The two-time Cy Young winner agreed to a five-year, $182 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.Left-hander Blake Snell and the Los Angeles Dodgers are in agreement on a five-year, $182 million contract, pending physical, sources tell me and . The World Series champions get the two-time Cy Young winner in the first nine-figure deal of the winter.Snell didn’t have a qualifying offer this year after rejecting one last season, so his signing will not cost the Dodgers a draft pick. The deal comes after an up-and-down season with the San Francisco Giants, but one that definitely ended with momentum on Snell’s side. He was ranked No. 6 on Yahoo Sports’ list of this winter’s top 50 free agents.

At the start of July, he held a 9.51 ERA through six starts and had missed significant time due to two trips to the injured list. And then, as he tends to do, Snell got better in the second half. After returning from the IL on July 9, he posted a 1.23 ERA across his final 14 starts with 114 strikeouts in 80 1/3 innings. Batters hit .123/.211/.171 against him.

Thanks to that run, Snell entered this offseason as one of the top free-agent arms and ranked No. 6 on Yahoo Sports’ list of this winter’s free agents. Snell wasted little time in finding a new home, and it’s hard to blame him, given how last offseason went. Now, he’ll get to join the reigning World Series champions.

Snell not only found a deal 112 days earlier than he did last offseason, but he also joined what could be an incredible rotation in Los Angeles.

Despite their success in 2024, the Dodgers entered the offseason with their rotation as a clear need after Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler — two of their three starting pitchers during their playoff run — entered free agency. Snell is a bigger name than either.

The Dodgers’ rotation for 2025, when healthy, now projects as something like Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow and Clayton Kershaw, assuming the latter follows through on his stated intent to re-sign with the team. Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May and Emmet Sheehan are also expected to return after missing all of 2024 due to injuries.

It’s a formidable collection of pitching talent, but that “when healthy” qualifier is an enormous one for the Dodgers. Their past two playoff runs have seen them enter the postseason with a rotation held together by duct tape. Every player listed above (including Snell) missed significant time due to injuries last season, and the Dodgers are responding by looking for even more talent.

The frightening part is that the Dodgers probably aren’t finished. Corbin Burnes and Max Fried might be a little steep now, but a reunion with Buehler or Flaherty doesn’t seem out of the question. And, of course, there’s the looming possibility of Roki Sasaki joining the team on an outrageously small deal.

Rewind to the start of the 2023-24 MLB offseason. Snell was named the winner of the 2023 NL Cy Young Award, making him one of 22 pitchers in the history of baseball to win the award multiple times. He also entered free agency for the first time in his career, with no shortage of suitors.

Snell expected a big contract, to the point that he reportedly turned down a six-year, $150 million offer from the New York Yankees. His agent, Scott Boras, is notorious for waiting out teams to get the best possible deal, but no such deal came.

By the time spring training rolled around, Snell didn’t have a team, nor did fellow Boras clients Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman or Jordan Montgomery. It was an embarrassing situation for the agent and his players, and it resulted in them all taking short-term deals in late February and early March. In Snell’s case, he landed with the Giants on a two-year, $62 million contract with an opt-out after the first year, which he exercised.

For all of his talent, Snell had enough red flags that teams were apprehensive about promising him $200 million. He was an older free agent at 30 years old, for one, and his consistency and durability issues are well-known. He has thrown more than 130 innings in a season only twice, and he led MLB in walks in 2023.

This most recent season didn’t do much to change the narratives around Snell, as he was awful and injured, then Cy Young-worthy. But good things sometimes come to those who don’t wait.