Dodgers Team News

Dodgers News: Greinke One of Offseason’s Most Overpaid FA’s

It seems a little annoying to keep seeing articles out there talking about Zack Greinke, who is now no longer a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers after signing with the Arizona Diamondbacks, but he is a major part of this season despite him not being here so he should be discussed a little bit.

The Diamondbacks signed Greinke to a six-year, $206.5 million contract this offseason, and it was somewhat lauded by pundits because he will most certainly help Arizona try to become a viable National League West contender for a while. However, it was also a massive overpay. How much? Well ..




ICYMI: Dodgers’ Kershaw Threw Perfect Pitch Imperfectly


From Cliff Corcoran of Sports Illustrated dot com:

The Diamondbacks did well to limit Greinke to six years, but they exploded his price, paying him for a fluke season that is already in the past just as the Orioles are paying Davis for what is likely to be a short-lived peak.

As Corcoran goes on to note in the section about Greinke, the Diamondbacks overpaid him by $61.7 million. In case you were wondering, the TOTAL guaranteed money due to Scott Kazmir and Kenta Maeda is $73 million. Arizona nearly overpaid Greinke by what the Dodgers signed those two for.

If that doesn’t seem like a big deal, well, it is. There’s no other way to say it. Greinke’s 2015 season, which Corcoran talks about, was a supreme outlier for the right-hander. Add in Greinke’s advanced age — he’s already 32 years old — and you can see why the Dodgers didn’t pony up the dough.

While fans are quite a bit annoyed that Los Angeles didn’t make a massive offer to retain Greinke’s services, you also have to remember that you don’t want to overpay talent when competing against the market. There has to be a limit. The Dodgers exercised their limit, and it led to Greinke leaving.

The Dodgers’ loss in this instance was Arizona’s gain, but how much of a gain was it for Arizona when they’ve, at least according to this study, overpaid him by close to $62 million? They overpaid him by a ton. We’ll see it if it comes back to haunt them, but the Dodgers seem to have made the right move.

Dodgers News: Urias Makes MLB Trade Value List

Staff Writer

Staff Writer features content written by our site editors along with our staff of contributing writers. Thank you for your readership.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button