Dodgers reliever Tanner Scott on four-year, $72 million deal, report says

Tanner Scott, the best reliever on the MLB free agent market, got paid like this.

The former San Diego Padres left-hander has agreed to a four-year, $72 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, according to multiple reports. Scott now joins an increasingly deep Dodgers bullpen.

Scott, who was traded from the Marlins to the Padres at last summer’s deadline, posted a 2.73 ERA with 31 strikeouts in 26 1/3 innings with San Diego in the second half.

The deal is one of the largest ever given to a reliever, with Edwin Díaz’s five-year, $102 million contract with the New York Mets still representing the high-water mark.

Yahoo Sports ranked Scott, 30, as the 22nd free agent on the market this offseason and the best among available relievers.

Tanner Scott was untouchable in last year’s MLB playoffs

If you subscribe to Baseball Reference’s WAR calculation, no reliever has been more valuable over the past two years than Scott with 7.6, more than a win better than second-place Tyler Holton. Scott posted a 1.75 ERA last year between the Padres and Miami Marlins, and he seemed untouchable in the postseason, striking out seven in five scoreless innings.

Four of those strikeouts came at the expense of Shohei Ohtani.

Scott features a fastball/slider combination from the left side that almost never hits. He held the lowest hard-hit rate among MLB pitchers with at least 70 innings last year and also missed numerous bats, with a whiff rate of 32.7%.

The big question with him has always been whether he found the strike zone. Scott struggled mightily earlier in his career when he walked more than six guys every nine innings, then became elite when he reduced that number to bad territory. Judging by this contract, MLB teams clearly believe Scott will continue to limit walks.

Scott has worked as both a setup man and a setup man since his arrival and is not tied to either, which is the kind of flexibility teams usually look for in his price range. Every MLB contender knows they’re going to need a reliever to shut down lefties and give righties a hard time for at least one late inning during the postseason, and Scott is as good at that as he gets currently is.

The Dodgers are finishing an ideal offseason, but at what cost?

The Dodgers certainly didn’t rest on their laurels this offseason after winning the 2024 World Series. They were aggressive from the start, signing free agent starting pitcher Blake Snell to a five-year, $182 million contract at the end of November. A few days later, they extended their contract with Tommy Edman, giving him a five-year, $74 million contract. And the following week, they added outfielder Michael Conforto on a one-year deal worth $17 million.

Los Angeles ended 2024 by re-signing outfielder and Home Run Derby champion Teoscar Hernandez to a three-year, $66 million contract in late December, then a week later opened 2025 by signing the player Korean infielder Hyeseong Kim on a three-year contract. worth $12.5 million.

Most teams would have finished by then (or even sooner), but most teams aren’t the Dodgers. Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki announced he would sign with Los Angeles last week. And on Sunday, the Dodgers put the finishing touches on their flawless offseason by landing Scott.

Now Los Angeles looks more unstoppable than last year when they won it all, but how much will it cost them? A lot, but not as much as you might think. Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic reported that Scott’s deal, like most deals the Dodgers made this offseason, includes a signing bonus with deferred money, which pushes the cost into the future. This contract structure allows them to build the most intimidating team possible while keeping costs relatively manageable in the present.

According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the Dodgers’ payroll is over $375 million and will likely be closer to $400 million in 2025. As they have already passed the luxury tax threshold of $241 million for three years in a row, they are taxed at $50 million. % on every dollar spent above the threshold.

That’s a lot of money, both now and in the long term, but the Dodgers have it and are willing to spend it because they believe it will lead to more World Series trophies. Stocking their roster with so much talent also makes them a prime destination for free agents. And once you take into account fan response to the fact that the Dodgers continue to strive to be the absolute best team in MLB, it’s hard to find a downside to this type of strategy.