Before Game 1 of the World Series against the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman made his intentions clear.

The architect of MLB’s most impressive juggernaut wore a light blue button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up past his wrists. A 5 o’clock shadow crossed his sleepless face. In his left hand he held a silver coffee mug, emphasizing the aesthetic of a man determined to make a name for himself.

When Friedman was asked by a member of the media to give his opinion on “people who say these two teams are only here because they spend the most money,” he predictably was unapologetic. He mentioned the “unique challenges that every market has” and emphasized that the dynamics are not something he thinks about often.

Instead, Friedman laid out the franchise’s master plan.

“My ultimate goal, when we’re done, is to look back and say this was the golden era of Dodger baseball, and that’s an incredibly high hurdle to even say that,” Friedman said. “That’s where my focus lies.”

A week later, Friedman’s Dodgers became World Series champions for the first time in a full season since 1988. At some point in the jubilant overtime, it surely occurred to him that no MLB team has won two World Series in a row since the Yankees in 1999-2000.

Less than a month after hoisting the golden trophy, Friedman signaled that his Dodgers were determined to end this streak.

The reigning champions reportedly agreed late Tuesday night to a five-year, $182 million contract with left-handed starter Blake Snell, a two-time Cy Young Award winner who spent the 2024 season as a pitcher for the rival San Francisco Giants . According to reports from The Athletic and the LA Times, Snell’s contract includes a deferred payment and a $52 million signing bonus. The Dodgers have yet to officially confirm the deal, but the goateed hurler posted a picture of himself in an LA uniform on Instagram.

At his best, Snell is one of the best pitchers in the world. As of 2021, he has the third-highest strikeout rate in MLB, behind Braves hurler Spencer Strider and his new (and former) teammate Tyler Glasnow. Snell’s .195 batting average is also the second-best mark in the league during that time (also behind Glasnow). Only Strider has conjured up more swing-and-miss. However, Snell’s walk rate – the second-worst since 2021 – is an unavoidable flaw and limits his ability to work deep into the starting phase, but the overall track record is undeniable. There are few pitchers you’d rather have over six innings.

For Snell, who turns 32 next week, this contract has been a long time coming. Snell was drafted from a Seattle high school to the Tampa Bay Rays in 2011, debuted in 2016 and immediately established himself as one of the game’s most dominant, if run-prone, starters. In 2018, he won his first Cy Young Award, which earned him a $50 million contract extension through 2023. After the 2020 season, Tampa Bay traded him to the San Diego Padres, and in 2023, Snell won his second Cy Young Award while participating in his first free agency.

It was a season that should have earned him a hefty contract on the open market. But that never happened.

Snell waited all winter and into the spring for a number that met his expectations. Spring training has arrived. His contemporaries flocked to the warm climates of Arizona and Florida to prepare for the marathon of the season. Snell, out of contract and with nowhere to go, stayed up north at his home in Seattle. Another month passed. The price asked by Snell and his agent Scott Boras has certainly come down. Boras, who represented three other major free agents whose negotiations dragged on into the spring, was heavily criticized.

Then on March 19, just a day before the Dodgers and Padres opened the regular season in South Korea, Snell signed a two-year contract with the San Francisco Giants. The contract paid the left-hander $31 million per season and included a right to opt out after 2024. This gave Snell a lot of change and gave him the opportunity to test the market again a year later. It certainly wasn’t the long, career-defining contract that Snell and Boras were seeking.

Then things got worse, as the delayed start to Snell’s 2024 season impacted his health and performance. The southpaw made just six starts before July, repeatedly jumping on the injured list and posting an astronomical ERA of 9.51. He seemed destined to opt out and return to San Francisco for the second year of his contract.

Instead he turned it on. From his return on July 9 through the end of the season, Snell shined. In 13 starts, the left-hander pitched to a 1.33 ERA with 105 strikeouts in 74 ⅓ innings. On July 27, he struck out 15 Colorado Rockies in six innings. In his next start, Snell threw a no-hitter, the first of his career, against the Cincinnati Reds. This remarkable turnaround motivated him to exercise his exit at the end of the season and test the open market again.

This time he didn’t wait. Snell will have a lot more turkey at his Thanksgiving table on Thursday.

Los Angeles is an obvious fit for Snell. The money is right. The team is excellent. The weather is beautiful. The coaching staff has a reputation for helping players achieve top performance. Who doesn’t want to play for the Dodgers? Maybe Chavez Ravine obviously suits everyone.

And every team could have used Snell. He is capable of starting Game 1 or Game 2 of a postseason series for any single baseball franchise. The Dodgers, who endured a spate of pitching injuries during their triumphant World Series campaign, know all too well the value of a good starting pitcher.

In LA, Snell joins a team full of superstars. Glasnow, Snell’s old rotation mate in Tampa, was an All-Star in 2024 and was close to starting Game 1 in October until an elbow ailment sent him to IL in August. He is expected to be healthy in spring training. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, whose $325 million deal last offseason was the largest contract ever for a pitcher, struggled with injuries as a rookie but came through in October, posting an ERA of 10 in his last three playoff starts 1.72. Then there’s two-way dynamo Shohei Ohtani, who famously didn’t pitch in 2024 as he recovered from elbow surgery. The NL MVP, who has a career 3.01 ERA with 608 strikeouts in 481 ⅔ innings, is expected to be in full swing on Opening Day.

The Dodgers’ other starting pitching options include:

• Future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw, who is technically a free agent but expressed his intention to re-sign with the Dodgers for another season.

• Tony Gonsolin, who missed all of 2024 due to elbow surgery, but posted the second-lowest ERA in baseball from 2020 to 2022, behind only Jacob deGrom (minimum 200 innings pitched).

• Bobby Miller, a 25-year-old former first-round draft pick and top prospect who appeared to be the Dodgers’ star after his success in 2023. He struggled mightily in 2024 but remains a promising starting option for the future.

• Dustin May, who also missed 2024 due to injury but looked like a breakout candidate in 2023, posted a 2.63 ERA in his first nine starts. He is expected to be healthy for Opening Day.

• Ben Casparius, Los Angeles’ starter for Game 4 of the World Series. The 25-year-old worked in shorter stints during the club’s postseason run but remains an enticing option for multiple innings.

While it’s a comical embarrassment of wealth, it’s also a mysterious box full of unknowns. Every pitcher on this list has enormous questions, whether related to health or effectiveness. Pitching is volatile, and the only way to counteract that volatility, as the 2024 Dodgers showed, is to add enough starters to handle the inevitable turnover. Snell is just another part of that plan.

It’s an obvious, effective strategy for the Dodgers, made possible by the fact that they (1) are excellent at development and (2) are putting a lot of money into free agency, something more teams should be doing.

By signing Snell, the Dodgers, a fully functioning financial giant, are flexing their muscles. When Snell joined the Dodgers, he was benefiting from nearly a decade of dominance.

Both rich people just got richer.