After losing Zack Greinke to the Diamondbacks and having a potential acquisition of Aroldis Chapman blow up due to a domestic violence incident, CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman reports that the Dodgers are now looking at free agent right-hander Johnny Cueto.
This appears to be a pivot for the Dodgers, who responded to the Greinke deal by signing Hisashi Iwakuma before pursuing the trade for Chapman. The thought was that the club would try to strengthen the back-end of their bullpen rather than add another big-name starter, but the situation with Chapman has complicated things. Andrew Miller is a possible alternative for the late innings, but the Yankees are no sure thing to move him. Miller is signed for three years at $27 million while Chapman was only under team control for one more year, so the price tag in a trade would likely be higher.
The market for Cueto has been pretty quiet thus far, though he reportedly turned down a six-year, $120 million contract from the Diamondbacks prior to the Greinke signing. It’s worth noting that the Dodgers reportedly weren’t willing to go more than five years to keep Greinke. Cueto is a little over two years younger than Greinke, but assuming this report is true and the Dodgers are actually in, it will be interesting to see how far they are willing to go. They could ultimately sign a lesser name to put alongside Clayton Kershaw, Iwakuma, Brett Anderson, and Alex Wood.
