Dodgers land reliever Tanner Scott on 4-year, $72 million deal, per report

Tanner Scott, the top reliever on the MLB free-agent market, got paid like it.

The former San Diego Padres southpaw has agreed to a four-year, $72 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, according to multiple media reports. Scott now joins an increasingly deep Dodgers bullpen.

Scott, who was traded from the Miami Marlins to the Padres at last summer's deadline, posted a 2.73 ERA with 31 strikeouts in 26 1/3 innings with San Diego in the second half.

The deal is among the largest ever given to a reliever, with Edwin Díaz's five-year, $102 million contract with the New York Mets still representing the high-water mark.

Yahoo Sports ranked the 30-year-old Scott as the No. 22 free agent on the market this offseason and the best among the available relievers.

Tanner Scott was unhittable in last year's MLB playoffs

If you ascribe to the Baseball Reference calculation of WAR, no reliever has been more valuable over the past two years than Scott at 7.6, more than a win better than second-place Tyler Holton. Scott posted a 1.75 ERA last year between the Padres and Marlins, and he looked unhittable in the playoffs, striking out seven in five scoreless innings.

Four of those strikeouts came at the expense of Shohei Ohtani.

Scott features a fastball/slider combination from the left side that hitters almost never square up. He held the lowest hard-hit rate among MLB pitchers with at least 70 innings last year and missed plenty of bats, too, with a 32.7% whiff rate.

The big question with him has always been whether he's finding the strike zone. Scott struggled heavily earlier in his career, when he was walking more than six guys per nine innings. Then he became elite when he got that number down to merely bad territory. Judging from this contract, the Dodgers clearly believe Scott will continue to keep the walks down.

Scott has worked as a closer and a setup man since his step forward and isn't tied to either role, which is the kind of flexibility teams usually look for in his price range. Every MLB contender knows it will need a reliever to shut down lefties and give righties a hard time for at least one late inning during the playoffs, and Scott is as good at that as it gets right now.

Dodgers complete ideal offseason, but at what cost?

The Dodgers certainly didn't rest on their laurels this offseason after winning the 2024 World Series. They were aggressive from the start, signing free-agent starting pitcher Blake Snell to a five-year, $182 million contract at the end of November. A few days later, they extended utilityman Tommy Edman, giving him a five-year, $74 million contract. The following week, they added outfielder Michael Conforto on a one-year, $17 million deal.

Los Angeles wrapped up 2024 by re-signing outfielder and Home Run Derby champion Teoscar Hernández to a three-year, $66 million deal, and a week later, they opened 2025 by signing Korean infielder Hyeseong Kim to a three-year deal worth $12.5 million.

Most teams would've been done at that point (or even earlier), but most teams aren't the Dodgers. Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki announced last week that he will be signing with Los Angeles. And on Sunday, the Dodgers put the finishing touches on their flawless offseason by landing Scott.

Now L.A. appears more unstoppable than it was last year when the Dodgers won it all, but how much will this cost them? A lot, but not as much as you might think.

Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic reported that Scott's deal, like most of the deals the Dodgers made this offseason, includes a signing bonus with deferred money, pushing the cost into the future. That contract structure allows the organization to put together the most intimidating team possible while keeping costs relatively manageable in the present.

According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, the Dodgers' payroll is above $375 million and will likely be closer to $400 million for 2025. Because they've already been over the $241 million luxury-tax threshold for three consecutive years, they're being taxed 50% on every dollar they spend above the threshold.

That's a lot of cash, both now and down the line, but the Dodgers have it and are willing to spend it, as they believe it will lead to more World Series trophies. Stocking their roster with so much talent also makes them a premier destination for other free agents. Once you factor in the fan response to the Dodgers continuing to push to be the absolute best team in MLB, it's hard to find a downside to this kind of strategy.