Zach Greinke signs lengthy contract with Diamondbacks

The only other team that was expected to compete with the Dodgers for Greinke’s services was the San Francisco Giants. The agreement will become official once Lackey passes a physical examination.

Accordingto Rosenthal, Greinke liked the young talent in Arizona that includes All-Stars Paul Goldschmidt and A.J. Pollock. They would end up shocking baseball by being the ones to sign Greinke, giving him six years, $206 million.

Greinke finished second in the voting for this year’s National League for the Cy Young award, given to the best pitcher in each league, after finishing with a 1.66 earned run average (ERA), the lowest in the majors in two decades. The free-spending Dodgers have already reportedly turned their sights to Cueto and the Giants still have room to pursue another starting pitcher.

Baseball’s best pitching tandem is now a memory. He also spoke knowingly about a couple of the game’s biggest contracts at that time and where some upcoming free agents should land, financially. The Detroit Tigers signed right-hander Jordan Zimmermann to a five-year, $110-million contract.

Don’t laugh, and don’t be yammering on about that cold-blooded Greinke leaving Hollywood simply for the money and nothing else. Both required his services.

The Dodgers as it stands hold the 24th, 30th and 36th picks of the 2016 draft (this will change often throughout the season with various signings), and would prefer not to surrender their first-round pick in signing a free agent if they can avoid it.

But the reality is, the Giants have Madison Bumgarner to front their rotation (an excellent spot in which to be) and Chris Heston as a promising 28-year-old behind him. The 32-year-old right-hander is a three-time All-Star and has spent time with the Royals, Brewers, Angels and Dodgers. Greinke had a scoreless streak of 45 2-3 innings this summer. He was 19-3 and pitched six or more innings in all 32 of his starts. He lost once after June 13 until October 15, when he was outpitched by Jacob deGrom in Game 5 of the division series.

“I think I was just saving all my postseason wins for the Red Sox”, Price said on Friday during his introductory news conference in a Fenway Park function room filled with championship memorabilia. He doesn’t worry about too much after that. They kind of save your bullpen. But they can’t be sure that Matt Cain (5.79 ERA in 60 2/3 innings last season) will be the guy who carried them to the 2012 title again. Continuing to build a strong rotation to go along with their stellar offense not only makes them a threat to the NL West, but to the entire league. The annual average value of $34.3 million is the highest ever. In 2013, he missed a month with a broken collarbone, that being the result of Carlos Quentin charging the mound.