The Los Angeles Dodgers have made a habit every offseason of at least checking in with the best available free agents, no matter their asking price. Boston Red Sox president Sam Kennedy said recently he's willing to incur a luxury tax if it helps the team return to the World Series.
Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that both teams are looking to upgrade their starting rotation from the top of the free agent market.
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According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the Dodgers and Red Sox are talking to representatives for right-hander Corbin Burnes and left-hander Max Fried, "covering their bases the way teams always do at this time of year."
Jon Heyman of the New York Post previously reported the Dodgers' interest in gauging the market for Burnes and Fried, as well as left-hander Blake Snell. "Word is," Heyman wrote, "that assuming they land (Roki) Sasaki, they'll try for one more big pitcher."
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Sasaki, 23, will have 45 days from the time he is posted by the Chiba Lotte Marines to sign with a major league team, under the terms of the league's posting agreement with Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). That has yet to take place.
Teams are presently free to negotiate with domestic free agents, though Rosenthal's report suggests those talks have yet to heat up in earnest.
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Fried, 31, started 29 games last year for the Braves and pitched to a 3.25 ERA (3.33 FIP) over 174.1 innings. His 2.81 ERA over the last five seasons is the best of any major league starter.
ESPN's Jeff Passan previously linked Fried to the Dodgers, noting they "are targeting at least one high-end starter."
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Burnes, 30, was the 2021 National League Cy Young Award winner. In 2024, he went 15-9 with a 2.92 ERA for the Baltimore Orioles and made his fourth consecutive All-Star team. The right-hander is a California native (Bakersfield) who played collegiately in the Bay Area (St. Mary's).
Rosenthal also notes the left-handed Snell would make sense for the Red Sox, whose top five starting pitchers are all right-handed. The Dodgers showed "late interest" in Snell before he signed with the San Francisco Giants last spring, Rosenthal notes, and it would be no surprise if they were interested again this year.
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While signing Snell last offseason would have required a team to sacrifice a draft pick (by virtue of MLB's qualifying offer rules), no such penalty exists this year. Burnes and Fried, however, both rejected qualifying offers and would require draft-pick compensation if they were to sign elsewhere for 2025.
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