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The market for free agent starting pitcher Zack Greinke is “quietly heating up,” according to ESPN.com.
The runner-up for this year’s NL Cy Young award is the hottest free agent on the market. Greinke backed out of the final three years on his contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers for what would have been $71 million. The right-hander is seeking a deal that would pay him $30 million per season with a lot of years. Every franchise knows how talented he is, but it’s more a question of which team will be willing to sign him knowing that the back-end of the deal might not be so pretty.
The lead dogs in the race are the Dodgers and their rival San Francisco Giants. If one of those two teams win the sweepstakes, they would have a huge one-up on the other. The 32-year-old had a stellar 1.66 ERA, 0.84 WHIP, and 200/40 K/BB ratio in 222 2/3 innings this past season for the National League West champs, which was the best season of his 12-year career. In his three years in Los Angeles, Greinke compiled a 2.30 ERA with 8.3 K/9 against 1.9 BB/9 in 602 2/3 regular-season innings, plus a 2.27 ERA in 35 2/3 postseason innings. Clayton Kershaw and Greinke are the main reasons the Dodgers ran away with the division this season. The Giants have won three World Series titles in five seasons although they did not make the postseason this season. Madison Bumgarner is one of the top pitchers in MLB and San Fran could acquire Greinke, it would be a heavy favorite to win the division while also being a legit contender for the 2016 World Series. If the Dodgers don’t land him, they will have a huge hole in the pitching staff, which will be extremely difficult to be filled by any other pitcher or pitchers.
David Price and Johnny Cueto are still out there and both of those starting pitchers are expecting to sign major deals with whatever team they sign with. These might be the two options for both San Fran and L.A. if Greinke signs elsewhere. The Boston Red Sox are also reportedly creeping in the sweepstakes for Greinke. If Boston could sign him, it would jump from the bottom of the AL East to a legit contender with the rest of the teams in the division. The winter meetings are set to take place next week and there's a chance that the big free agent could sign with a team by then.
