Greinke is Moving On

Aaugh!  Damn you Dave Stewart!

The wait is now over.  According to Ken Rosenthal on twitter, and confirmed by local beat writer Steve Gilbert, Zack Greinke has decided that he will be playing a little southeast of us.  Zach Greinke will be a Diamondback.

Can confirm the @Ken_Rosenthal report about #Dbacks in agreement with Greinke.

— Steve Gilbert (@SteveGilbertMLB) December 5, 2015

After spending the last three years rooting for Zack I will now have to boo him at every turn.

Booooooooooo!

On a positive note, at least he's not a Giant.

BTW, Ken Rosenthal reports that it's a six year deal at $206 million.  That's $34.33 million a season.  Additionally, Jon Heyman reports that the Dodgers maxed out at $31 million a year, and Ray Ratto says the Giants were at six years and $195 million ($32.5 million per).  Also, as compensation for losing Zack, the Dodger will gain an extra draft pick from Arizona in 2016, so all is not lost.  It'll be placed somewhere between the 1st and 2nd rounds. 

For what it's worth, some folks are saying that the Diamondbacks swooped in from nowhere in the last minute.  I don't believe that for a second.  I have no doubt that Arizona had been in the thick of it since the beginning, and that Rosenthal's scoop earlier today was just preparation for the eventual news.  After all, a team doesn't decide to spend this kind of money on a single player on a whim.  They certainly had protracted talks with Greinke and his people.  Via Charlie Wilmoth at MLB Trade Rumors:

Still, Greinke to the Diamondbacks makes a fair amount of sense, and not just because of their ten-figure new TV deal. As FanGraphs’ August Fagerstrom pointed out earlier this week, Arizona already qualified as a sleeper team for next season. The Diamondbacks already had a solid offense headed by two top talents in Paul Goldschmidt and A.J. Pollock, and an excellent defense headed by Pollock, Nick Ahmed and Ender Inciarte. The chief reason they only won 79 games last season was their pitching staff, which rated 27th in MLB in fWAR. Their rotation already looked likely to improve somewhat next season with a full season of Patrick Corbin, but adding Greinke provides a much bigger shot in the arm. With Greinke in the fold, the Diamondbacks obviously have a much better chance of contending — not only because of the direct impact Greinke will have on their roster, but because they’ll be keeping Greinke from competing against them.

On the Dodgers front, they are already looking elsewhere, via a Ken Rosenthal tweet:

Sources: #Dodgers “intrigued” by Cueto. Interested in Iwakuma. Reached out today to agents for Cueto, Kazmir, Samardzija.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 5, 2015

Photo at the very top via Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers 2015.

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