Report: Brandon McCarthy close to four-year deal with Dodgers
SAN DIEGO — The Los Angeles Dodgers’ busy Wednesday at the Winter Meetings continued with news that they’re close to signing one of the more interesting free-agent starting pitchers on the market.
Brandon McCarthy is going Hollywood, reportedly.
Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports says that McCarthy and the Dodgers are “close” to a four-year deal, which in industry terms means it’s happening but isn’t all the way done yet. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports seconds the report.
Already Wednesday the Dodgers struck a trade with the Phillies to acquire Jimmy Rollins, then sent Dee Gordon to the Marlins and received top-prospect Andrew Heaney, a left-handed pitcher, in return. Then they reportedly flipped Heaney to the Angels for second baseman Howie Kendrick.
The Dodgers’ new front office, which had been relatively quiet since its change-over, was quite busy. And now there’s McCarthy, who ranked as the fourth-best free-agent starting pitcher on Jeff Passan’s Ultimate Free-Agent Tracker. The three ahead of him you know well, Max Scherzer, Jon Lester and James Shields.
McCarthy split his 2014 pitching for the Arizona Diamondback and New York Yankees. He had a rough time in Arizona at the start of the year, but was great once he was traded to the Yankees. He had a 2.89 ERA, going 7-5. He’s also the most entertaining MLB player on Twitter. It oughta be fun to see how that translates to life with the Dodgers.
McCarthy strengthens the Dodgers’ rotation, becoming the fourth guy behind Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu. The Dodgers have been pursuing pitching help to support their core three starters, and McCarthy is an upgrade over the likes of Dan Haren.
Before Arizona, McCarthy pitched for the Oakland Athletics, where he knew Farhan Zaidi, the new Dodgers GM, who was the director of baseball operations at the time. In fact, McCarthy defended Zaidi last month when ex-MLB player Ryan Theriot scrutinized him for not being a former ballplayer.
In this case, loyalty pays off.
More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:
– – – – – – –
Mike Oz is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
