McCullough: Four years later, do the Dodgers regret letting Zack Greinke leave?
From Andy McCullough at The Athletic on December 5, 2019:
In the early hours of Dec. 4, 2015, Andrew Friedman believed he was on the verge of inking Zack Greinke to the largest free-agent contract in Dodgers history. Friedman, the team’s president of baseball operations, spent the morning engaged with Casey Close, Greinke’s agent, haggling over details like no-trade trade protection and perks like ticket packages. A deal appeared imminent.
“To me,” Friedman said earlier this week, “it indicated that we were really close.”
Earlier that fall, after three tremendous seasons in Los Angeles, Greinke had opted out of his deal and into free agency. To bring Greinke back, Friedman had offered a six-year deal worth close to $160 million. In a few months, Greinke would turn 32, a perilous age, but he possessed a clean delivery, elite athleticism and a “wide array of average-to-plus pitches [that] gave us more conviction in his ability to maintain a certain level into his mid-to-upper 30s,” Friedman said. “Which is why we were, in our minds, as aggressive as we were.”
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Originally published: December 5, 2019. Last Updated: December 5, 2019.