of millions of dollars over the last few years, the Los Angeles Dodgers did their best John Hammond impression. In their pursuit of a championship, they spared no expense.

So, it’s more than a bit jarring to see the Dodgers in the position they’re in now. It turns out that even they have limits, and those limits have put them in a difficult position this offseason.

If you’re just now joining us, the two biggest pitchers on the free-agent market are spoken for. Ace left-hander David Price joined the Boston Red Sox on a seven-year, $217 million deal Tuesday. On Friday, the Arizona Diamondbacks shocked everyone by luring Zack Greinke away from the Dodgers on a six-year, $206.5 million deal, as first reported by Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports and confirmed by Steve Gilbert of MLB.com.

Go to Google Images. Type in “spit take.” Choose an image, any image.

It’s hard to fathom Los Angeles didn’t land either one of these guys. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reported last month Greinke and Price were the club’s top two targets. More recently, Rosenthal reported the Dodgers (apparently taking my advice) had discussed signing both of them.

Be it one or both, it was easy to believe L.A. would get its wish. This is a team that spent over $300 million on payroll in 2015 and only has, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, about $175 million in guaranteed salaries committed to 2016. That leaves plenty of space for one or two aces.

Oh, and there’s also the fact the Dodgers badly need starting pitching. They still have the always-amazing Clayton Kershaw atop their rotation, and 2015 comeback story Brett Anderson follows him. But behind the two of them, there are only question marks.

The Dodgers don’t need just any starting pitcher. Based on what happened in 2015, they had the right idea in putting Greinke and Price atop their offseason wish list. Here’s ESPN Stats & Info:

Knowing this, the Dodgers can’t respond to their failed pursuits of Greinke and Price by playing it safe. They’ll need to keep up their pursuit of aces.

And they’re not totally out of options on that front.

It’s not just Greinke and Price who are spoken for. Jordan Zimmermann is also taken, as he signed a $110 million contract with the Detroit Tigers last weekend. In short order, that’s three of the open market’s four best pitchers who are off the block.

Of that group, the last man standing is Johnny Cueto. According to Chris Cotillo of SB Nation, Cueto is about to replace Greinke as the man in the crosshairs of both the Dodgers and their rival San Francisco Giants:

Despite being an apparent Plan C, Cueto isn’t a bad option. The soon-to-be 30-year-old is the owner of a 3.30 career ERA and two top-five finishes in National League Cy Young Award voting. And as Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports pointed out, Cueto has actually been better than Greinke on the whole since 2011.

It won’t be surprising, however, if the Dodgers don’t go the extra mile for Cueto.

A couple of days ago, L.A. president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman hinted in comments to Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register that he’s wary of taking risks on the free-agent market. If that’s what caused Friedman to back away from Greinke and Price, he may be even quicker to back away from Cueto, whose ace status took a hit when he stumbled with the Kansas City Royals down the stretch in 2015. Also, Cueto’s elbow comes with question marks.

If the Dodgers pass on Cueto, they’ll be left with the open market’s list of No. 2/3-type starters. Of those, Jeff Samardzija is the one in whom ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark said the Dodgers have “strong interest.”

That’s understandable. Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi was part of an Oakland A’s front office that traded for Samardzija in 2014, at which point the right-hander was heading toward his first All-Star appearance and a 2.99 ERA across 219.2 innings. Though he struggled to the tune of a 4.96 ERA with the Chicago White Sox in 2015, Samardzija doesn’t appear broken. His stuff is fine, and his 30-year-old arm has less miles on it than most other 30-year-old arms.

Still, the fact Samardzija struggled so mightily in 2015 could keep the Dodgers from paying him the $90-100 million it’s likely going to take to sign him. Despite his well-preserved arm, his age could too.

“We expect to have a younger team going forward,” Zaidi said at an October news conference, via Pedro Moura of the Orange County Register.

That may have sounded like just talk at the time, but not so much now. Concerns about age could well be what kept the Dodgers from matching bids for Greinke (32) and Price (30). If so, it’s not difficult to imagine that age concerns could keep them from matching bids on Cueto and/or Samardzija.

If age is that much of a deal-breaker for the Dodgers, 28-year-old sinkerballer Mike Leake could emerge as their preferred target. But since Leake doesn’t even remotely resemble an ace pitcher, L.A. may be forced to take its search for a more youthful ace to the trade market.

That’s where there’s at least one intriguing option. According to ESPN.com’s Buster Olney, the Dodgers are one team with interest in 25-year-old right-hander Shelby Miller of the Atlanta Braves:

Miller’s availability may not actually be in question. The Braves don’t want to say it, but their trade of Andrelton Simmons sent a strong signal the “remodeling” they began last year is actually a full rebuild. And after posting a 3.02 ERA in 205.1 innings in 2015, Miller could fetch a rebuild-boosting package in a trade.

But if the Dodgers are going to surrender a great, big bucket of young talent in a deal for a young ace starter, they may aim a little higher.

Two names that have often been speculative fodder for the winter trade block are A’s right-hander Sonny Gray and White Sox left-hander Chris Sale, both of whom are Cy Young-caliber pitchers. And though their availability has been in doubt, Rosenthal reported “some within the industry” think that could change.

And those two may not be the only options. Rosenthal also name-dropped White Sox left-hander Jose Quintana and Cleveland Indians right-handers Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar as possible options. None of them is Gray or Sale, but any of them would make a fine addition to any staff.

The Dodgers might just be able to pull off a deal for one of the names mentioned above. One presumes young shortstop Corey Seager isn’t going anywhere, but L.A. could be willing to move left-hander Julio Urias, right-hander Jose De Leon and others from a deep stable of young pitching.

Another idea would be to build a package around right fielder Yasiel Puig. He may be enigmatic, but he’s also very young, very talented and signed through 2019 at a cheap rate. That’s a good trade chip.

In a nutshell: The Dodgers may be reeling from missing out on Greinke and Price, but their search for pitching isn’t down for the count just yet. They still have assets, and they still have options.

Of course, that means the one thing the Dodgers don’t have is excuses. Nobody’s going to go along with them if they continue to miss on targets and throw their hands up and say, “Well, we tried.”

That’s not going to cut it. They’ve been hesitant to do so to this point, but the only way the Dodgers are going to salvage their pitching search is by acting like, well, the Dodgers.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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Last year, the San Diego Padres systematically decimated their farm system in order to build a winning team. Now, general manager A.J. Preller is rebuilding that same farm system.

The Padres announced Wednesday they traded Marc Rzepczynski and Yonder Alonso to the Oakland Athletics for Drew Pomeranz, Jose Torres and a player to be named.

Pomeranz will likely fill a bullpen role for the Padres in 2016, but Torres, a 22-year-old left-hander, fits in with Preller‘s new strategy.

MLB.com’s Corey Brock noted how the Padres have added a number of talented prospects through trades this offseason:

The A’s obviously saw something in Torres to take a chance on him as a 16-year-old, and he started coming into his own in 2015:

Torres entered Oakland’s organization as a starter, but he eventually transitioned into a relief role. In 47 appearances across Single-A and High-A, he went 4-5 with a 2.56 ERA. According to Baseball-Reference.com, he also averaged 9.8 strikeouts and 2.8 walks per nine innings, both of which were big steps forward compared to his 2014 numbers.

According to Melissa Lockard of Oakland Clubhouse, the Padres are already familiar with Torres and what he brings to the mound:

Hardball Talk’s Matthew Pouliot believes San Diego got a nice return from Oakland given all the circumstances involved:

MLB.com graded Torres’ fastball a 60 on the 20-80 scouting scale, and the fact it climbed a bit in speed and tops out at 96 mph was an encouraging step in his development. An overpowering fastball isn’t a requisite for success for an MLB reliever, but teams are coveting the proverbial flamethrower increasingly more throughout the league.         

Torres also boasts a slider and a changeup, but neither pitch projects to be as dominant as his fastball.

Considering both his experience to date and age, Torres is at least a few more years away from helping the Padres at the major league level unless San Diego plans on aggressively promoting him through the minors.

If he can continue building upon his progress in 2015, Torres will at the very least be a setup man for San Diego down the road.

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After spending three years as the Los Angeles Dodgers hitting coach, Mark McGwire is heading down Interstate 5 to become the bench coach for the San Diego Padres. 

According to an official team press release, McGwire is joining new Padres manager Andy Green’s staff for 2016 along with Alan Zinter, Tarrik Brock, Doug Bochtler and Eddie Rodriguez.

There was increasing chatter that McGwire was going to make the jump to San Diego. Bernie Wilson of the Associated Press, via FoxSports.com, reported the former All-Star was at Petco Park on Tuesday, fraternizing with Padres coaches. 

“Various club officials, including new manager Andy Green, declined to confirm Big Mac had been hired,” Wilson wrote. “They didn’t deny it, either. Green said he has ‘nailed down’ his staff. Asked if that included McGwire, he repeated that the staff was ‘nailed down.'”   

McGwire worked with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2013-15 under Don Mattingly as part of three National League West championship teams. The Dodgers and Mattingly parted ways after this year’s National League Division Series loss to the New York Mets. 

Ironically, McGwire will be taking over the position that Dave Roberts held the previous two years following his departure to replace Mattingly as Dodgers manager. 

After retiring in 2001, McGwire has worked his way back into baseball circles after admitting he took performance-enhancing drugs during his playing days. He was the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals from 2010-12 before moving to Los Angeles.

McGwire was one of MLB‘s most prolific power hitters over the course of his 16-year career, finishing with 583 home runs and a .588 slugging percentage.

He will be facing a tall task working primarily in Petco Park, which is notorious for hampering offense, but Green has apparently seen enough from the 52-year-old to think he can work with a talented roster that needs some grooming before it can become a playoff threat.

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Because 2015 was an odd year, the San Francisco Giants‘ having a down year was inevitable. As evidenced by their World Series titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014, even years are their jams.

So, obviously they’ll be back on top in 2016.

So we can cheekily assume, anyway. However, the Giants themselves must not cheekily assume anything. They’re not in a position to sit back and wait for their customary visit from the Even-Year Magic Fairy. They’re going to have to own the offseason market and make the blasted thing show up.

For executive vice president of baseball operations Brian Sabean and general manager Bobby Evans, the goal is to take a team that won 84 games and missed the playoffs in 2015 and upgrade it to a championship-caliber club for 2016. To this end, the good news is that they need not start from scratch.

The Giants have the best catcher in baseball in Buster Posey, who’s still in his prime heading into his age-29 season. Playing in front of him is an entirely young infield—Brandon Belt, Joe Panik, Matt Duffy and Brandon Crawford—that was the class of the league in 2015.

The Giants also have excellent anchors for their rotation and bullpen in ace left-hander Madison Bumgarner and rejuvenated right-hander Sergio Romo, respectively. The man in charge of it all is Bruce Bochy, who may be baseball’s best manager.

With all these pieces in place, the Giants have a very, very strong foundation for a contending team. The word is that Wolverine wants to liquefy it and use it to replace his adamantium claws. True story.

Sounds good. Now all the Giants need is the rest of a contending team.

The list of needs starts with their rotation. Giants starters did rank 11th in MLB with their 3.95 ERA in 2015, but that figure was heavily skewed by certain, ahem, Bumgarner-y forces. And through the offseason’s first month, he remains the only solid starter penciled into the club’s 2016 rotation.

Then there’s the outfield. FanGraphs put it at 19th in MLB in WAR in 2015, and a big improvement isn’t in the cards as long as Gregor Blanco, Angel Pagan and Hunter Pence are penciled into starting roles. Pence should be fine after an injury-marred 2015, but Pagan is generally bad, and Blanco‘s ideal role is as a fourth outfielder. 

Lastly, there’s the bullpen. It was pretty good, ranking seventh in MLB with a 3.33 ERA. But with Jeremy Affeldt now off to the rocking-chair-filled world of retirement, the Giants could use at least one more able body in the pen.

There’s your Giants offseason checklist in a nutshell: definitely starting pitching, definitely an outfielder and ideally a reliever. And the bigger the names, the better.

As those who have been listening to the rumor mill will know, that seems to be what the Giants are thinking as well.

Particularly when it comes to their need for starting pitching. The Giants have been strongly linked to ace right-hander Zack Greinke, who opted out of his contract with the rival Los Angeles Dodgers after leading MLB with a 1.66 ERA in 2015. And though the Dodgers won’t let him go without a fight, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports heard that the Giants are a real threat to steal Greinke and pair him with Bumgarner.

“We don’t want to keep up with them,” said Evans of the Dodgers and their typically awesome starting pitching, via Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News. “We want to pass them.”

Indeed, which explains the club’s list of alternatives.

A scroll through the Giants’ page at MLB Trade Rumors will take you to buzz linking them to still-available aces Johnny Cueto and John Lackey. Re-signing Mike Leake, whom the Giants acquired in a July trade, is also in play. Same goes for a trade for young Atlanta Braves ace Shelby Miller.

Likewise, the Giants also have some notable names on their outfield and bullpen radars. Among the outfielders they’ve been linked to are Yoenis Cespedes, Ben Zobrist, Jay Bruce and Marcell Ozuna. Among the relievers they’ve been linked to are Darren O’Day and Joakim Soria.

In all, it definitely doesn’t sound like the Giants are going to get cheap on us. They haven’t made any noise yet, but they’re window shopping at places where only big spenders are welcome.

The thing is, there’s a slightly concerning lesson to be learned from the Giants’ recent history.

When you look back at what the Giants did after missing the playoffs in 2011 and 2013, what you expect to see is a championship-hungry team that went wild on the offseason market.

Instead, you see a team that displayed a Fonzie-like level of cool. After 2011, the Giants’ big moves were a pair of upside-play trades that netted them Melky Cabrera and Angel Pagan. After 2013, their big moves were signing Tim Hudson and Mike Morse to cheap, low-risk contracts.

Of course, these four moves ended up paying significant dividends. Because of that, Sabean and Evans do have something of a comfort zone to fall back on if they miss out on their top targets this winter.

You know, sort of like how they did last year.

Though the Giants were coming off their third World Series title in five seasons last year, they still had a lot of work to do. Pablo Sandoval’s free agency created a hole at third base, and the Giants also needed to add some rotation depth behind Bumgarner.

The Giants made no secret of their desire to go big to fill these needs, but…yeah…that didn’t go so well.

The Giants whiffed on re-signing Sandoval, and then whiffed on Cuban slugger Yasmany Tomas, who was rumored to be their Plan B at third base. Up next was a shot at Jon Lester, who spurned them for the Chicago Cubs. There was some buzz at the time pointing them toward Max Scherzer or James Shields, but both got away.

The Giants’ response to these whiffs was to retreat into their comfort zone. They pulled off a small trade for Casey McGehee to replace Sandoval and brought back Jake Peavy and Ryan Vogelsong to round out their rotation. Additional deals for Sergio Romo and Nori Aoki rounded out their depth chart.

One can imagine the Giants backing away from their top targets and pursuing a similar strategy this winter.

After all, Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area did note that Evans was coy about pursuing top starting-pitching targets at a year-end press conference in October, saying, “You don’t necessarily need to solve the rotation for the next seven years this offseason.” It’s conceivable that the Giants could move for cheap options and hope to find impact players from within, like they did with Panik and Duffy. They could do the same with their outfield and bullpen needs.

What they need to remember, though, is that the low-risk approach can fail.

You know, like it did in 2015. McGehee lasted about a month before he was cut loose, and Peavy and Vogelsong contributed little to the club’s starting pitching. In all, the Giants learned the arguably overdue lesson that, yes, trying to be clever rather than bold can fail.

That’s one reason for them for them to keep their eyes on the big prizes this winter. There’s also the other one: The Giants really have no excuse not to go big.

For one, there’s the reality that their two biggest areas of need (starting pitching and outfield) also happen to be the two deepest areas of what might be the best class of free agents in MLB history. Even if the Giants don’t land one of the market’s top starters or outfielders, they have a variety of strong secondary options to choose from.

For two, it’s not as if the Giants are lacking in financial flexibility. As Jeff Todd wrote at MLB Trade Rumors, that was actually the big benefit of last year’s offseason whiffs:

As a result of that relatively quiet offseason a year ago, the Giants now have ample future spending capacity to deploy this winter. The team has a fair amount of cash on the books already for next year (about $120MM, before arb) and 2017 (~$73MM, pre-arb), but little thereafter. And this is an organization that pushed its Opening Day payroll over $170MM last year.

Lastly, now is a pretty good time for the Giants to make a move on the Dodgers.

Greinke‘s absence leaves their rotation extremely vulnerable. Their bullpen is still weak. They basically don’t have a second baseman. And as always, their outfield has its share of question marks. As currently constructed, the Dodgers are in no position to go chase a fourth straight NL West title.

Given all this, it’ll be an upset if the Giants don’t turn their big offseason plans into big offseason action. Doing so will require wandering outside their comfort zone, but there’s enough cash in their pockets and items on the shelf for them to make it work. 

And if they do, this time there would actually be a solid explanation for their even-year magic.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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There are three big winners of the mega-contract David Price signed on Tuesday. One is obviously Price, who is now filthy rich. Another is the Boston Red Sox, who finally have their ace.

The third is Zack Greinke. Not because he’s getting a cut of Price’s deal—that would be weird—but because it all but ensures either the Los Angeles Dodgers or the San Francisco Giants will give him one of his own.

If you missed it, Price did indeed come off the market on Tuesday. As Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe was the first to report, the pitching-needy Red Sox picked him up on a seven-year contract worth $217 million, the largest ever given to a pitcher.

Like that, Price joins Jordan Zimmermann among the free-agent aces who are now spoken for. Word is that Greinke could be next, with Bob Nightengale of USA Today saying it’s up to the Dodgers and Giants:

Here’s a one-word knee-jerk reaction: duh. 

Though Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported the Red Sox were in on Greinke before landing Price, the rumor mill has been suggesting all winter the veteran right-hander will either re-sign with the Dodgers or take the ol‘ NL West ferry up north to join the Giants. The notion the two are poised for a bidding war over Greinke isn’t anything new.

What is new in the wake of Price’s pact, however, is we now have an idea of what it will take for either of the two NL West rivals to sign Greinke.

Because Greinke, 32, is two years older than Price, he can’t hope to match the length of Price’s new contract. But according to ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick, Greinke wants to earn more per year:

Rosenthal has also indicated the average annual value of Greinke‘s next deal could surpass that of Price’s. He also expects it to cover five or six years, which could make Greinke‘s next contract worth as much as $190 million.

That, friends, is obviously a lot of money. Just don’t call it an outrageous amount. Greinke is presuming to be a better investment than Price, and he just might be.

For starters, there is the fact Greinke just led all of Major League Baseball with a 1.66 ERA in 2015, which was also the lowest ERA in 20 years. Over the previous three seasons, Baseball-Reference.com WAR posits that Greinke has been significantly more valuable than Price:

Further, it doesn’t hurt that Greinke can easily sell his suitors on the idea he can age without his best stuff. He’s already proven he can. That’s a big reason why Crasnick‘s recent poll of MLB executives resulted in Greinke being the preferred option over Price for a nine-figure deal.

“Greinke is an easy one here,” said one AL scout. “His delivery is too good, his control and command too spot on, his pitchability too high. He’s got athleticism and he’s intelligent—all the characteristics you need to age gracefully. I am not saying Price does not possess these same characteristics. I just don’t think he has them at the advanced levels that Greinke has them.”

In short, Greinke is far from out of his mind in demanding more money per year than Price. Based on his recent track record and his pitching style, he has the right idea.

And man-oh-man has he picked the right two teams to pitch this idea to.

Now that the Red Sox have Price, the Dodgers and Giants have both moved up a notch on the list of teams that desperately need an impact starter.

Behind the ever-awesome Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers have only question marks and injury risks. Behind fellow lefty ace Madison Bumgarner, the Giants have much of the same. Hence why both clubs have been routinely connected to the market’s biggest names, including Price and Zimmermann.

All along, it’s been apparent Greinke is at the top of both clubs’ respective wish lists. And with Price and Zimmermann off the market, Greinke has graduated from being a preferred target to the target for the Dodgers and Giants. It’s time for them to see how deep their pockets go.

The Dodgers, of course, are as rich as rich gets. They’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years, going so far as to spend over $300 million on players in 2015. As of now, Cot’s Baseball Contracts says they only have about $170 million committed to 2016, with another $30 million or so due in arbitration costs, per MLB Trade Rumors. That’s “only” $200 million.

The Giants have plenty of spending power of their own. The upward trajectory of their recent payrolls suggests they could top last year’s roughly $170 million Opening Day payroll. Right now, they only have about $137 million on the books for 2016. There’s plenty of room for Greinke.

To be sure, Nightengale‘s note about the Dodgers still being the favorites for Greinke does ring true. If they decide money isn’t an object, they can outbid any team for any player. And according to the latest from head honcho Magic Johnson, money may indeed be no object.

“We want him back,” said Johnson of Greinke, via Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports. “He’s our priority, our No. 1 priority, of the offseason.”

The only question may be whether Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, will change Johnson’s mind.

In speaking with Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register, Friedman expressed discomfort at making big splashes in free agency, noting it doesn’t always correlate with the kind of October success that the franchise so badly craves. 

So, Giants, that’s your window. Friedman’s stance on big free-agent splashes means there’s a possibility the Dodgers will blink in a bidding war over Greinke. And given where the Giants stand with Greinke, it’s very possible they won’t blink before the Dodgers do.

Though the Dodgers have all of the spending power a team could ask for, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports warned a couple weeks ago the Giants are a real threat to sign Greinke away from them. It’s a chance to provide for themselves while also denying the enemy, a strategy that fits with general manager Bobby Evans’ goal for his starting rotation.

“We don’t want to keep up with them,” said Evans of the Dodgers and their typically awesome starting pitching at his year-end press conference in October, via Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News. “We want to pass them.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Giants haven’t had much luck with nine-figure contracts for pitchers. The $126 million they spent on Barry Zito in 2006 is the greatest trick agent Scott Boras ever pulled. The $112.5 million extension the Giants gave Matt Cain seemed like a better idea in theory, but reality had other plans.

But the idea that Greinke can age well does hold water, and Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle says it’s one the Giants believe in. Some in their front office think he can be the next Greg Maddux.

In all, the stage is set for a heck of a bidding war. In the middle is Greinke, a truly fantastic pitcher. Looming over him is one team that definitely needs him and can definitely afford him, and another that needs him just as bad and may simply want him. 

One way or another, Greinke is going to get what he wants from an NL West power. All he needs to know now is which one it’s going to be, and his answer should come very soon.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers have made no secret about their offseason pursuit of a front-of-the-rotation starter to pair with ace Clayton Kershaw and keep them as legitimate World Series contenders.

The options are abundant, and they include their own free agent, Zack Greinke, and David Price, likely to be the game’s next $200 million man. Signing one of those top-end starters seems almost inevitable for the Dodgers, but so too should be a massive bullpen upgrade, as that part of the club has been a soft spot over the last two regular and postseasons.

Considering the Dodgers’ desire to collect the best talent available and with monetary cost of relatively minimal concern, they have to go after the best reliever available. That would be Cincinnati Reds flame-throwing closer Aroldis Chapman, a dominant back-end arm the Dodgers could pair with current closer Kenley Jansen to build arguably the best 1-2 bullpen punch on the planet.

The Dodgers could name either the closer or mix and match them in the eighth and ninth innings depending on matchups. Either would work as long as both pitchers bought into the arrangement a year before both can become free agents, and the thought has crossed the bright front-office minds in Los Angeles, according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, who reported about a week ago that the Dodgers have checked in with the Reds about their closer.

They won’t, but the #Dodgers should absolutely go full boar after Aroldis Chapman. Changes dynamic of team with he and Kenley together #MLB

— Casey Stern (@CaseyStern) November 16, 2015

With former San Diego Padres closer Craig Kimbrel being taken off the market after his trade to the Boston Red Sox, Chapman is easily the best reliever available in trade or free agency.

Since becoming the Reds’ full-time closer in 2012, Chapman has compiled a 1.90 ERA, 145 saves, a 1.74 FIP, 206 ERA+, 0.958 WHIP and has averaged 16.1 strikeouts per nine innings and a 4.18 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He has also made four consecutive National League All-Star teams and is coming off a year in which he had a 1.63 ERA.

Since 2012, FanGraphs’ WAR calculations, which put heavy emphasis on strikeouts, has Chapman as the most valuable reliever in the majors. Kimbrel is second, with Jansen pulling in the bronze medal.

Putting two of those arms in the same bullpen, even for one season, could be a franchise-changing move that would go a long way in helping the Dodgers succeed in October, a month in which they have disappointed the last two seasons in part because they did not have trustworthy relievers before Jansen.

The Dodgers featured Kershaw and Greinke in last season’s rotation, but it was a jumble of questions beyond those two for much of the year, including the playoffs. Couple that with an unreliable bullpen—its 3.86 ERA over the last two years ranks 23^rd in the majors—and it led to early postseason exits for a team with the game’s highest payroll.

So even if the Dodgers re-sign Greinke—who had the lowest ERA in the majors last season—or Price and get back a healthy Hyun-jin Ryu, it still leaves them with significant bullpen holes before Jansen. In the age of building dominant bullpens to mask mediocre rotations, the Dodgers should go this route, even though their rotation could end up better than most.

That leads the discussion back to Chapman, although reports have the Dodgers looking in other directions that will not cost them a group of major league-ready prospects, which is what the Reds are looking for and considering now that the Padres got back a solid group of four prospects from the Red Sox for Kimbrel.

The Dodgers are reported to be in hotter pursuit of lower-profile relievers, including Darren O’Day, who might be the best free-agent reliever on the market with his 1.92 ERA over his last four seasons and a 1.52 mark in 2015 for the Baltimore Orioles. O’Day, 33, is said to be looking for a four-year deal.

“He’ll probably get it from the Dodgers,” one rival general manager told Heyman.

Heard today that the #Dodgers are pursuing Darren O’Day “big time.” It was the 2nd person in a week to mention it.

— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) November 19, 2015

The Dodgers have also contacted Ryan Madson, according to Heyman. In his first major league season since 2011, Madson had a 2.13 ERA with the Kansas City Royals in 2015.

The Dodgers have the prospects to go after Chapman, though. He is projected to make about $13 million next season, and the team could pull it off without giving up its best and brightest youngsters, like Corey Seager, Julio Urias or Jose De Leon. Chapman is worth the cost in money and players, and the Dodgers have the need for him.

While this is a short-term fix since Chapman and Jansen will be free agents after next season, it is the kind of temporary aid that could lead to the franchise’s first World Series title since 1988 should the Dodgers shock the market and deal for him.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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Opting out didn’t surprise anybody. 

Not the Los Angeles Dodgers decision-makers, not the team’s fans, not the media that covers the organization and entire industry, not the man’s teammates and not rival teams.

No one was stunned when ace Zack Greinke left $71 million and three years in his wake by opting out of his deal with the Dodgers. With possibly double that dollar amount available in free agency after Greinke’s outstanding and historic 2015 season, it was the right-hander’s best option.

However, just because Greinke is on the open market and available to virtually any team he wants to play for does not mean he should leave Los Angeles or his co-ace, Clayton Kershaw. And according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, the team has made convincing Greinke of that its top priority this offseason.

That would be wise, because without Greinke, the Dodgers rotation suddenly becomes thin and questionable after Kershaw. But for Greinke, signing up to be a Dodger for what will likely be the rest of his career makes just as much sense, as he can be part of the game’s best 1-2 punch with Kershaw.

There have been almost no reports on Greinke’s thought process since the Dodgers’ season ended in the National League Division Series. All we know for certain is Greinke had nice things to say immediately after the playoff run ended.

“That would be nice,” Greinke told reporters last month when asked if he wanted to return to the Dodgers. “I guess that is my whole response.”

That was not the whole response, though.

“It’s got to be the best franchise in the game, I would think,” Greinke added. “They’re in a great situation.”

The comments might be enough to convince Dodgers fans Greinke, who had a 1.66 ERA and 225 ERA+ last season, will re-sign with the team before spring training. Then again, it is common baseball knowledge by now that Greinke chose the Dodgers in the first place mostly because they were able to offer him the most money.

The Dodgers are still in a position to do that this winter, but there is going to be competition and possibly just as much money offered by other clubs. For instance, the rival San Francisco Giants reportedly have serious interest in Greinke, who finished second in the National League Cy Young Award voting and was the league’s Player’s Choice Outstanding Pitcher. The Giants could make him their No. 1 target this offseason, significantly boosting their rotation while weakening the Dodgers, who have won the NL West in three consecutive seasons.

rivals giants seen as threat to steal greinke away from dodgers. https://t.co/uKo2R2JiCo

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) November 20, 2015

The Giants are not the only big-money club with potential eyes for the ace. Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal (h/t CBS Sports) has speculated the Boston Red Sox have real interest, and despite their mantra not to spend big in free agency, it would be negligent not to believe the New York Yankees could jump into the fray.

For Greinke, the problem with those places could be the clubhouse atmosphere and media coverage. While Los Angeles is a major world market, the traveling media corps is relatively small and far less critical than those in Boston or New York, where every misplaced fastball might be chronicled as the end of good times and evidence of Greinke’s nine-figure contract being a busted one.

In October, Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald quoted a source close to Greinke as saying he “definitely wouldn’t want any more stress or additional media attention” with a new club. Greinke, who has discussed his social anxiety disorder and clinical depression in the past, would be walking into exactly that if he ended up with the Red Sox or Yankees.

This is another reason why Los Angeles seems like the place for him, because even in San Francisco, another relaxed media market, he would enter next year being looked at as the reason the Giants should win a fourth World Series in seven years. While the Dodgers seem to need him to win their first since 1988, Greinke is already comfortable with the expectations and media there.

He is also comfortable as the team’s No. 2 starter. Kershaw is the all-world ace of the team, and much of the pressure to win a title lands on his left arm. Despite Greinke’s historic season, he was able to pitch in Kershaw’s shadow most of the year even when he was the team’s best pitcher for months at a time. For Greinke, that seems ideal.

According to Molly Knight, author of The Best Team Money Can Buy, via Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan (h/t Fox Sports), there has been clubhouse discord involving Greinke and Yasiel Puig, but that is likely not enough to scare him into the arms of another organization. That is especially true if the Dodgers are indeed prioritizing Greinke, 32, as their top free agent and willing to pay him as such.

The rub is the Dodgers might not be willing to overextend. Team president Stan Kasten does not like to extend pitchers with a certain number of innings on their arms, and the front office, led by President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman, has said in the past he does not want to be handcuffed in the future by huge contracts to a group of players in their mid- or late 30s.

“They’d certainly like to retain [him], but…the Dodgers know that he’s going to command a lot of money on the open market,” Los Angeles Times writer Bill Shaikin said on MLB Network on Monday. “They also know they don’t want to get into six- and seven-year territory with a guy who is going to be pushing 40 years old at the end of the contract.”

This comes down to how badly Greinke would like to remain with the Dodgers, who will pay him market value but maybe just not for six or seven years. It also might be decided by Greinke’s comfort level with the organization and clubhouse, and if that is the case, he should realize he might not find a better situation for himself and his wants and needs than the Dodgers.

Greinke has already had lots of success with the Dodgers as the No. 2 guy to Kershaw’s ace, and he can continue to pitch as one of the best in the majors within that setup. It works for him, as does the cash the Dodgers are going to put on the table.

Now, it is up to Greinke to make the call.

Advanced statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com. 

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

In Game 4 of the 2004 American League Championship Series, Dave Roberts entered as a pinch runner in the bottom of the ninth inning and stole arguably the biggest base in Boston Red Sox history.

You know the rest of the story: Roberts scored the tying run, the Red Sox won in extras, overcame a 3-0 series deficit to vanquish the hated New York Yankees and ultimately busted the Curse of the Bambino.

It’s not hyperbole to say Roberts is stepping into a similarly pressure-packed situation with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Dodgers are expected to officially name Roberts their new manager Monday, according to a report by Dylan Hernandez, Bill Plaschke and Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times, which cited unnamed sources since the news is not yet official.

Roberts, as Hernandez, Plaschke and Shaikin noted, beat out Dodgers farm director Gabe Kapler, who played for the Tampa Bay Rays under then-general manager Andrew Friedman, who is now L.A.’s president of baseball operations.

Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller confirmed the news and noted Roberts’ connection to a Dodger legend:

Roberts’ mandate is as simple as it is daunting: Get the Dodgers over the postseason hump and guide the club to its first championship in more than a quarter-century. 

There are reasons for optimism, so let’s start with those.

While this is Roberts’ first non-interim managerial gig, he’s spent plenty of time in the National League West, including stints as a player with the Dodgers, San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants and a run as the Padres’ first-base coach and bench coach. He also spent one day as San Diego’s interim manager after the club fired Bud Black in June. 

So he’s familiar with the lay of the land out West. And he impressed during his interview with the Dodgers, as USA Today‘s Bob Nightengale noted before the hire:

Roberts, whose parents are African-American and Japanese, will also be the first minority manager in team history, a not-insignificant footnote for the franchise that signed Jackie Robinson.

The bottom line, though, will be results. And while we don’t yet know the parameters of Roberts’ contract, it’s doubtful he’ll be given much of a grace period.

He is inheriting baseball’s most expensive roster, after all, a team that has won three straight division titles but has fallen short of an NL pennant—let alone a Commissioner’s Trophy—each time.

He might enter 2016 without the services of Zack Greinke, the Cy Young runner-up who is currently floating in the free-agent pool.

But he’ll have ace Clayton Kershaw and whatever additions Friedman makes to the rotation, lineup and bullpen in the coming months. It’ll be a group capable of winning—that much we know. The trick will be making them jell.

To that end, Roberts would be wise to sidle up quickly next to Yasiel Puig and establish a relationship. Assuming he’s not traded, the Cuban slugger will be a key piece of the puzzle next year in L.A., and Roberts needs to ensure the ultra-talented but often polarizing Puig understands where he fits.

We won’t know what kind of skipper Roberts will be until we see him in action and watch him evolve into the role. But Padres catcher Derek Norris offered a clue last season, when Roberts made his one-game stint at the helm.

“We love Doc,” Norris said, per Kirk Kenney of the San Diego Union-Tribune. “He’s great. He’s awesome. He’s very optimistic and very positive. People respond to that.”

“Doc” is Roberts’ nickname, a play on his initials. It’ll be apt as he tries to resuscitate a clubhouse that was often less than healthy under Don Mattingly, as Joel Sherman of the New York Post outlined:

[If] anything created tension in the organization, it was the front office felt it had to clean up messes in the clubhouse because Mattingly was not good with confrontation. Last offseason, the Dodgers did not sign free agent Hanley Ramirez, traded Matt Kemp and released Brian Wilson in the name of improving chemistry. Still, Yasiel Puig was left behind, as were a swath of expensive players who were expecting to play daily and in some cases weren’t.

There’s no guarantee Roberts will expertly juggle every ego and deftly sidestep every playing-time minefield. Undoubtedly he’ll make his share of mistakes, as all rookie managers do.

But by tapping a guy with a reputation for likability and relatively recent experience as a player in the Dodger dugout, Friedman and company have sent a message that cohesion and harmony matter. This talented, expensive ship needs a captain with a bright smile and a steady hand. Roberts appears to have both.

Based on Nightengale’s note on Roberts’ interview, it’s safe to assume the new skipper is open to suggestions from Friedman and Los Angeles’ analytically inclined front office. The key will be filtering that down to the field without creating tension.

It’s a balancing act, no question, and Roberts could wobble. All managers can, no matter how many years they’ve logged on the top step.

But this feels like the right hire—a positive development and a needed reset for a team that was looking increasingly like baseball’s winningest mess under Mattingly.

Eleven years ago, Roberts’ legs helped end Boston’s championship drought. Now, the Dodgers are hoping his head—and heart—can do the same thing in Southern California.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers have found their next manager.

The franchise named Roberts as manager on Monday, a day after Dylan Hernandez, Bill Plaschke and Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times first reported the decision.

Roberts said in a statement, via MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick:

It’s hard for me to put into words what it means to be named manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. This is truly the opportunity of a lifetime. The Dodgers are the ground-breaking franchise of Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Sandy Koufax, Maury Wills, Fernando Valenzuela and Hideo Nomo. When I put on this uniform as a player, I understood the special responsibility to honor those that played before me as well as the amazing bond between the Dodgers and their fans. I feel that I have now come full circle in my career and there is plenty of unfinished business left in L.A.

Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com reported an introductory press conference will be held on Dec. 1.

With Roberts’ hiring, he is the first minority manager in Dodgers history (his mother is Japanese and his father is African-American).

Multiple veterans on the team told management they wanted Roberts to be their next manager once he made it to the final stages of the selection process, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today.

Molly Knight, author of The Best Team Money Can Buy: The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Wild Struggle to Build a Baseball Powerhouse, agreed with the decision:

Roberts joined the San Diego Padres staff in 2011 as the team’s first-base coach, and he was most recently the bench coach for the Dodgers’ National League West rivals.

Roberts played in the major leagues for 10 seasons and famously kept the Boston Red Sox alive in Game 4 of the 2004 American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees when he stole a base and scored a critical run late in the contest. The Red Sox proceeded to win the game and come back from a 3-0 series deficit on the way to a World Series title.

Roberts was also an outfielder for the Dodgers early in his career and will become the first manager hired by Andrew Friedman after he took over as president of baseball operations last year. 

Hernandez, Plaschke and Shaikin noted Gabe Kapler was the initial favorite for the Dodgers position given his status as the franchise’s farm director. Friedman hired Kapler to work in the Tampa Bay Rays front office and brought him with him when he joined the Dodgers.

Hernandez, Plaschke and Shaikin also suggested “like Mattingly, the new manager can count on guidance from front-office executives on everything from the team’s lineup to bullpen decisions.”

Roberts will inherit a team Don Mattingly led to a division title in 2015. Mattingly held the position with the Dodgers for five seasons, but the franchise and manager split ways this offseason before he signed a four-year deal with the Miami Marlins.

While this will be Roberts’ first time as a major league manager, Los Angeles will have World Series expectations firmly in place behind a pitching staff that includes three-time Cy Young winner and former MVP Clayton Kershaw and an offense spearheaded by power hitter Adrian Gonzalez.

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