Blake Treinen Gets a Healthy Two-Year Deal from the Dodgers

Well today has been just downright crazy, what with not one but TWO multi-year free agent signings. That’s nearly doubled the count of multi-year free agents signed so far this offseason …

After outfielder Robbie Grossman got two years from the Tigers earlier today, now it’s reliever Blake Treinen getting two years (and an option) to stay with the Dodgers:

Reliever Blake Treinen and the Los Angeles Dodgers are in agreement on a two-year deal for $17.5 million with a club option that’s worth $8 million, sources tell ESPN.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 6, 2021

That’s a healthy guarantee for Treinen in a crowded reliever market, but he bounced back well (and healthy) with the Dodgers in 2020, and clearly they like him as a good bet for the next couple years. Treinen, 32, was super-duper elite in 2018 before falling apart in 2019, and then stabilizing close to his career norms in 2020 by getting an obscene volume of ground balls. Good arm to have around, and he gets approximately what he was projected to get by MLBTR and FanGraphs. They more or less nailed Grossman, too.

I suppose the lesson there is that, although we’ve had precious few free agent data points this offseason (which is nuts, considering it’s JANUARY), the signings have so far tended to be roughly what you would expect in a down financial marketplace. You would also generally expect the top tier guys to get theirs – historically, they do – but where I expect the most extreme squeezing is on the remnant guys who don’t get signed before February.

… the pool the Cubs are most likely to be bargain shopping in.