Giants and Snell: How the Giants are Indirectly Funding Blake Snell’s Dodgers Contract

The San Francisco Giants have a responsibility to pay the newest addition to the Dodgers’ starting rotation.

Two-time Cy Young pitcher Blake Snell declined his player option with the Giants in 2025 and elected free agency for the second consecutive offseason. Snell signed a last-minute contract with the Giants a few weeks before Opening Day. Despite playing just one season with San Francisco, Snell will still receive payments from the franchise in the future.

“The left-hander agreed in March to a $62 million, two-year contract that included a $17 million signing bonus payable on Jan. 15, 2026, a $15 million salary for 2024 and a $30 million salary for 2025, of which $15 million would have been deferred and payable on July 1, 2027,” writes Ronald Blum of AP News.

San Francisco still owes Snell his $17 million signing bonus in 2026. The 31-year-old signed a five-year, $182 million contract with the Dodgers on Nov. 30. His contract with Los Angeles also includes a $52 million signing bonus and $66 million of deferred money.

On average, Snell will earn $36.4 million a year, which ranks fifth among all active MLB deals in 2025, according to AP News. Ahead of Snell is new teammate Shohei Ohtani, who earns an average salary of $70 million. Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler ($42 million), New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge ($40 million), and Texas pitcher Jacob deGrom ($37 million) rank second through fourth, respectively.

Snell was one of the most targeted free agents this offseason. Although he struggled with injuries this year, the 2018 American League All-Star has remained consistent throughout his entire nine-season career. Since his rookie year, Snell has logged a season ERA below 4.30 and reached as low as 1.89 in 2018.

The two-time Cy Young award winner is also the only current southpaw in the Los Angeles rotation. He joins Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, and Tyler Glasnow as potential aces. All four pitchers were popular free agent/trade targets in the last two years, whom the Dodgers front office managed to acquire over other franchises.

With the addition of Snell and the presence of the other three potential aces, there seems to be no room in the rotation for free agents Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler. Flaherty and Buehler each made starts throughout the Dodgers’ postseason run to the World Series. There have been no reports of either pitcher being close to signing with another team for now, but it’s hard to imagine the Dodgers finding room for either, especially with Flaherty’s market likely being very active.