Zack Greinke Agrees to Deal With Diamondbacks

The news comes as a shock to the baseball world only a couple afters after Rosenthal reported that Arizona was pursuing Greinke, who was thought to be deciding between the Dodgers and Giants earlier this week.

Greinke’s ultimate landing place was a surprise, but the Dodgers’ reluctance to offer him a six-year contract wasn’t.

Apparently, the Diamondbacks aren’t done. Now, the Dodgers will have to venture into the free agent market and there are still quality starting pitchers available, including Johnny Cueto, Hisashi Iwakuma, Mike Leake, Jeff Samardzija, Scott Kazmir or Yovani Gallardo.

In October, the Dodgers parted ways with now-Marlins manager Don Mattingly and later hired former major leaguer Dave Roberts as his replacement.

The Diamondbacks are moving upward.

Despite winning it all in 2013 – their third World Series championship in 10 years – the Red Sox have finished last in the AL East in three of the past four seasons. They have a sneaky good core too, with Greinke joining Paul Goldschmidt, A.J. Pollock, Patrick Corbin, Robbie Ray, David Peralta, and others. But one thing Greinke did that caught us all off guard was choose the Arizona Diamondbacks, a team that really hadn’t been considered a contender for his services.

In short, the Diamondbacks have the offense to contend. They need to shore up their pitching, and that’s what they are doing.

While it was expected that the Diamondbacks would be patient, developing their young talent before looking to compete with the Dodgers and Giants, this move signals otherwise.

The Dodgers, Giants and Diamondbacks are similar. Sources close to him say he also likes the club’s young players. He started his career with the Kansas City Royals, and spent time with the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Angels. They were 69-61 in games started by anyone else.

Greinke, 32, is coming off arguably the best year of his 12-year career. It’s not impossible to remain an ace performer through those ages, but it’s pretty much the best of the best that can provide high-end value at that age. They have Madison Bumgarner, but after that, the rotation has Jake Peavy, Matt Cain, Chris Heston and prospects. They’re going to have to get creative.

Greinke was durable, pitching 222⅔ innings. But that’s what happening.

Now, it’s never safe to assume that a pitcher will continue to pitch at a high-level for more than one season, let alone six. Because he was traded midseason Cueto was not eligible to receive a qualifying offer and will thus not cost his new team a draft pick.

Among the young pitchers, Julio Urias, Jose DeLeon and Jharel Cotton all could arrive sometime next season. That’s good news for the Dodgers and Giants.