On How Zack Greinke Got Away

Ken Rosenthal wrote a really interesting and thorough piece over the weekend about how the Diamondbacks landed Zack Greinke. The entire thing is worth a read because of how stunningly quick everything went. I mean…

The D-backs, mind you, had not spoken to Greinke. They would not speak to him until after the deal was done.

By about 5:30 p.m., the deal was done.

and…

Zack Greinke, who at the start of the day had not even known that the Diamondbacks wanted him, had an agreement with the team, pending a physical.

While it sure seems on the surface that Greinke merely saw the dollar signs and chose based on that and nothing else, there’s more to it than that, with multiple references to liking the way the Diamondbacks played, and tales of meeting A.J. Pollock & Paul Goldschmidt at the All-Star Game. (Not noted but also always an advantage for the D-Backs: Being able to sleep in your own bed at spring training, which is perhaps of extra importance to a man with a young child, as well as Arizona’s lower tax rate.)

But what’s not answered in this column is whether Greinke’s agent ever took the offer back to the Dodgers (or Giants):

@mike_petriello I don’t know, Mike. It didn’t sound like it.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 14, 2015

Who knows the truth there, really. Maybe Greinke’s agent did go back and was told no. Maybe Greinke’s agent already knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Dodgers just weren’t going to six years or over $200M no matter what. Or maybe they never did, and the Dodgers (and Giants) were totally shocked by what had transpired seemingly instantly, given reports he was “minutes away” from signing with one of them.

I’m not sure we’ll ever know for sure. It does seem an important detail, however, when writing the history of how one of the most dominant pitchers the Dodgers have ever had got away to a division rival.